Random Books, Reviewed: December 2022

PUBLISHER: Scholastic, 1989
MY RATING: 4 stars

SYNOPSIS: The pretty lace dress that Robin finds in her myterious employer's attic does not look deadly; it looks perfect for the prom. Robin cannot resist the power the dress holds over her an decides to 'borrow' it to wear to prom. But the dress has a horrifying secret and lures innocent, unsuspecting girls into an evil and terrifying nightmare.

MY THOUGHTS/POSSIBLE SPOILERS: This was pretty entertaining and suspenseful. I like how the possessed dress came to be in each person's possession. Robin is the main character. She's in high school and looks after an elderly woman named Miss Catherine. Catherine lets Robin choose between two many-decades-old dresses that she's seen in Catherine's attic but Robin wants the one she can't have, the lacy cream colored one. It's the one Catherine wore herself to her own prom way back when. Catherine has a deep secret that's revealed at the end and I liked it. I didn't see it coming. I like too that the dress goes on to be owned by another unsuspecting young woman, Natalie.

A tragic accident happens to Robin at prom. The dress punished her for wearing it. It ends up in the hands of another thief, twenty-one-year-old nurse, Felicia. I really like what the dress is doing to her. Once she takes the dress off I don't care for this part of the story as it gets real stupid and the slightest bit convoluted. The next girl, Nicole, who's either in high school or college, I was never sure which, comes by the dress via Felicia's abandonment of it. She steals it and in a tragic accident, is severely injured. That injury, like Robin's, affects the rest of her life.

This book could have been even better if it could have been more than 167 pages. I was disappointed to see that Robin's 14-year-old sister, Gabrielle, didn't get punished for stealing it....and wanting to steal Robin's boyfriend, Tyler. I first read this as a teenager around 1993.

PUBLISHER: Parents' Magazine Press, 1971

READ FREE: link
MY RATING: 5 stars

SYNOPSIS: Both Ma Otter and her son, Emmet, hope to win the $50 talent show prize and surprise each other with a special Christmas present.

MY THOUGHTS: This is a sweet story about a poor mother and son who steal an item from each other without the other knowing so that each one of them can use the item to help them win a talent contest. Neither knows the other one is entering the same contest. They want to buy a Christmas present for the other.

The 1977 48 minute CBC film adaptation is better, more detailed. It aired on HBO in 1978 then went to ABC in 1980, I think. I know it from ABC in the very early 80s. The Riverbottom Nightmare Band doesn't make an appearance in the book until they're at the talent contest but in the film they're introduced early on. In the book they have a female lead singer, Mary Jane Chipmunk. Emmet and his crew never meet them in the book.

Irma Coon and Harvey Muskrat aren't in the film but are in the book briefly. Some of the first names were kept but the last names, which is the type of animals they are, were changed for some reason; Wendell Coon in the book's name was changed to Wendell Porcupine in the film. Charlie Beaver's name was changed to Charlie Muskrat. I think Ester Snapper in the book was changed to Hetty Muskrat in the film. In fact, lots of names were changed. The Nightmare band in the book's name was changed to Riverbottom Nightmare Band, which I like a lot better. Those were just some examples of name changes. I'm sure the songs were changed too.

The illustrations are full-color and very nice. Russell's wife at the time, Lillian, did the artwork.

My favorite image from the book is when Emmet and his mother are playing on a slide, pictured below. That's a really fun scene in the film too.

The late author's website says this book was written in 1969 but not published until 1971.