Archie Appleby:
The Terrible Case of the Creeps by Kaye Baillie, illustrated by
Krista Brennan (Wombat Books) PB RRP
$10.99 ISBN 9781925563016
Reviewed
by Pauline Hosking
This slim
chapter book tells what happens when Archie has to spend two days with his
scary Aunt Ruth. He’s a boy with a vivid
imagination who likes making up stories. She’s a keen gardener who knows a lot
about poisons and weird plants. Her husband, Uncle Jock, seems to have
disappeared.
Late at night
Aunt Ruth takes food down to something in her deep, dark basement. Archie is
convinced she is keeping Uncle Jock down there a prisoner and bravely decides
to rescue him. After two failed attempts he manages to discover what is really
in the basement. Not his uncle -- who
arrives fit and well from a fishing trip -- but a monstrous plant, a Venus
Flytrap Gigantus. (Shades here of The
Little Shop of Horrors, although this plant isn’t a man-eater.)
Luckily everything
ends well. Archie and Aunt Ruth are reconciled and he goes home considering the
possibility of another visit.
The carefully
chosen language, clear print and short sentences make it an easy read. Newly
independent readers will enjoy the building sense of suspense and the humorous
way Archie misinterprets events. The
book would also be good to read aloud.
Krista Brennan
has contributed a number of delicate line-drawings. There is a mismatch, though,
between the pictures of Archie smiling mischievously as he enters the basement,
and the descriptions in the text of what he felt: ‘his heart pounded,’ and ‘he
shuddered at the thought of going to the basement in the dark.’
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