Alrightreads: If You Live on Fear Street, These Are the People You Could Meet

R. L. Stine, Fear Street: Wrong Number 2

1995 / Audiobook / 165 pages

**

The original hardly stood out, and this even more forgettable continuation is only justified by the comic potential of young readers hoping for a story about some kind of evil poo.

R. L. Stine, Fear Street: Truth or Dare

1995 / Audiobook / 146 pages

**

Similar to the last ski break one I read, but with a dumber resolution.

R. L. Stine, Fear Street: Dead End

1995 / Audiobook / 147 pages

**

Another guilty secret, another credulity-stretching denouement, but some good tension along the way.

R. L. Stine, Fear Street: Final Grade

1995 / Ebook / 148 pages

**

If they'd had ChatGPT in 1995.

R. L. Stine, Fear Street: Switched

1995 / Audiobook / 150 pages

****

This seemed like it was going to be lighter fantasy fluff, but it didn't take long to pull out a bloody twist. This series doesn't have the highest hit rate, but this is another one I'll be able to recommend to my daughter unironically one day, depending on her squeamishness.

Workreads I

Secretly reading ebooks on my phone while colleagues probably assume I'm doomscrolling social media like a normal person.

Alex Horne, Birdwatchingwatching

2009 / Ebook / 384 pages

****

Littler Alex Horne embarks on a Hawks/Gorman/Wallace-esque kerrazy kwest for a year. I do like these silly things, though, and the enthusiasm and callbacks kept me hooked. It would also have been very educational about birds if I thought I was going to retain any of it.

Dean Wesley Smith and Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine – The Captain's Table – The Mist

1998 / Ebook / 271 pages

***

Maybe it was bad reviews that had always put me off from trying my preferred DS9 flavour of this nicely themed crossover series I'd enjoyed at the time and since, or maybe it was the off-model Sisko likeness that extends to such basic errors as the wormhole leading to the Delta Quadrant rather than the Gamma Quadrant, et al. A forgettably generic tale, not improved by the frequent, annoying interruptions, but it was still a nice return trip.

Robin Stoate and Andrew Shail, Back to the Future

2019 / Ebook / 96 pages

****

Stuffy academic revelations on genre and context that enhanced my appreciation even further.

John Cavanagh, Pink Floyd's The Piper at the Gates of Dawn

2003 / Ebook / 136 pages

***

Informative if bland background notes.

Babyliography CCLIII

Becca Heddle, Oxford Reading Tree: Explore with Biff, Chip and Kipper – At Sunset

2018 / Library book / 12 pages

**

Not getting around to any of her more appealing summer library books to get her final reading challenge sticker because she was too busy with her own Baby-Sitters Club non-library books (which she reckons don't count), I suggested looking for the shortest read possible while also checking off some non-fiction learning at the same time, and this was our almost insultingly simple solution. Just get it bloody done. I'm confident I'm giving the right lessons.

Ann M. Martin and Ellen T. Crenshaw, The Baby-Sitters Club: Stacey's Mistake

2023 / Paperback / 160 pages

***

The squabbles are predictably repetitive now, but she enjoyed the change of scenery.

Joe King, Knock Knock Jokes for Kids

2019 / Library book / 176 pages

**

The first one we tried didn't even make sense and it was downhill from there.

Ann M. Martin and Arley Nopra, The Baby-Sitters Club: Claudia and the Bad Joke

2023 / Paperback / 160 pages

***

Like Karen's Roller Skates, but with more of the leg and the usual Claudia melodrama.

Ann M. Martin and Ellen T. Crenshaw, The Baby-Sitters Club: Kristy and the Walking Disaster

2024 / Paperback / 160 pages

**

Summer reading wrapped up with our favourite subject: American sports! Come on you reds, etc!!!

Babyliography CCLII

Ann M. Martin, The Baby-Sitters Club: Claudia and the Phantom Phone Calls

1986 / Ebook / 153 pages

**

Skipped in the graphic novel adaptations, we tried the first, comparatively long chapter for bedtime once, but didn't bother carrying on.

Ann M. Martin and Gabriela Epstein, The Baby-Sitters Club: Good-bye Stacey, Good-bye

2022 / Paperback / 160 pages

**

Still sad, but less devastating after the dog death one.

Ann M. Martin and Chan Chau, The Baby-Sitters Club: Jessi's Secret Language

2022 / Paperback / 160 pages

***

An especially wordy one, whether dispensing useful sign language instruction, emotional support or overly detailed ballet synopses.

Various, Senses: Hearing in Living Things

2000 / Hardback / 32 pages

**

Something boring but educational that showed up in Morrisons library to tick off reading and science home schooling for a couple of sessions, though we mainly added comedy yells and sound effects to the expressive photos.

Ann M. Martin and Cynthia Yuan Cheng, The Baby-Sitters Club: Mary Anne's Bad Luck Mystery

2022 / Paperback / 160 pages

***

We'd been looking forward to Best Baby-Sitter being back in the torchlight, and this charmingly dated and desperately uncreepy tale of cursed chain letters hit the spot.

Alrightreads: Risin' Up [From the Grave], Back on the Street

R. L. Stine, Fear Street: One Evil Summer

1994 / Ebook / 163 pages

****

Gaslighting and pet slaughter galore with one of the series' most wicked villains. This was a fun one.

R. L. Stine, 99 Fear Street: The House of Evil – The First Horror

1994 / Audiobook / 148 pages

****

The haunted house book you might have expected from the series all along, and way more intense than you'd expect if you'd been reading along. This is one I would have loved to have been traumatised by at the time.

R. L. Stine, 99 Fear Street: The House of Evil – The Second Horror

1994 / Audiobook / 155 pages

***

For a trilogy released in consecutive months, this comes off disappointingly like a belated retread.

R. L. Stine, 99 Fear Street: The House of Evil – The Third Horror

1994 / Audiobook / 163 pages

***

R. L. Stine's New Nightmare. This didn't exactly need to be three books. First horror was best horror.

R. L. Stine, Fear Street: The Mind Reader

1994 / Ebook / 160 pages

***

Not bad for a junior Twin Peaks, but it didn't do much for me.

Alrightreads: [Coronation Street Theme Played on a Pipe Organ]

R. L. Stine, Fear Street: The Dare

1994 / Audiobook / 149 pages

**

Tediously predictable, apart from some surprising cliffhangers that are subsequently revealed not to have actually happened, which then become tediously predictable themselves. It feels like they've reached a point of desperation already.

R. L. Stine, Fear Street: Bad Dreams

1994 / Ebook / 160 pages

***

It's no A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, but there are some atmospheric bits.

R. L. Stine, Fear Street: Double Date

1994 / Audiobook / 166 pages

***

The series that dismissed unfair prejudices against stepsiblings presents: evil twins. Disliking everyone involved made the cheese sandwich all the tastier.

Tom Perrotta (as R. L. Stine), Fear Street: The Thrill Club

1994 / Audiobook / 148 pages

**

I'm always suspicious about prolific branded authors using ghostwriters, so it's nice to have at least one otherwise indistinguishable instance confirmed, pushing the annoying fake-outs of Double Date to further extremes of piss taking and double bluffs.

R. L. Stine, Fear Street Super Chiller: The Dead Lifeguard

1994 / Audiobook / 183 pages

**

The double twist was pretty obvious. Not the most fun summer special.

Alrightreads: Gamesmaster VIII

Nich Angell, Colostle: A Solo RPG Adventure

2021 / Ebook / 60 pages

***

A nice setting to dream in, but I can't be arsed to play a game in it.

Chris Gonnerman, Basic Fantasy Role-Playing Game

2021 edition / Paperback / 170 pages

****

The slightly intimidating rules that go with the adventure books if we decide to graduate from our junior pony RPG system to old-school dungeon crawling, with lots of ideas for spells and creatures even if we don't.

Chris Gonnerman, Basic Fantasy Role-Playing Game: Morgansfort – The Western Lands Campaign

2013 / Ebook / 74 pages

**

Paradoxically too detailed and too basic, I can't see us ever bothering with a premade campaign when we can customise one by stringing together the more appealing one-shots.

Various, Basic Fantasy Role-Playing Game: Adventure Anthology 3

2023 / Paperback / 152 pages

****

More handy non-profit templates to adapt so I don't have to come up with scenarios from scratch.

Jeff Ashworth and Tim Baker, The Game Master's Book of More Random Encounters

2024 / Ebook / 272 pages

****

I've found a few fun and silly activities amid the gloom so far, like tattoo tables, food carts and a boring storyteller endurance test, so these are always handy resources for our games.

Alrightreads: Comixxxxxxxxxxxxx

Justin Richards and Mike Collins, Doctor Who: The Only Good Dalek

2010 / Ebook / 128 pages

**

Not a very interesting or necessary tale to tell, but Dalek action has always been a good fit for comics.

Tom DeFalco, Herb Trimpe and Barry Windsor-Smith, Machine Man

1984-85 (collected 1988) / Ecomics / 96 pages

***

Wisecracking metal men scrap in the cyberpunk future of 2020.

Michael Jan Friedman, Carlos Garzon, Kenneth Penders and Peter Krause, Star Trek Graphic Novel Collection: Kingdom of the Damned

1992 (collected 2019) / Ecomics / 160 pages

**

The one where they turn into Klingons was fun by the series' low standards. Otherwise, it's the usual uninspired plots, lousy likenesses and mild racism.

Peter Milligan and Brendan McCarthy, Rogan Gosh

1990 (collected 1994) / Ebook / 60 pages

**

Incomprehensible aromatic psychedelia.

John Wagner and Arthur Ranson, Button Man: The Killing Game

1992 (collected 1994) / Ebook / 96 pages

****

I don't know if I could stomach a whole series, but it was an entertaining ultraviolent short of a morning.

Babyliography CCLI

Tom Mason and Nao Kodaka, Stitch!: Best Food Forever!

2026 / Library book / 176 pages

**

The kids' clothing mascot being in it was apparently enough to keep her engaged. I've been there.

Perdita Finn, Monster High: Passport to Reading – Ghoul Power

2016 / Ebook / 32 pages

*

The shortest Monster High bedtime story I could find online at short notice, she accurately judged it "rubbish."

Dr. Seuss, Dr. Seuss' ABC

1963 / Library book / 64 pages

**

Not one of his fun ones, but suitable for summer school reading practice.

Ann M. Martin and Gale Galligan, The Baby-Sitters Club: Boy-Crazy Stacey

2019 / Paperback / 160 pages

***

It was nice to have a relevant summer read. Shame about the topic.

Ann M. Martin and Chan Chau, The Baby-Sitters Club: Kristy and the Snobs

2021 / Paperback / 160 pages

***

A less sunny story of alienation and affecting pet death as we moved on to her second summer boxset. We're gonna need a bigger bookcase.

Babyliography CCL

Ann M. Martin and Gale Galligan, The Baby-Sitters Club: Kristy's Big Day

2018 / Paperback / 160 pages

***

These responsible teenagers are on another level.

Zoë Clarke and Felicia Whaley, Collins Big Cat Phonics for Letters and Sounds: Witney and Boscoe's Lost and Found

2022 / School book / 24 pages

**

Jazz & Pop's gender swap.

Christina Mia Gardeski, All About the North and South Poles

2017 / Library book / 24 pages

**

Summer Reading Challenge 2026 #1. I got out a couple of easy readers to give her a headstart on the library challenge. She rated this one star, which seemed overly harsh. I guess she was rating me.

Lisbeth Kaiser and Marta Antelo, Little People, Big Dreams: Rosa Parks

2017 / Library book / 24 pages

***

Summer Reading Challenge 2026 #2. Not the most enjoyable reading session, but an important lesson.

Isabel Thomas, Collins Big Cat Phonics for Letters and Sounds: Bear Spotting

2021 / School book / 24 pages

***

Bears.