Professor Gargoyle, the Slither Sisters, Teacher's Pest

Tales from Lovecraft Middle School #1-3

by Charles Gilman, Kristoffer Tabori (Narrator)

Strange things are happening at Lovecraft Middle School. Rats are leaping from lockers. Students are disappearing.  The school library is a labyrinth of secret corridors. And the science teacher is acting very peculiar – in fact, he just might be a monster-in-disguise.  Twelve-year-old Robert Arthur knew that seventh grade was going to be weird, but this is ridiculous!
 
Professor Gargoyle (Volume I in the Tales from Lovecraft Middle School series) is full of bizarre beasts, strange mysteries, and nonstop adventure. You won't believe your ears!

This second novel in the Tales from Lovecraft Middle School series begins right where Professor Gargoyle ended. Seventh-grader Robert Arthur has discovered that two of his classmates are actually sinister snake-women in disguise. Even worse, his new middle school is full of “gates” to a terrifying alternate dimension – a haunted mansion full of strange spirits and monstrous beasts. For Robert to protect his teachers and classmates, he'll need to return to this haunted dimension with his best friends Glenn and Karina. Can they uncover the secrets of Lovecraft Middle School before it's too late?
 
DON'T BE FOOLED by his friendly smile, his perfect manners, or his shiny red apple. Student council president Howard Mergler is actually a sinister bug-monster in disguise—and he's summoning swarms of roaches, wasps, fleas, and head lice into the corridors of Lovecraft Middle School!  Twelve-year-old Robert Arthur is the only student who can stop him--but he'll need help from his best the school bully, the school ghost, and an extremely courageous two-headed rat.
 
Teacher's Pest , the third novel in the Lovecraft Middle School series, begins right where  Professor Gargoyle  and  The Slither Sisters  ended—with more action, more adventure, and more outrageous monsters!

Genres: Horror, Audiobook

9 pages, Audio CD

First published May 7, 2013

About the author

Charles Gilman is a pseudonym of author and publisher Jason Rekulak.

Reviews

[Harris · Rating 3 out of 5]

[3.5]

For a long time, I’ve been intrigued by the idea of writing a Lovecraftian series for young adults- not only for the incongruity of the idea, but also because, in my experience, this is a period in which weird, spooky, disconcerting fears and stories hold the most sway over our daily lives; the time when we would challenge each other to chant Bloody Mary in front of the bathroom mirror or play around with the Ouija board.

So, when I saw this series popping up, I was curious. Professor Gargyole, The Slither Sisters, and Tales of Lovecraft Middle School: Teacher's Pest all hinted at a typical American school with weird, strange problems, and I was compelled to check them out. Of course, the striking lenticular cover designs, depicting various Lovecraft Middle School Characters in front of a typical yearbook photo gray backdrop dramatically transforming from mundane humans to horned, or scaled, beasts, is to thank for a good deal of that. The addition of Lovecraftian elements to a Goosebump like series fascinated me and the covers were mesmerizing. So, when I saw the audio book version, I thought this autumn would be just the time to check this off my book list and see how deep the hole goes. Just how Lovecraftian could Tales from Lovecraft Middle School be, I wondered?

In the end, not terribly Lovecraftian but still an amusing and spooky horror series for middle schoolers. The “Lovecraftian” influence consists mainly of name drops and a few conceits regarding other dimensions and something indescribable threatening the normal everyday world. For the most part, the series follows fairly well worn tropes of middle grade fiction, with short, concise chapters relying on cliffhangers to keep up a quick pace, commonplace things are foreshadowed to be not what they seem, archetypal, larger than life characters, cute critters, plenty of puns, and a nice helping of comic relief. The reader reads with a gravelly, occasionally sepulchral, occasionally cheery voice that matches the mood of the stories, if not the age of the protagonists.

I must admit the series grew on me as it went on- the author writes with a witty voice that can build both atmosphere, suspense, and humor that I think a lot of kids, looking for a slightly higher end Goosebumps upgrade will appreciate (though they will probably not catch the Cthulhu Mythos references, not that it takes anything from the story). Robert Arthur is, refreshingly, a bit of a milquetoast who nonetheless steps up to defend his hapless, oblivious classmates and teachers from the supernatural threat and his friendship with his former tormentor Glenn Torkle and the ghost girl Korina Ortiz was also touching. While a deus ex machina or two do occur, a refreshing amount of the work of saving the school does actually fall to Robert and his friends. I’m looking forward to finishing up the series with Tales of Lovecraft Middle School: Substitute Creature.

[Tejus]

cool series

[Kristina Mosley · Rating 5 out of 5]

My kids and I can't get enough, we loved every book. You won't grow too old or tired of this one. This series is packed full of suspense, and action

[Victor Untiedt · Rating 5 out of 5]

all of these books are great books-some of my favorites that I've ever had the pleasure to read. The spooky element Isn't too heavy, which I like because the author makes up for it in action-one of the best choices the author has made in this series writing wise not choice of character attributes and wordage wise. brilliant peices of literature on all three parts. I highly recomend it to anyone

[Michelle Gray · Rating 3 out of 5]

For the most part I enjoyed listening to these three titles. The narrator did a pretty good job, although, sometimes I thought the characters sounded more like old men then 12 year old boys. The first book took awhle to get going but the other two were quicker to listen to, plot-wise.

[Patrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun and morbid kid's series, if you want a quick break, from beeper reading this is it:)

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting fantasy series. Great description and trials to overcome. Some stretched the believability envelop like the bully and bullied becoming best friends, but a good read regardless.