Pan's Realm

Spooksville #8

by Christopher Pike

Are there fairies and gnomes? Leprechauns and elves? Most people, including Adam, would have said no. But one day a whole herd of magical creatures invades Spooksville. At first they play childish pranks, and Adam and his friends are happy to welcome them. But quickly the pranks turn cruel, and Adam, Sally, Watch, and Cindy are soon fighting for their lives.
Where did these little people come from?
How can Adam and his pals make them go away?

Genres: Horror, Fantasy, Middle Grade, Paranormal, Childrens, Supernatural, Audiobook

129 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

Christopher Pike is the pseudonym of Kevin McFadden. He is a bestselling author of young adult and children's fiction who specializes in the thriller genre.

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.

McFadden was born in New York but grew up in California where he stills lives in today. A college drop-out, he did factory work, painted houses and programmed computers before becoming a recognized author. Initially unsuccessful when he set out to write science fiction and adult mystery, it was not until his work caught the attention of an editor who suggested he write a teen thriller that he became a hit. The result was Slumber Party (1985), a book about a group of teenagers who run into bizarre and violent events during a ski weekend. After that he wrote Weekend and Chain Letter. All three books went on to become bestsellers.

Reviews

[Brandon · Rating 3 out of 5]

I  originally wanted to read The Little People From the Spooksville series because it had a little guy on the cover with food flying everywhere and one of my themes for Thanksgiving is food books.I didn't get to finish it.I did however manage to finish the book before it,which was The Dark Corner.I used this one for Christmas,because I didn't know if the little people could possibly  be Elves or not.The story begins with Adam,Watch, Cindy and Sally near the woods in the hill on a picnic.They talk about food a little bit and one of them bring up Spam and sprouts.I have never heard of this.I know what Spam is but no idea about sprouts.Anyway Cindy baked a chocolate cake.They get ready to eat it when a little small person leaps out and snatches the cake.The kids are all pretty surprised at this but decide to investigate.They assume its a leprechaun.One of the kids point put that it can't be a leprechaun,because it looks older or something. They go into the woods where they see this path.Little people are in the trees and they steal one of watche's watches.The kids decide to leave,but when they get back outside of the woods they're bikes are gone.They decide to go back and find there stuff,because they don't want to walk back.They go into the woods agian and discover this cave.Inside they see a bunch of dwarves.They ask around and the dwarves seem to not know what they are talking about.They end up getting lost somehow and escaping the cave,but find this feild with this palace that they go inside of.Inside they see this person materialize in front of them after they drink the fountians water.She ends up being a fairy and she dosen't like humans.She casts a spell on them and turn them invisible.Watch though,is not invisible where his eyes are.They all stand behind his glasses and become visible.The kids leave,freaked out and want to leave.They are walking back and begin talking about seeing all of these creatures.One of the kids mention how weird it is that they've seen so many creatures in one day.They hear a voice and this voice seems to know what is going on.They follow the voice and meet this half goat,half man.He introduces himself as Pan.He informs the kids that the reason all of these creatures came to their world is because they got banished.Pan was a ruler of his kingdom.There is this wizard that was below him and hated that people wouldn't listen to him.He challenged Pan to a bet for small things at first and then eventually his kingdom.It turns out that somehow Pan got tricked into this though.He was gifted this necklace that made him see the opposite of what he wanted.He won this necklace in a bet,but Klandor allowed him to keep it.He lost to the flip of the coin almost everytime.When he lost,Klandor made all of the oppising creatures go.to another world.Adam and the other decide to help him find this necklace and get Pans kingdom back.Pan tells them there's an interdiminsinal portal that they have to walk backwards around this tree and get closer and closer until they enter.They do this and they are in Pans demension.They eventually find the necklace and Adam puts it up to his eye and he starts seeing Elves running after him and he doesn't see Pan's castle.The crystal has three gems inside two clear looking ones and one blue one.The kids start getting shot at by arrows and Watch gets hit in the leg.Pan says it's from elves.Watch and Cindy stay behind so Watch can heal while Pan,Adam and Sally ride to the castle on goatback to get rid of Klandor.We do get the teams split up agian,this time we got Watch and Cindy alone.They hear a voice and this time it's a fairy named Sarshi.She heals Watches leg with some magic.We finally get to meet Klandor and he's not super intresting.He's just like an old powerful wizard.Sally and Adam end up getting turned into chickens and placed in cages.Adam gets hit on by some hen.This is near the climax so I won't reveal much more.The streak of five star Spooksville books has officially come to an end.I gave five stars to The Haunted cave all the way to The Dark Corner.This one broke that streak.I didn't love this one.Pan was annoying.When Sally and Adam gets captured,he just leaves.He gets confronted,which I did like.This one was kind of low on scares.The Elves shooting arrows at the kids was scary,but other then that,we don't get much.I also wished for more descriptions of some of the little people.I also noticed more how Cindy and sally bickered back and fourth.I felt like this was even more then the earlier books.That could be fals though,as ive read the earlier books a few years ago.Other then that this one was fine for what it was.I give The Little People a three out of five stars.

[Carrie (brightbeautifulthings) · Rating 3 out of 5]

When Adam and his friends decide to picnic in the wooded hills just outside of Spooksville, they’re startled to discover their things vanishing one by one. As they search the woods for their stolen possessions, they discover a number of fairytale creatures, from faeries to leprechauns, who have suddenly invaded the woods. Where did they come from, and can Adam and the others get them home before they overrun Spooksville completely? Trigger warnings: violence, injury, blood, implied cannibalism.

I’m kind of loving this series because, as with many of Pike’s novels, the genres are all over the place. It seems like this would attract readers of all kinds to it, and it’s appealing for readers like me who can’t seem to stick with any one genre for too long (unless it’s horror, but I have my limits even there). The downside is that some of the installments are hit and miss, and that’s based almost entirely on personal preference. I’m not really one for high fantasy, so the mix of fairytale creatures in this book seems excessive to me, but it might really work for readers who habitually reads novels with elves in them.

Some of the villains in the series seem like distant cousins to villains in Pike’s teen or adult novels, and I get major Landulf vibes (Creatures of Forever) from the evil sorcerer in The Little People–which is great because even a watered down Landulf is effectively frightening. At any rate, he’s much more compelling than the kind of wimpy hero who needs four twelve-year-olds to solve his problems for him. Some of the magic is a little silly near the end, but it probably works just fine for its target audience. It’s a quick, fun read like the others, but nothing that really stands out.

I review regularly at brightbeautifulthings.tumblr.com.

[Nicole · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars...not my favorite in the series but still an enjoyable little adventure. On the spooky scale this one is pretty low...but still a good time.

[Elusive · Rating 4 out of 5]

In 'The Little People', Adam, Sally, Watch and Cindy are picnicking when a leprechaun speedily relieves them of their chocolate cake. Worse still, their bicycles are taken too. 

Leprechauns, fairies, dwarfs and elves populated their big adventure. They decided to help Pan who had been ousted as the king of his kingdom after being tricked by and losing a succession of bets to a powerful wizard named Klandor.

Cue the ambush, injury, split up and showdown. Pan was incredibly lucky to have the foursome on his side as they paired well-thought-out moves with smart strategies, namely niftily using the workings of the necklace to their advantage.

Having no choice but to don the magic necklace, Klandor expected to see the opposite of what he wanted. When this did not happen, he was confused as he was unaware that Watch had already rearranged the stones in the necklace.

Overall, 'The Little People' was well-written and enjoyable, focusing on the battle between the half-goat, half-man, Pan and the unscrupulous wizard, Klandor.

[Ana Ibarra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Simpler, there were more characters but they were superficial.
However the story is good and easy to follow but a bit simpler , like, maybe this could have been a 200 pages story.
I love how the main characters personality its still strong in each book, causing you to have a few laughs here and there.
The ending was a bit quick, missed a couple of pages, but, still provided closure for this adventure.

[C]

The only thing wrong with this was the two main female characters were SO catty to each other. It was annoying. Of course the two male characters were completely on each others side.

[Solim · Rating 2 out of 5]

Weakest one in the series.