Freeze

by Chris Priestley

When Maya and her classmates are asked to write a creepy story with a winter theme, they come up with some brilliant ideas. Rising floodwaters uncover long-buried bodies and ghostly children take to the ice on a frozen canal. But as each of the stories is read out in class, Maya grows more and more uncomfortable. She features in each of her friends' creepy tales and they start to feel a little too real. Finally, when a mysterious new girl stands up to read the last story of the day, the light outside dims and it starts to snow. The classroom starts to freeze but everyone is trapped. Can Maya stop the story before the nightmare comes true?

Genres: Horror, Middle Grade, Ghosts, Fantasy, Short Stories, School, Childrens

119 pages, Paperback

First published January 14, 2025

About the author

His father was in the army and so he moved around a lot as a child and lived in Wales. He was an avid reader of American comics as a child, and when he was eight or nine, and living in Gibraltar, he won a prize in a newspaper story-writing competition. He decided then “that my ambition was to write and illustrate my own book”.
He spent his teens in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, before moving to Manchester, London and then Norfolk. He now lives in Cambridge with his wife and son where he writes, draws, paints, dreams and doodles (not necessarily in that order). Chris worked as an illustrator and cartoonist for twenty years, working mainly for magazines & newspapers (these include The Times, The Guardian, The Independent, The Economist and the Wall Street Journal) before becoming a writer. He currently has a weekly strip cartoon called 'Payne's Grey' in the New Statesman.

Chris has been a published author since 2000. He has written several books for children & young-adults, both fiction and non-fiction, and
has been nominated for many awards including the Edgar Awards, the UKLA Children's Book Award and the Carnegie Medal. In recent years he has predominantly been writing horror.
Ever since he was a teenager Chris has loved unsettling and creepy stories, with fond memories of buying comics like 'Strange Tales' and 'House of Mystery', watching classic BBC TV adaptations of M R James ghost stories every Christmas and reading assorted weirdness by everyone from Edgar Allen Poe to Ray Bradbury. He hopes Uncle Montague's Tales of Terror will haunt his readers in the way those writers have haunted him.

Reviews

[Mathew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Maya wakes up with a start for her school day. She's had a terrible nightmare but is unperturbed to find that her friends have also had one too. Coincidence? Not for her. When she arrives at school, she finds a small series of changes have occurred: a new teacher is temping her class and asks them to write creepy stories and a new girl has arrived with a cold look in her eyes. How come no one else is paying attention to her.

Using the 'story-in-a-story' approach, Priestley presents us with a series of short tales around Maya's locality and each one leads to a growing revelation within Maya. That perhaps her nightmare was not just a nightmare at all...

Good fun with a nice sense of creepy without taking it too far. Ominous illustrations from Priestley too. Great for KS3+ and could even be introduced to those Y6s who like to be spooked.

[Jo_Scho_Reads · Rating 4 out of 5]

Maya and her classmates are asked by their teacher to write a creepy story - with the theme as Winter. They each do this and each chapter reveals their own stories, but when a mysterious new girl reads her story something odd starts to happen. Have the stories become reality?

This was read by me and my 10 year old (year 6) son in the run up to Halloween. It's an easy story to read with double line spacing and the chapters are short enough to be read in one sitting, which is what we did (as they were stand alone stories in their own right). Some lovely spooky tales and a brilliant ending. Chris Priestley never disappoints!

[stefiereads · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love Chris Priestley book, but this one is not my favourite from him although I like it still :)

[McKenzie Richardson · Rating 3 out of 5]

For more bookish opinions, visit my blog: Craft-Cycle

3.5 stars

Delightfully creepy. Sure to send a shiver down your spine.

Maya's class is given the task of writing winter-themed creepy stories. Seems simple enough. But then some seriously strange things start to happen. And Maya can't shake that there's something off about the new girl in her class. Are Maya and her friends truly in danger or is it all in Maya's head?

A fun way to frame a collection of short stories. Within the larger story, we get to hear some of Maya's classmate's creepy stories. I especially loved "Snow" and "Frost".

Part of the Everyone Can Be a Reader series, which uses dyslexia-friendly fonts, paper tones, and formatting.

A fun book that leans into the creepy rather than gory. I enjoyed these eerie tales.

[Aleshanee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nachdem ich die Reihe mit den Schauergeschichten des Autors so grandios finde, hab ich geschaut, was es noch so von ihm gibt und bin auf dieses kurze Kinderbuch gestoßen. Auch hier gibt es einen Rahmen für die kurzen Grusel-Storys, allerdings war ich anfangs ein bisschen enttäuscht, denn der Schreibstil wirkt ein wenig lieblos, da die Sätze sehr kurz gehalten sind und die Ereignisse eher unberührt beschrieben werden.

Maja und ihre Freunde sollen sich in der Schule eine gruselige Geschichte ausdenken, in der vier Freunde etwas unheimliches erleben. Während dem Unterricht kommt ein neues Mädchen in die Klasse, das auf Maja einen sehr seltsamen Eindruck macht, doch sie scheint direkt eine Idee zu haben.

Aber es ist Tomas, der den Anfang seiner Idee als erster vorliest.
Schnee
Ein Bild mit grausigen Schneemännern spielt den Kindern einen Streich und lässt Maja und ihre Freunde in den dunklen, einsamen, verschneiten Straßen eine gruselige Entdeckung machen

Weiter geht es mit der Geschichte von Carla
Eis
Der nahe gelegene Kanal ist über Nacht zugefroren und lädt mit seiner glitzernden Eisdecke zum Schlittschuhlaufen ein. Doch hier sind vor langer Zeit viele Kinder ins Eis gebrochen und ertrunken - was die vier Freunde bald hautnah selbst zu spüren bekommen

Marlon erzählt als nächster über eine
Flut
Auch hier spielt der Kanal eine Rolle, allerdings wird er durch den Dauerregen überflutet. Da der nahe gelegene Park früher als Friedhof genutzt wurde und das ganze Erdreich durchschwemmt wird, hat das gruselige Folgen

Maja hat für ihre Geschichte dieses Thema gewählt
Frost
Und zwar Väterchen Frost, der des nachts um die Häuser streift und die Kälte verbreitet. Auf einem Schulfest entdeckt einer der Freunde eine alte Marionette, mit der nicht zu Spaßen ist!

Schließlich erzählt die Neue ihre über den
Winter
vor langer Zeit. Von einem Dorf, das von einer eisigen Kälte, von Frost und Tod heimgesucht wird und die Bewohner, wie damals leider oft üblich, die Schuld in jemanden sehen wollten. Einem Mädchen, das zur Hexe erklärt und in den Tod geschickt wurde.

Damit verbindet der Autor alle Geschichten zu einem spannenden Ende und schließt den Kreis mit einem schaurigen Ende :)

Der Stil bleibt zwar einfach, was dem Lesealter geschuldet ist, aber entwickelt dennoch eine gewisse Wirkung und Atmosphäre. Auch wenn ich durch die anderen Bücher "besseres" von Chris Priestley gewohnt bin.
Die Ideen sind aber wieder alle spannend und für Kids bestimmt unheimlich. Gerade auch durch die schwarz-weiß Illustrationen des Autors, die wieder sehr gekonnt die gruselige Atmosphäre der Geschichten transportieren.

Insgesamt fand ich die Einfälle rund um schaurige Wintergeschichten richtig gut und einen schönen Einstieg für junge Leser, um mit dem Horror-Genre auf Tuchfühlung zu gehen. Dabei bleibt es nur leicht unheimlich, aber durchaus packend!

Weltenwanderer

[Lesebiene · Rating 5 out of 5]

4,5

Das war eine richtig coole und wirklich gruselige Kindergeschichte!! Die Zeichnungen dazu waren auch wieder on point und die Idee, dass die Kinder in der Schule ihre eigenen Gruselgeschichten schreiben und vorlesen, fand ich auch richtig cool. Am Ende gab es noch einen Plotttwist, den ich nicht kommen sehen habe und der das ganze für mich perfekt abgerundet hat! 💛 Ein bisschen wünschte ich, dass ich damit bis zum Winter gewartet hätte.

[Tatyana Naumova · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ну слишком просто, не сравнить с Монтегю

[Tina]

Magpies review

[Amy Walker - Trans-Scribe Reviews · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think it's fair to say that people like being scared, a good creepy tale that makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up, that has you pulling your limbs in close and tucking your blanket in tighter are just good fun; and this is true for kids too. Kids love to get scared every now and then.

Horror stories marketed towards kids can be a tricky thing. There's a fine line that you need to walk. You need to make sure that the book is scary enough that that it'll get the reader frightened, but not too scary that it'll result in nightmares and parents writing angry letters. It can also be hard to make scary stories that will also appeal to adults. Looking back on some of the 'greatest' kids horror fiction as an adult, things like Goosebumps, it's sometimes hard to see what about them actually made you afraid as a kid. Freeze, however, does something really special, as it managed to creep me out a lot.

The story follows Maya, a young girl who wakes up one day feeling a bit odd. She's not sure what's wrong with her, she knows that she had some kind of bad dream, but can't really remember much about it. This feeling of unease continues as she heads to school. Arriving at school she finds that her friends all seem to have had a similar experience.

A supply teacher is taking the class for the day, and gets the students to try and come up with creepy stories themed around winter. Maya's friends all come up with scary stories, and one by one they stand in front of the class and read them out. As each story gets told Maya's bad feeling gets worse and worse, and she feels like she's experiencing the stories herself. When a new girl in the class, an oddly pale girl none of them have ever seen before, takes her turn to read out a story Maya realises that something terrible is happening.

Freeze does a really clever thing, it's one big story, but really it's an anthology book, a book that has several spooky short stories within it, but one with a bridging narrative around it all that these stories play a part in. We don't just get the spooky stories that the kids are coming up with, but the narrative around them adds to the unease too; especially as the stories begin to bleed into the main narrative and make things creepier for our characters.

Priestley does an excellent job with each of these winter themed horror stories, and they're all genuinely quite creepy. They're simple yes, and they do feel like they could have been written by children, but he seems able to tap into some kind of primal child-like fear with each one that makes it feel genuinely terrifying at times. These feelings are only enhanced by the dark and disturbing illustrations throughout the book; also provided by Priestley.

There have been occasions when reading Barrington Stoke books where I've felt that the lack of colour illustrations has been a little bit of a let down, where I wanted to see the colour versions to get the full effect of the work the artists had put in. In this book, however, the exact opposite is true. The gloomy, black and white illustrations only enhance the creepiness of things. The jagged, sometimes messy art style that Priestly employs makes the illustrations feel like partially glimpsed and barely remembered moments from a nightmare, where things don't feel completely right.

Freeze is a children's book, but I think it's one that readers of any age can pick up an enjoy. Whether you're reading it to a child, trying not to get them too scared, or if you've just picked it up yourself to see what it's like I'm pretty sure that you're going to like it. And that ending, I have to be honest, it's a bold and striking end to a kids book.

A must for any kid who has a thing for horror; and any adult who feels the same.

[Ms. Yingling · Rating 3 out of 5]

E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

Maya wakes up with a feeling of unnamed dread one morning. Her mother is at work, so she gets herself off to school and meets up with her friends Carla, Jason, and Tomas. The librarian, Mrs. Vargas, brings them all to the library, and tells them the regular teacher, Mrs. Miller, is absent, and Mr. Kumar will be running the class. The substitute starts them on a writing exercise, telling them they will be creating scary stories. He gives them some parameters and writing prompts, and the students get to work. Maya, who is frequently in trouble for speaking out of turn, notices a girl outside the library, who comes in to the room in a silver winter coat. She starts to work on the story, and when Maya points out that they are supposed to put their names on the papers, not the title of their work, the girl replies that Winter IS her name. Maya has trouble concentrating, but it is soon time for the stories to be shared. Tomas reads his Snow, and paints a grim tale of the students seeing a painting of creepy snowmen with their names on it. Maya feels like she is right there, seeing the painting change and the snowmen coming to life. Carla revisits a local legend of an abandoned factory by the canal, where children broke through the ice years ago and drowned, in Ice, and again, Maya feels this viscerally. Jason's Flood imagines a graveyard by a local park being flooded, and the graves disgorging the undead inhabitants. The children escape, but another rainstorm comes closer to the school and zombies again attack. Shaken, Maya shares her own creation; a spin on the Jack Frost stories her mother has told her. It is so real to her that she even accuses Winter of being the one who caused a scary part of the story. When Winter gets up to recite, all of the other tales come together, and her secret and creepy identity is revealed.
Strengths: I love that Barrington Stoke's titles have been brought to the US, since they specialize in dyslexia friendly titles. This is just around 100 pages, and has a nice, large font and plenty of white space on the page. Priestly does a lot of horror titles, and manages to create a good, creepy story but also modulate it for emerging readers. Maya isn't a bad kid, but her behavior makes her harder to be believed, so the others in the room think she's just being strange, instead of understanding that she is dealing with a dangerous ghost!
Weaknesses: There are only four children in the class? No matter. Too many characters can make the text harder to understand. I did find myself wondering if in the original, Mr. Kumar was called a "supply teacher" instead of a substitute. I think this is what substitutes are called in the UK, but US readers would not understand that at all!
What I really think: This is similar to this author's Union Square Kids Seven Ghosts, and will be popular with readers who like connected scary stories like the ones found in Poblocki's Tales to Keep You Up at Night, and Szpirglas' Book of Screams.

[Cat Strawberry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh wow, how incredibly creepy! When Maya and her friends get to class they have a lesson creating scary winter themed stories. But when her friends start to read out their stories to the class, Maya finds the stories too real and feels like she’s experiencing them herself. But what is happening to Maya and does it have anything to do with the new girl in the silver coat with a fur-trimmed hood?

This is such a brilliant and creepy tale and one which I really enjoyed reading. There is a great and eerie vibe and there are illustrations that really add to the creepy of the story! Each of Maya’s friends ends up reading out a story, each story taking on a sinister and scary twist. I like what happens to Maya and the others in the story and just how eerie things ends up. Each story features some really creepy creatures and what ends up happening in the story is a brilliant mix of some really scary things.

The story doesn’t just feature a few scary stories though, there is something that ties them all together and towards the end when we finally learn more about the new girl in class, it’s then that things really turn eerie! I enjoyed reading this book, it’s been a long time since I read some truly scary stories aimed at children and this book really does put you in that mood of feeling that creepy vibe throughout. The story May tells about Jack Frost as well as the last one called ‘Winter’ were definitely my favourites and I enjoyed how this book ends with a satisfying but spooky twist.

The book has a few illustrations dotted around among the story and each one is so brilliant! Although the writing is enough to set the atmosphere of the overall story and the individual stories the kids are reading out in class, these illustrations, each in black, white and grey really do add a more creepy and scary tone to each individual tale! I was especially creeped out by that Jack Frost illustration at the start of that story, it looked more scary than it sounded, setting the mood for that tale so well!

The book is dyslexia friendly and has thick pages yellow/creamy pages to make it easier to read as well as a special font, larger letters and spaced out paragraphs which all go to making it easier to read for dyslexics and anyone with visual problems. The book is also not too long at just a little over 100 pages and so is perfect for any reluctant readers too. Despite being aimed at dyslexics, this book is so good and creepy that I’d recommend it to everyone to read. While the stories aren’t as scary as some adult versions, these really are creepy and eerie and honestly made me feel a little spooked to be in a dark and cold room after I finished reading!
-Thanks to Barrington stoke for a free copy for review.

[Joey Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Maya wakes up feeling a chill, something bad happened in her dream but she doesn’t know exactly what. Her friends had the same dream and feeling, none of them know what it was. Then as the sub teacher gives them a creepy creative writing project and the new girl Winter joins the class, Maya can feel and is absorbed into each story read.

This was really creepy, like really creepy. Kids that want a good creepy horror this is certainly one for you. It will give you chills, you’ll be really absorbed into it and you’ll be trying to figure out exactly what is even happening to Maya throughout the story.

I loved that it had layers, it was like an inception, one thing into another into another whilst all happening simultaneously. It was really written so well and had the perfect amount of creep in it for the age range of this book. It also had illustrations included that added extra creepiness.p, I loved looking at them.

I really recommend this for anyone that enjoys a good creepy story, it’s easy to read, nice and short, but packs in so much information, so many twists, so many creepy stories written with layers, a character that will boggle your mind with her creepiness. A really great read, perfect for the wintery seasons.

[Jennie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Maya wakes up on a winter's day with a sense of dread as she head's to school. Tasked to write a winter-themed story, she and her four friends each read aloud a tale of horror that only Maya remembers as she seems to not only feature in each of them, but remembers being a part of them.
Finally, when a mysterious new girl, Winter, stands up to read the last story of the day, the light outside dims and it starts to snow. Present in each of the previous stories, Winter is a catalyst for what hints to be a cycle of horror events that only Maya is aware of - can she stop them or is she the instigator.
The individual stories of each school friend are suitably creepy and definitely make you shiver - from cold and the unknown. I found the ending a little too convenient but most primary aged students who like a touch of the spooky and macabre will enjoy this story. The production is good - thick yellow paper and back and white charcoal drawing add atmosphere. Well spaced text and short paragraphs will suite independent readers new to reading novels.
For teachers looking for winter themed words and headings - this book is full of inspiration

[Sophie Jones · Rating 3 out of 5]

These books are brilliant for dyslexic or reluctant readers! Freeze follows Maya as she finds herself stuck in a perpetual nightmare of scary stories written by her classmates. Thanks to a mystery student, Winter, time seems to be acting differently around Maya and things are starting to get cold!

I've read many of Chris Priestley's books and one of my favourites has to be Seven Ghosts. Similar to that, this book explores a story through many smaller narratives. The plot is tied together by short ghost stories that add to the main ghost story. This helps set a fast pace and compelling read.

Compared to Seven Ghosts I did find the stories in Freeze to not be as scary or well written which is why I only gave it 3 stars. Other than that is was great.

[Ms Kirby · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was too scary for me. It is a ghost story set in a school. Four school friends are assigned to write a creepy story and they all tell their stories out loud to the class. For Maya though it is more sinister. She sits next to a mysterious new girl, who seems to appear in all the stories, which are earily real.
Maya is drawn into each tale as if she is living it. When she finally tells her story, the danger becomes very real.
Then, the new girl tells her story...
The main reason this is scary is not the ghosts, but the psychological thriller that builds the tension. The ending is quite scary.
I recommend this to anyone who doesn't mind being scared!
This book is dyslexia-friendly and Chris Priestley has written other excellent scary books you should try e.g. "Seven Ghosts".

[Deviki · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to read something "light" and thought this one was a good choice.

This is a short story and easy to get into the book. The protagonists don't have very in-depth character development, but you are given enough information about each of the protagonists as the story moves along.

I blasted my air conditioner while reading this book, so the added cold air and silent nighttime were perfect for this story to come "alive."

I also enjoyed all the short stories within these short stories. It had some creepy elements but not enough to scare you, but cool enough to share among friends during sleepovers or camping.

I actually liked the ending of the book and loved the never-ending loop of nightmares faced by Maya, Jason, Tomas, and Carla.

[R Gould · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a tale with a sense of menacing foreboding from the start. Maya and her three friends have all had a nightmare but can’t remember it. They then have a class together where they are tasked with writing creepy stories about winter - each chapter is one of the friends telling the story they wrote and it feels very real to Maya and there is new girl in their class who strangely features in all stories as well.

For a creepy ghostly story I quite enjoyed this. I liked the illustrations and the premise is clever in its way. I have given it three stars because it didn’t blow me away but it is a decent middle grade/ YA school ghost story and I would not put anyone off reading it.

[Kate - The BookSirens Librarian · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read Priestley’s The Dead Men Stood Together years ago and liked it a lot. Why I didn’t read any of his other books after that, I do not know. I started with Freeze, a book with a promising and honestly very intriguing story, ready to make amends. The story of Maya living one nightmare after another is creepy, and even though aimed towards young readers, it will keep adults equally interested. Moreover, Priestley’s writing style is excellent, especially in this book which is like reading several short stories centered around one main plot.

[Catherine Lowe · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great book for older students with dyslexia. The writing is simple, but the plot is not juvenile. The text is appropriately sized and spaced, the paragraphs are short, and the entire book is 120 pages. Although each chapter is a student telling a story, the author pulls the reader into the story with the main character, Maya. We live each of the stories with her. Quality book for reluctant readers.

[Kathryn Grace Loves Horror · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really loved the previous work I read by children’s author, Chris Priestly, and I really love horror stories in winter, so I decided to read it before passing it on to my nephew whom I bought it for. This was a similar deal as the others, short stories surrounded by a wrap around tale, but it just didn’t click with me the way those books did. I still enjoyed it and think a kid would enjoy it more and maybe even find the stories (especially the one about the puppet) kinda creepy.

[Amy Moore · Rating 3 out of 5]

A generous three. This book was expensive as it was so small. I hadn’t realised it was a dyslexia friendly book and that really showed in its lack of rich vocabulary and sentence variation. Every sentence was so basic and repetitive. The reviews of this book seem very generous. 2 1/2 stars. Great for reluctant readers and dyslexic readers.

[Jane Garner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perfect creepy stories for 9+

[Melissa Edwards · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was so freaking good, loves the writing style, loves the story, it was creepy but so good. Love the twist at the end. Loved it 🥶❄️☃️🖤

[Mrs Walsh · Rating 4 out of 5]

These really aren’t my sort of books but this wasn’t too bad. I thought the twists were good and enjoyed reading the mini stories within the main story.

[Flora · Rating 5 out of 5]

Genuinely spooky story for I'd say Y5+. Perfect to read to my kids in the run up to halloween!

[Kym hurst · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read

Great book kept you hooked and I wanted to keep on reading. Chris priestley books always do that. The next Stephen King.

[Holly · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75 stars

[sgh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Spooky and efficient storytelling, would be a great one to use in creative writing lessons to show children how to create atmosphere

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of the better simplified stories for dyslexic readers, but I felt the plot was a little disjointed and could have flowed better.

[Sem · Rating 2 out of 5]

I should have known better than to be led astray by the 5 star reviews. I'm afraid that Priestley will need to join Susan Hill in the 'why do I persist with this author?' column.