Thank you, Disney Publishing Worldwide, for allowing me to read Ravenous Things early!

Derrick Chow crafted such a sweet, spooky and sad story in this clever debut about a young boy who is still grieving the loss of his father.

Ravenous Things plays up the creepy and crawly in all the best ways (and this is coming from someone who can’t stand rodents!). The book centers on Reggie Wong, who follows the Mysterious Conductor who promises to reunite him with a lost loved one. But Reggie’s reunion with his father is all wrong, and worse, Reggie realizes he’s been tricked and trapped underground with other victims of the flute-playing Conductor. He bands together with a new friend and an old bully to escape back to the surface and take down the Conductor.

Readers will love the vivid, jump-off-the-page descriptions and that delicious sense of “something’s wrong” that keeps you reaching for a flashlight so you can read into the wee hours to see what’s next. The book also explores loneliness, friendship, and grief, with encouraging discussions of therapy and the different ways we cope with loss.

I mean this in the best way when I say I never had any idea what was going to come next in this book. I really enjoyed Reggie, Chantal, and Gareth, and how their friendships develop as the book goes on. I also appreciated the exploration of grief, especially the conclusion Reggie draws that helping bring to life your loved ones’ ideas and projects help keep them alive was a way to keep them close. The reason the rating wasn’t higher is because I really didn't like how the conductor spoke. At first it was fine even if it was strange, but the more he spoke the more annoying it became?

A modern telling of The Pied Piper - this book offers a creep factor with scary rats replacing children, a monster in the dark and a quirky villain. Young readers will finish the book with the right amount of fear. and a little shudder down their spine.