This book of parodied children's books covers is absolutely hilarious. I want to get this and put the (appropriate) ones all over my classroom. They're so funny!

A hilarious twist on the old Scholastic Book Fair catalogs from our youth. Great art, funny copy, creative as hell (ha ha). I wish I could get some of these blown up poster-size to hang around the house.

The cover image is for "B.M.Hex Gang," described as follows: "After accidentally reading an incantation from an old book of witchcraft, Donna, April, and Caroline have invoked the worst of all demons - Satan himself! The only way to banish the Dark Lord is to beat him in the BMX Championship race known as The DeathCourse. But the Devil is a mean BMX freestylist, and the tournament is only one week away!..."

This was a hilarious selection of illustrations. I absolutely love the aesthetic of this book and would definitely get some of these illustrations printed or framed!

Review to come in August on blog/goodreads.

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange of an honest review.

So I was lured in by the title and the cover. What would this book actually be about? Well, I found out quickly it is kind of like a book catalogue just with occult and hilarious books about darkness and devils, for your children. I laughed, giggled, ohhh and aahhhed, and had so much fun reading this one. Also, can I order one or more of these books and hope they become real? Some of them sound awesome.

Not all of the books have book descriptions, sometimes this catalogue only shows a book cover. I liked this variety, though I wouldn't have minded book descriptions to the books we only see the cover of as I am quite curious about the books. Like what kind of songs are included in the Cult Music Sing-Along? And does the Easy-Bake Coven feature recipes?
I loved that we got non-fiction books and fiction. Demon pets and puberty oh my!
There are books on how to summon demons, how get two weeks more of vacation (would you sacrifice your brother for that?), what happens in puberty (apparently you don't just grow hair... you also become a werewolf), selling your soul, hugging a snake, and many many more.
OMG, I was delighted to see a certain girl pop out of a well again. Ohhh there she is Sadako! *also waves at Bloody Mary*

There are also advertisements included in the book, for instance you can get your own cursed videocassette. To which I say, no thank you. I know what happened in The Ring (Japanese version please). And there are also activities to be found in this book. Yep, this book is full with everything you may want... or may not want. :P

I love the illustrations, the style is just amazing and quite nostalgic and retro.

All in all, I just flew through this book. I need more. Please make more? Please? I would highly recommend this book to all.

Quite original and funny!
The book is a catalogue to order the most sinister titles to help children improve their "dark arts" skills. An absolutely essential guide for kids of all ages.

Thanks to Chronicle Books and NetGalley for providing me with an e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

This novel is one of the best I’ve read this year! The characters are so dynamic yet relatable. I loved the flow of the story. It held my attention the whole time.

I LOVE Steven Rhodes so much. He is hands down one of my favorite designers, and I was thrilled to see some of his classic works along with new additions in My Little Occult Book Club. This laugh out loud collection really shows off the best of Rhode's work, along with the nostalgic vibes that we have come to know and love. I will absolutely be adding this one of my shelves when it releases in August!

This book includes various mock-up covers for 70-ies and horror inspired books, which are brought together in a kind of catalogue for a book club - My Little Occult Bookclub - to make orders and get various goodies with your purchases. Somehow I thought this would be more, but upon re-reading the blurp on netgalley I see that that's been an error on my side.

Some of these pictures I already knew from having been a while around, but most were new to me. Quite a few made me chuckle or wonder what said story would entail.

If you're a fan of his work, you'll love this compilation

I recieved an uncorrected proof copy of this in exchange for a honest review.

A collection of covers for creepy children's books which, more's the pity, don't exist (though the Usborne guides were a pretty good approximation) - the retro-styled likes of Caring For Your Hell Hound and My First Alien Autopsy. You'll probably have seen some online, or even as t-shirts: Let's Summon Demons is very much the hit. There are a few blurbs, even an activity or two (though the wordsearch is made trickier by not saying what words you're after, only that they're spooky, and who's to say Woqugac isn't the name of some dread entity?), but really this is less the sort of book one actually reads than the sort to leave around for visitors to flick through and hopefully grin. Which is a slight problem now 'visitors' have become every bit as strange and forbidden a concept as ghosts, monsters and devils.

(Netgalley ARC)

This vintage looking book showcases art from Steven Rhodes. It is mostly images of “books” you can order such as Caring for Your Demon Cat, Let’s Conjure Bloody Mary, and My First Zombie Apocalypse.
It also has activities like a maze to get out of Hell and making shadow puppets of the devil. Great artwork and I love the nostalgic feel mixed with creepy images.

This school book club flyer satire is one of the funnier things I’ve read in a while. Choices include “Sell Your Soul: Economics for Children”, The BMHex Club, and everything occult.

The art takes me back to my childhood favorites and who doesn’t love a good book fair?

Advanced copy provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book was funny to page through and would make a good gag-gift for adult readers who are interested in horror and/or the occult. I think it would have been better if there had been at least one full story Little Golden Books style in the book. It took me almost half of the book to realize that I was looking at a pamphlet style book with lots of titles along with the activities, rather than the front material for a storybook.

5 Stars ( I received an e-arc from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review)

This was a delight to read and look through the vintage inspired graphics reminding me of various old series I read as a child (when they were already a couple decades old). Like you could select some book options and mail in the form from an old school book fair. Bright/Neon colours fill the pages, for anyone who loves to look at creepy book humour.

I need a physical copy of this book! I laughed all the way through this book. The mock covers for other books are great.

This is a collection of dark but humorous book covers inspired by the 70s/80s design.
It's a fun parody of the much-loved Scholastic Book Fair catalogs with titles like Sell Your Soul! (Economics for Children) and B.M.Hex Gang. Activities like connect the dots that will reveal an abomination released on the world by an unsuspecting child and a Go To Hell maze are included.
Does this sound really dark and in poor taste? Then you'll probably want to skip it!
This will be a fun coffee table book to flip through for the illustrations and the brief book summaries if you're a fan of dark humor, old paperbacks, pop culture, and vintage design.

Thanks to Chronicle Books and NetGalley for providing an ARC in exchange for my honest review. My Little Occult Book Club is scheduled for release on August 25, 2020.

What an enjoyable little read! I always enjoy seeing Steve Rhodes's designs on merch and this is a really nice edition to his style. I wish the entire world has this kind of vibe - it would be a much cooler place.

This is hilarious! As a child of the 80s, I loved this. The illustrations are great and every page made me laugh or remember a part of my childhood. I would recommend this book!

"Jack and Jill went up the hill
to tetch a pail of water,
The well was cursed.
they fell headfirst,
to vile and gruesome slaughter."

Looking for a perfect gift for the little rascal you know? My Little Occult Book Club is filled with great recommendations that you or the child you know can choose from. Like Let's Sacrifice Toby, Easy Bake Coven, Curses and Spells for Kids and many more.

This was just really short and fun. Some of the illustrations made me giggle and I kind of wish some of the titles were real because I'd most definitely add them to my collection.

The Scholastic Book Club Meets Grady Hendrix

MY LITTLE OCCULT BOOK CLUB is an absolute, 110%, must-read for the following demos:
1. Children of the ’80s.
2. Book nerds.
3. The SPN fandom.
4. All of the above.

Graphic artist Steven Rhodes gives the 1980s Scholastic Book Club flyers the Grady Hendrix treatment, to pretty awesome effect.

Here you’ll find advertisements for would-be books such as B.M. HEX Gang by Diane Rott, MY FIRST ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE (Abbie Toir), and ALIEN ABDUCTION CLUB; connect-the-dots games where the dots = demons; adverts for spirit specs and alien-attracting helmets (for the anti-tinfoil hat crowd); and unholy word search games.

There’s even a mock order form at the front of the book! That sound? The squealing of my inner middle-schooler.

Most of the artwork consists of book covers, which seems like it would get repetitious – if not for Rhodes’s talent, style, and wicked sense of humor.

According to his bio, Rhodes’s designs grace t-shirts in Spencer’s and Hot Topic, so that should give you an idea of his overall aesthetic.

I would not object to receiving unisex tees and/or mid-sized posters sporting any of these gems.

I have a soft spot for the sell your soul one, since my youngest brother sold his to a second-grade classmate for a mere fifty cents. Needless to say, we still tease him about it a decade and a half later.

I loved it and it was a lot of fun to read.
The illustrations are great and I laughed a lot.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

As a fan of the author’s shirt designs, I had to request this book. It’s not so much a book to read, or even a graphic novel, but it’s a great little coffee table book. Fans of Rhodes’s art will appreciate this little art book. As long as you know what you're getting, I recommend this. It's literally just a collection of the author's designs. I’d love to have a physical copy when it comes out, just to display.

Ok you have seen the illustrations and the shirts now get the book! Brisbane boy Steven Rhodes destroys your childhood memories with this 80’s Book Club parody. Now why wasn’t the B.M.Hex gang around when I was a kid? Too funny. Satan says, “You must own this book!”

*eARC provided by publisher and Netgalley

This is the coolest book!! I love old vintage horror vibes and this hit it on the head. I will definitely be buying this and recommending it to so many people. I really enjoyed the artwork!Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Super funny look at bygone comic books and easy reader horror, satanic and monster themed books titles for the younger set. What fun! Can't wait to read this to my toddler. This will surely be a hit at our next play date or story time.

If you enjoy the artwork of Steven Rhodes, then this book will make the perfect addition to your coffee table book collection. Unlike the typical coffee table art book, though, this retro-themed collection of horror-related imagery also acts as part Scholastic catalog, part sales ad from 1970s comic books, and part activity book.

Of course, there's nothing about My Little Occult Book Club that's actually meant for young children. But those of us who absolutely loved selecting our next book from the Scholastic catalog and also remember looking longingly at items like X-Ray Specs in the back of old comic books will have a lot of fun.

The activities are simplistic enough for a kid to complete them (and I suspect that most people won't actually write inside this paperback). The other books that are "advertised" here sound amazing, and Rhodes would be well-advised to actually write, illustrate, and release them ASAP. Rhodes fans are also treated to the art from his t-shirt collection throughout the pages, making this book a much more affordable way to collect his pieces.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an ARC. This review contains my honest, unbiased opinion.

This graphic book is a fun read for the summer to. This something I hadn’t read before so loved it. I had few downloading issues for the file but others that the book seemed good.

I received a copy of this book from the Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

This is a hilarious satire of childrens books from the 80's and the illustrations are phenomenal! I loved it so much!

A really cool parody of children’s books from the seventies and eighties and horror movies/books.

The parody book covers are really awesome and would make amazing posters.

I love the satire and dark humor in this book and the full color illustrations are very nicely done!

Recommended for horror and dark comedy fans!

This was a lot of fun.
It reminded me of the old Scholastic book flyers from my childhood.
I can totally see this becoming a gag gift for many of my friends.
Thanks to NetGalley, Chronicle Books & Steven Rhodes for my DRC.

Amazing parody of children's classics. The illustrations are great, and would probably make cool posters!

Well, I have to say this was better than I at first thought. It's a direct, played-straight parody of old-fashioned mail order catalogues, designed for kids with too much pocket money and parents gullible enough to send a cheque off in the post for them to get absolute tat. In our world that would have been X-ray glasses, fortune-telling plastic fish and Charles Atlas bumf. Here, in the Occult Book Club ("unsubscribing is not an option") you buy books warning of stranger danger that feature the neighbourhood idiot going off with an alien, and guides to pyrokinesis, caring for satanic pets and summoning the devil. You get activities to do, such as joining the dots (not exactly 666 of them, but the results are the same) and taking part in the latest dance craze, walking down stairs on your hands while head first and upside down. It does feature some weakly feeble puns of the wackily-named fictional author variety, but I certainly laughed at the rest, and the designs, evoking our childhood advertising and book covers from the 1970s, are spot on. I don't think it's something you'd read through often, but going into this knowing it's a cheesy 'gift book', I think you'd be well satisfied.

Do you have fond memories of the 80s Scholastic book fliers? Do you like horror / paranormal / fantasy?

If you answered yes, this is the book for you. Although it isn't what most folks would call a coffee table book, this is one you will want to lay around as there are more pictures than text.

Probably not for those who are easily offended or who cannot find humor in things like Satan.

I would totally wear most of these covers as t-shirts. I hope there are t-shirts! There is one about coffee that my hubby definitely needs. I know many who would want the Death Metal cover on a shirt or poster. I have a very sweet demon cat, there is a cover for that book too! I need the My Imaginary Friends Think I’m Cool as a shirt.

Let us not forget the activities - connect the dots, a maze, a word search, a paper doll, a coloring page, how to make shadow puppets, all mixed up (finding objects to help Molly on her vampire hunt), Who lives here where you match the monster to their homes,, Odd One out where you help a witch pick which animals make a good familiar and which one would not.

This is a super fun book!

This was a hilarious satire book. An easy read with some funny captions and great illustrations. Would recommend to teenagers and pre teens!

I immediately preordered this the second I finished it.

The pictures are amazing and the book is downright hilarious. An homage and throwback to vintage paper ordering of books, this takes a sinister turn with the fake occult products.

I will even hock his posters and tshirts because what is in the book you can find on those products.

An absolute definite for anyone who likes a fun conversation book or just collects weird stuff... I fall into both categories.

I am hoping for more of these!!

An enthusiastic 5/5 stars.

I love these illustrations, specifically "Easy Bake Coven" and the "mommy can I keep it?" drawings. Very humorous parody of a Schoolastic book fair catalog. If I had a print copy of this book, I would definitely cut out all of the pages and use them as posters.

This book took me back to my roots as an EC Comics reader. The combination of comic book images and dark humor was funny and, at times, a strange kind of entertaining. Very creative!

As someone who loved poring over the Scholastic book order flyers, this kitschy collection of parodied 70s children’s book covers was so much fun. I’ve seen Steven Rhodes’ art around on the internet, and I only wish that there were some more book descriptions to accompany the cover art because they made me laugh out loud.

This was a fun collection of art work and activites based around Steven Rhodes' famous designs. I really enjoyed this as it was a great pastiche of the original style but it gave it a fun and new twist. I found this a quick and highly enjoyable read!

If you shop at Hot Topic or ever bought anything from Wicked Clothes, chances are you're familiar with Steven Rhodes' work. I'm a big fan and absolutely love the ringer tees made with his work that pays homage to 70s and 80s kids book. The retro style is so nice and the dark twist is really humorous. Fans of his will recognize some of his more internet famous works like Sell Your Soul! or Easy-Bake Coven, along with new adverts and activities that really tie the book together to actually look like a retro book order catalog. I'm a fan of these coffee table visual books, another in the same vein that I own is The Mincing Mockingbird Guide to Troubled Birds. I'll definitely be buying My Little Occult Book Club when it comes out!

Thank you so much Chronicle Books and Steven Rhodes for my DRC via Netgalley in exchange for a honest review.

This was fun in a creepy way and creepy in a fun way. This is a book I'd definitely want to have, as it has so much fun stuff. It has a lot of vibrant and occultic illustrations, and a lot of elements in the book took me back to my childhood reading Apple Scholastic books.

The book featured a lot of fun entries, and the titles really made me LOL. This is one book I recommend for everyone!

Very cute and clever drawings within ... both nostalgic and extremely well done.

Review copy had large X marks over each page, even the table of contents, thus providing difficulty in reviewing the content they supposedly want us to read and comment on. Fail.

No plot spoilers for this one because there is no plot, but I’ll be damned if I didn’t laugh-out-loud the entire time reading and going through these pictures.

My Little Occult Book Club is for anyone looking for a good laugh. Do you know that t-shirt so many people seem to have, the “Let’s summon demons” one with a kid laying in a pentagram? No? Okay, go look it up, because that is the exact thing you’re going to find in My Little Occult Book Club. I’m not even joking. That image is actually in the book. HA.

I really couldn’t stop laughing, and I don’t think I can say it enough.

This book has images which I totally want poster copies of to hang on my walls, such as “My first voodoo doll,” “Everybody’s doing the spider-walk,” “Let’s call the exorcist,” and “Easy bake coven!”

What I found most funny is that this book is written as though you could send away for different items like the Cursed Videocassette, as featured on TV! I mean, come on. Who wouldn’t want to have a video to curse their home, Ring-esque style??

Overall, the book was short and demonically-sweet, sitting at about eighty-or-so pages, that will leave you dying for more!


Much thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this review copy!

This was a quick, quirky read.* I didn’t really know what to expect, and yet somehow, this delivered it exactly. I guess that’s the magic of Steven Rhodes.* I could see this making a good housewarming gift for the right friend.

*Only two blood sacrifices necessary for book access!

This is a cool little book I would recommend to all horror enthusiasts. It takes art you'd see on old school books and kid's magazines, think Babysitters Club and Highlights, and injects them with a good dose of horror. There's not story or anything per se, but it's cool to add to your horror shelf. It's worth it alone to check out the cool art.

I've seen Rhodes' work circulating everywhere: T-shirts, social media, websites. In short, I love everything about the way he marries innocuous grade school book club content with extreme reverence for the Dark Lord.

Truly laugh-out-loud stuff; each page deserves its own poster.

Remember those Scholastic catalogues you used to drool over as a kid? This book is sort of like those, if they went over to the dark side. Retro style book covers are given a makeover by artist Steven Rhodes.

Although you can easily imagine the contents of the stories these covers depict, blurbs accompany a few of them. You’ll also find some activities scattered through the book, including a join the dot abomination and find a word (words I found include necromancy, grave and hex).

Make sure you pay attention to the names of the authors. You’ll find such gems as Lou Siffer, who wrote ‘Pumpkin’s Revenge’.

“After centuries of being plucked, carved, and left to rot, the Pumpkin Demon has awoken, and this Halloween it will have its revenge!

A spine-tingling tale of vegetable justice!”

This was a fun but very quick read. My favourite covers were ‘Worship Coffee’ and ‘Timmy has a Visitor’.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Chronicle Books for the opportunity to read this book.

N.B. The quote is taken from the ARC, which may be subject to change.

I actually picked this book up because Mehsi over at Twirling Book Princess let me know about it over on Twitter. She said she thought it might appeal to me, and she was absolutely right!


You know Steven Rhodes’ work – even if you don’t know that you know it. You know those ‘Let’s Summon Demons’ t-shirts available at every Hot Topic/Spirit of Halloween/etc.?

Yeah, he’s that guy. This book is cute. It’s funny. I kind of want to own it. It’s set up like a Scholastic Book Fair catalogue, which appeals to my inner 80s-baby, and the entries are all great. The artwork is all on par with the aforementioned shirt, and the descriptions of these fictional books (that I wish were actual books, just for the record) are cheeky and fun.

Absolutely loved the dark humor of the art and the titles of these "imaginary" books. I would loved to read more books like this one!

This was very fun, and if you're familiar with Rhodes' viral art, you'd probably appreciate this. I loved the nostalgic combo of the occult mashups with the book club/order form format-cute as fuck. I particularly liked the BMHex 'devil went down to Georgia'-style plot summary, where Satan competes against a BMX bike girl gang. There aren't as many plot summaries as I'd hoped, as it's 75% covers, but the covers are so fun it's still a great novelty book. Thanks to NetGalley for the copy.

I love these designs, having seen them all around the internet as merch, so a compiled coffee table book of them was straight up my alley, combining 2 of my great loves, nostalgia & creepy shit. This is not a book for the humorless or the uptight! It was a trip down memory lane with titles and designs straight out of 70s / early 80s Scholastic book club order forms, & I could swear that back in the day, there WAS an actual book called It Followed Me Home, Can I Keep It? (Except about a puppy, not a zombie, probably.) I read this as a digital book, and I think part of the effect is having a physical copy of it, but nonetheless, it was an enjoyable flip-through, as it’s mostly “book covers” and “book jacket blurbs”. My fave is still Easy Bake Coven. I could also easily see these as a postcard set or coloring book. Fun for weirdos & Stranger Things fans.

Although this wasn't exactly what I was expecting, I truly enjoyed it. Filled with dark, yet stunning 70s/80s-style illustrations that often had me laughing out loud. I would love to display some of the prints on my wall, especially around Halloween.

I loved this book and the art work. I laughed out loud at some of the books in this. I am going to have to get a physical copy of this.

This art book is a collection of laugh-out-loud funny prints by Steven Rhodes. It would make a great gift for anyone with a quirky sense of humour.

Hilarious collection of retro-style, parody depictions of children happily participating in occult activities.

I received a copy of My Little Occult Book Club from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Oh my god this book was just so much fun and would make for a great book to leave laying around when guest come over. Lol.

This is mainly a graphic book that features the different shirt designs that I have seen around and there are a few that I had never seen before but I need immediately!

The art is fun, funny, really colorful, and just all around eye-catching.

Thanks to the publishers for sharing this one. I'd seen a few examples of the artist's work around on t-shirts and it was good to see some more that I hadn't come across before. It's a cute, funny book that would make a good gift for someone with a bit of a dark sense of humour. My full review appears on Weekend Notes.