The Pinkaboos: Belladonna and the Nightmare Academy

This is the second book in the Pinkaboos series. I feel this series is geared to late primary, early junior readers. It is a beginning chapter book with interesting illustrations (lots of pink) that add emotion to the story.

In this book the three Pinkaboo friends are back and all the frights are getting their little girls to help. All except Wither that is. When the little girls have nightmares or scary dreams, the frights appear to help them fight their fear and have the strength to stand up the the fear. When Wither does not get her girl, she becomes upset which is just what the bully Hex is waiting for. While she is feeling bad and has little or no self-confidence, Hex tries to convince her to become a nightmare like she is. Can her friends get to her in time to save her from making a mistake and one of the worst decisions of her life? Can they help their own little girls? Watch for the cute bat that makes an appearance in the story.

This book has positive messages about standing up to bullies, facing your fears and working together. It is a good book for teaching those messages, but also a fun series for little girls to read. It would be a good series to have in primary classroom libraries and school libraries. I like the activities and facts that are in the back of the book such as making your own fright then writing your own story about it, learning about bats and making a bat-house and making ghost puppets.

Book Two is even better than the first. A great story in itself but also establishing a wider ongoing story. All the frights have now been assigned little girls, except poor Wither who has been told she's not ready yet. This is the type of fright that Vex is looking for. The school bully in the first book, she's now dropped out of school and opening her own to train frights to be nightmares. Most of the action centres around the Pinkaboos helping Belladonna with her little girl who dreams of ghosts but has Vex crashing her dreams to make them even worse. The book ends on a cliffhanger. I love the creepy art done in various shades of pink!

Adorable series. Great for fans of Monster High, The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy and other dark and cute children's shows. Also great for adults that remember Scooby andDoo and the Ghoul School. Which was always my favorite Scooby Doo movie. I'm eager to read more of this series.

This was a fun book. It's the kind of book that kids really like for light reading.