The Book of Bad Things by Dan Poblocki (review)

When Cassidy finds life too scary to handle, she consults (and often adds to) her Book of Bad Things, a detailed reference book she created that helps her compartmentalize her fears. There are plenty of entries that deal with the latest supernatural events in the small town where she spends her summers: zombies, death, curses, and hauntings, to name a few. It turns out that the crazy woman living alone in a creepy house has actually been trying to protect everyone from an intense vortex located under the house that holds an otherworldly beast that wants to suck everything, including people, into itself and then spits the formerly living back out in zombified form. Cassidy teams up with a trio of local kids who are determined to clear the curse, and they turn to the possibilities of a seal of protection—if they can make one in time. While the haunted-house plotline itself is fairly straightforward, the strong friendships that form between the four unlikely allies and their implacable determination to save their own little corner of the world are effectively conveyed. In addition, there are few true bad guys here: the zombies are viewed with unusual sympathy (one is, in fact, the beloved dog of one of the kids), and the supernatural force itself seems driven by a compulsion rather than evil intent. The body count runs pretty high, but the clear resolution and Cassidy’s slow growth toward independence from her own terrors will likely speak to late elementary readers.