The Haunted Mansion: Frights of Fancy

by Sina Grace, Egle Bartolini (Illustrator)

Overview

Welcome, foolish mortals... to the Haunted Mansion, where the crypt doors creak and the tombstones quake. The happy haunts are getting ready to throw a swinging wake, and all the goblins and ghoulies are invited, so be sure to bring your death certificate!

Sydney is the newest resident of the Haunted Mansion, a retirement home for wayward ghosts. Now she has to learn how to scare visiting mortals in order to earn her keep—all while resident mean ghost Constance is out to make it all as difficult as possible! But with the help of our favorite grim, grinning ghosts, Sydney just might pull it off!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781684056071
Publisher:	IDW Publishing
Publication date:	08/18/2020
Pages:	72
Product dimensions:	5.80(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.30(d)
Age Range:	9 - 12 Years

About the Author

Sina Grace is the author and illustrator of the autobiographical Self-Obsessed and Not My Bag, which recounts a story of retail hell. He acts as the artist for Shaun Steven Struble's cult hit, The Li'l Depressed Boy, and handles art chores along with co-writing the Image Comics hit series, Burn the Orphanage.

Grace has also done illustrations for all-ages readers, including Among the Ghosts, written by Amber Benson, and Penny Dora & the Wishing Box, written by Michael Stock. His previous works include the slice-of-life Books with Pictures, and the neo-noir urban fantasy, Cedric Hollows in Dial M for Magic. For a time, he acted as Editorial Director for Robert Kirkman's Skybound imprint at Image Comics. To date, he's worked for Marvel Comics, IDW, Boom, Dynamite, Valiant and more. His essays have appeared on several websites, most notably Thought Catalog.

Editorial Reviews

"The artwork is a feast of color." —School Library Journal

From the Publisher

10/09/2020

Gr 3–6—Sydney, a young ghost, must find a new home when the hotel she's been haunting is demolished, so she makes her way to Disney's Haunted Mansion. Sydney thinks she's discovered a resort for ghosts, but here she's expected to scare people. Enthusiastic Sydney's new ideas for terrifying visitors to the mansion upend old practices and threaten Constance, the ghosts' unofficial leader. With the 50th anniversary of the Haunted Mansion looming, Constance decides to have a competition between Sydney's team and her own to see whose is the scariest. All the ghosts have lessons to learn about respect and teamwork. The artwork is a feast of color, depicting charming and ethereal stylized spirits who are almost transparent; all are white except for Sydney, who is brown-skinned with curly black hair. However, the narrative doesn't quite deliver; though child-friendly, with scares that are played for laughs, it's heavy-handed in its message of cooperation. With back matter that details the history of the Haunted Mansions at each Disney theme park, the title feels more like a Disney souvenir than a stand-alone comic. VERDICT Recommended only for libraries with high demand for Disney properties.—Carla Riemer, Albany H.S., CA

School Library Journal