Review: The Dreables Delight
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 04 19, 2012
When our kids were little, my mother, a tiny, wizened, deeply tanned and wrinkled woman delighted in tormenting them by pretending that she was a witch. The kids now have kids of their own but down deep, they still are not entirely certain that my mother was joking. After all, who really knows who their grandparents are?This is a delightful book and I would love to see this author create more books in the same vein. The characters are well developed and all kids will really be able to identify with Sam because he is such an average, normal kid. The plot is very well developed, the ending is satisfying, and the Dreables -  the monsters - are vaguely defined in a way that allows children to imagine them as horrifically as their imaginations allow.Nine year old Sam Jones loves his parents but every year when they go hiking (yomping) for their vacation, he prefers to stay with his grandmother. Sam's not really a baby anymore, and although he really does not want to go "yomping" with them, he really doesn't want to go stay with his grandmother either. She's a nice old lady, but her life is predictable and dull and her friends, well, the lady that keeps a hundred cats is the best of a bad lot. Sam figures he'll read his books about witches and wizards and eat some of his Gran's great baking and make the best of the holiday. But Sam is in for a big surprise. For Sam's grandmother, Gwaldys Merryweather has magic of her own. When the Dreables, lumpy, horrible, dribbling magic creatures start to appear, a girl who calls Gran Mother Merryweather pleads for help.  Mother Merryweather is all that stands between the Dreables and humanity. Gran is called to action. Although Gran tries to leave Sam with the old cat lady, Sam sneaks away and hides in her car trying to figure out what is going on. When Mother Merryweather is frozen by magic, it is Sam who must find solutions to help save her and the day. Can Sam find his own cunning Merryweather heritage and save the day?