Star-Bulletin staff
Hawai'i Chillers: Series by P.J. Neri, Bess Press, $4.95 each, paperback
R.L. Stine, meet P.J. Neri.Besides the fact that she uses initials instead of a first name, Neri has lots in common with you. She's a spooky kind of writer and dreams up scary stories for kids.
They're like your "Goosebumps," but they're called "Hawai'i Chillers" and like the name says, they're ghostly tales set in Hawaii, even though Neri is from England, and she's mostly written romances for adults. But she's been in Hawaii for 26 years and seems to be here to stay, so there are many more of these "Chillers" to come.
The first three are "The Shark-Man of Kapu Bay," "The Missionary's Ghost" and "The Curse of Pele." But are they any good?
We asked a couple of Kapolei Elementary sixth-graders to give two of the tales a test-drive. Here's what they thought:
"The Shark Man of Kapu Bay" was a story about a young local Hawaiian boy named Alika, and how an old Hawaiian legend affected him, his family and his friends. Shark tale has some bite
By Darleen Abalos
Special to the Star-BulletinThe characters were very much like the people here in Hawaii.
I learned from this book that you should be more open minded and think that maybe what someone is telling you could be true.
Compared to "Goosebumps" this is a much shorter story. It focuses a lot on what the characters are thinking. It isn't as suspenseful and the monster in this story isn't as spooky as the ones in "Goosebumps."
This book was one of many that I enjoyed reading. It sometimes got suspenseful but also got a bit confusing.
Overall, it is a chilling book that many children will enjoy because the book talks about kids just like the ones in Hawaii. The readers could relate to the kids in the book and have a chilling time whenever they go swimming at the beach.
This book ("The Curse of Pele") is freakishly scary! Pele adventure heats up
By Ardison Garcia
Special to the Star-BulletinIt is about two kids named Mark and Malia. Mark is from Colorado, and he is visiting his Uncle Pono in the Big Island.
One day, they go to the Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park. They see Kilauea, the home of the volcano goddess, Pele. Do you know the Hawaiian legend about taking rocks from volcanoes in Hawaii? Well, Mark takes three of them even though Malia and her dad warned him.
Throughout the book, bad things happen to Mark and Malia. Bad things happened to Malia because she also took some rocks and she didn't listen to herself. Malia's hair smelled like smoke and an important assignment of Mark's burned in his bag. At the end of the story, they went back to the Big Island and returned all of the rocks.
I think this book is better and scarier than any "Goosebumps" books that I've ever read.
Golden Halloween for young readers
Reported by Star-Bulletin staffGolden Books, publishers of easy-to-hold, inexpensive books for kids, are ready for Halloween with six new titles. While most are written for the very youngest children, one, "Boo Goes There?", comes with its own 3-D glasses and is designed to thrill readers 6 to 8 years old.In addition to the new Halloween releases, Golden Books has put together a bag containing 36 Little Golden Books, suggested price $13.99, designed to be passed out to trick-or-treaters instead of candy.
The new Halloween books are:
The Hurry Up Halloween Costume: By Sara Albee, for ages 3 to 5, $1.99. In rhyming text, Chelli and Big Bag, from the Cartoon Network show "Big Bag," try to decide what to wear for Halloween.
