Read Witches of Peculiar – Thriller Night free in the Little Reads app.
Thriller Night by Luna Graves is a monster-town story for 9 year olds about twin witches invited to their first human dance.
Bella and Dee Maleficent live in Peculiar, Pennsylvania. Their dad Ant's a ghost who runs the pharmacy on Main Street, and he wears makeup so his skin looks less see-through. Their pop Ron does the books and has a lot of werewolf facial hair. There's a cat called Cornelius who's a menace.
Dee's unpacking boxes in the back room when a human boy wanders into the shop.
He's Sebastian, the mayor's son, and he's picked up a copy of Haunted Housekeeping that was never meant to be out front where humans could see it. Bella's solution is to wipe his memory. Dee's solution is to go pink and sell him a comic.
Then a flyer goes up. The human school's holding a dance and the monsters are invited, as long as nobody does any magic at all.
It's very funny about what monsters imagine humans are like. The principal demonstrates acceptable human dance moves, and they turn out to be the sprinkler, the shopping cart and the chicken dance (Bella thinks her moves are a bit dated, and Bella's right). A werewolf who can land two backflips off the top of a pyramid is told that was a perfect example of what not to do.
Underneath the jokes there's something quieter. Dee's always got on better with humans than with other monsters, and a girl at school tells her flat out she'll never fit in with her own kind. Bella can't see the problem, because Bella fits in everywhere. That's the bit that'll land hardest with your reader.
This one sits well into the series. The twins already have history, including a night involving the cat that nobody wants to talk about, and none of it gets explained. You can follow the story fine, but you're stepping in partway.
One thing to flag. The characters are in sixth grade, and Dee's crush on Sebastian runs right through the book. It's all very mild, but if your reader isn't interested in that sort of thing yet, a good chunk of the plot will sail past them.
For another girl dropped into a witch school with no idea how to belong there, Diary of an Accidental Witch is in the library too.
A library hand-picked by an English teacher, delivered through a calm, ad-free app. If your child already loves reading, we keep up.
No trial. No payment. Just download.
