Reminiscent of Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, this book introduces Anastasia McCrumpet. The 11-year-old, still dressed in her Halloween costume from the previous evening, is whisked away from school by two wizened old women claiming to be her great-aunts Primrose and Prudence. Pretending that Anastasia's parents are dead, they take her to their dilapidated Victorian mansion and lock her in room 11 with a crumpled-up old bed and a chamber pot, but no food or toothbrush. Anastasia becomes their servant, but soon realizes she is not the only child in the house. Relying on "knowledge" from the Francie Dewdrop mysteries, she escapes her room and meets two brothers held captive in other parts of the house. The three call themselves the League of Beastly Dreadfuls and plot the demise of the old women. With just the right mix of humor, magic, maliciousness, and suspense, Grant leaves readers waiting for Anastasia's next adventure.

Gr 3-6 Anastasia is completely average. She isn't remarkable in any way, except for having very dreadful things happen to her. After her parents die in a vacuum cleaner accident, two very old and previously unknown aunts, Prim and Prude, pick her up from school, drug her, and take her to the abandoned St. Agony's Asylum for the Criminally Insane. She is locked in her room at night, given mysterious lumps to eat (so she starts eating moths), and told not to go outside or she will be eaten by the Beast (not to mention the attack poodles). Anastasia soon suspects that these two ladies with sharp metal teeth are not truly her aunts, that the boy who wanders the hall wearing a birdcage is not an insane gardener, and that she is not safe if she remains in the old asylum. Riding the dumbwaiter through the many floors of the mansion, Anastasia discovers a ticklish shadow who's really the brother of the "gardener"; both boys were kidnapped by the evil sisters. Together Anastasia and the brothers Ollie and Quentin form the League of Beastly Dreadfuls and plan their escape, including making a sugar key, feeding Prim and Prude laxative chocolate, and using a sleeping drug in their tea. Madcap plots twists abound, which include shape-shifters, a hot air balloon ride, and a kindly school librarian named Miss Apple. This adventure is filled with enough mystery and humor to keep readers wondering what will happen next. A solid debut reminiscent of Lemony Snicket's "A Series of Unfortunate Events" (HarperCollins). Clare A. Dombrowski, Amesbury Public Library, MA