Kirkus Reviews

Polacco sets her wildest romp yet around an actual "haunted house" in her Michigan hometown. The arrival of Doug and Shalleaux Graves, along with their children, brings on one brouhaha after another in staid Union City. Shortly after young neighbors Seth and Sara find their new neighbors' house crawling with giant spiders and scary tropical plants, Mrs. Graves's pet giant Venus flytrap breaks up a Ladies' Garden Club Tea, and then Mr. Graves's seemingly miraculous hair restorer, developed in his own basement lab, makes all of the town's leading citizens behave like cats. Just as an angry mob arrives to give the Graves what-for, so too does TV Decorating Show host Christopher Joel, defusing the situation by rapturously declaring the Graves's home winner of the Fall Home Show. Polacco gives Mrs. Graves Bride-of-Frankenstein hair, and places her customary cast of dismayed grownups and rangy, level-headed children atop backgrounds of writhing tendrils and floods of glop. Despite a rather quick and tidy resolution, this is sure to elicit delighted cries of "Eeeewwww!" from young audiences, at Halloween or any other time. (Picture book. 7-9)

ALA Booklist (Mon Sep 01 00:00:00 CDT 2003)

After the Graves family move into the house on the hill, they paint it blood red, encourage spiders and bats to share their living quarters, and cultivate enormous Venus flytraps. They try to fit in with the neighbors, but Mrs. Graves' flytrap, Phoebe, kills the plants at the Ladies Garden Club Tea, and Dr. Graves' hair tonic makes its recipients scratch with fleas. Then a Hollywood decorator comes to town to select the best-decorated house of the year, and deems the Graveses' mansion best: I've never seen such terrifying decor . . . ever! Polacco uses a light touch--playing with character names and understating her humor--even as she makes the point that the world is big enough for all kinds of people. As always, her colorful artwork is delightful, filled with the denizens of small-town America who are in perfect contrast to the overpowering but well-meaning Graveses. Pair this with Jeffrey Swope's The Araboolies of Liberty Street (1989) for a another look at unusual neighbors.

School Library Journal

Gr 2-4-When Doug and Shalleaux Graves and their children move to Union City and paint their house blood red, the villagers stay away. Then Seth and Sara, two young neighbors, visit and become friendly with young Hieronymus, and they explore the spooky house. Their mother invites Mrs. Graves to a garden club tea, where her baby Venus flytrap eats the lemon squares, the tea set, and the ladies' hats. After this fiasco, the Graves family's social standing declines further. Then Christopher Joel, a home-decorating guru, comes to town to judge the neighborhood House Show. After spotting the Graves's residence, he declares it the most perfect haunted house, and offers the family a magazine cover story. From that day on, the villagers declare that the Graves and their house "fit in." Polacco's fans may be disappointed in this story. It is lighter and less emotionally resonant than many of her other works, but it has fun and farcical moments, creative puns, and over-the-top descriptions. Unfortunately, the text goes on too long, causing some of the amusing episodes to drag. Polacco's illustrations, in her standard technique of pen-and-ink with watercolor washes, have a comic, cartoon look, also something of a departure from her usual style. While this title demonstrates Polacco's storytelling range, it is not a central title in her canon.-Rachel G. Payne, New York Public Library Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Horn Book (Thu Apr 01 00:00:00 CST 2004)

Seth and Sara befriend their new neighbors, who paint their house blood red, keep a Venus flytrap in the kitchen, and serve meals featuring Beetle Leg Jell-O. The loosely shaped narrative, which recounts Mrs. Graves's misadventures at the garden club and the unforeseen flaw in Dr. Graves's hair-growing formula, is entertaining but unfocused and overlong. Polacco's illustrations are rendered with her usual humor and energy.

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

Polacco (<EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">Betty Doll) mines the theme of children nourished by unexpected friendship, tosses in a little light horror and comes up with over-the-top hilarity. Sara and Seth befriend the Graves family, the strange new neighbors who've purchased the local haunted house. When Mrs. Graves (who looks like something out of Mel Brooks's <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">Young Frankenstein) joins the Garden Club, the greenery withers around her and her baby Venus flytrap attacks the baked goods. Mr. Graves, an inventor, attempts to placate the townspeople with the offer of a sure-fire hair restorative, but that's a failure, too; its active ingredient, derived from cats, makes the village elders who take the restorative behave in a most peculiar fashion ("Mr. Pitkimple darted under a porch carpet and batted at the ankles of his wife"). The couple's social lives seem doomed—until the celebrity host of a home-decorating show announces that he "adores" their house: "I have never seen such terrifying décor... ever!" Polacco's pencil-and-watercolor illustrations teem with big-hatted, gasping ladies, the creeping arms of horrible plants, fuzzy spiders and inventions run amok. While the text is lengthy and at times discursive, there are enough giggles here to please most readers. Ages 4-8. <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">(Sept.)