Peeves – Mike Van Waes, Harper Collins, (9780062653833), 2018
Format: paperback ARC
Rating: 1-5 (5 is an excellent or a Starred review) 3
Genre: science fiction
What did you like about the book? Steven (Slim) Pickings is at a new school and hoping to start fresh after his parent’s divorce. His ADHD makes it difficult for him to make friends and act appropriately. When he is mistakenly sprayed in the face with a medicine that isn’t yet approved for human use called PVZ, his life gets even more difficult. Now he’s sneezing out his biggest peeves and negative feelings all day long. These peeves, Noisy Peeve, Lazy Peeve, Asking Peeve, Crazy Peeve, Nagging Peeve stay close to Slim all day long and drive him crazy. Then it turns out the Peeves are contagious, too! (His mother has a Deadline Peeve). Soon the whole town is beleaguered by Peeves and chaos ensues as the peeves morph into even larger “bugbears.” Can Slim and everyone else band together to face their fears?
The action is non-stop in this book and feels ready-made for the big screen. There isn’t much time spent on inner conflict; all the inner conflict is out on the open physically annoying the characters!
To whom would you recommend this book? Students who love funny, slightly disgusting books
Anything you didn’t like about it? The frenetic pace of the book combined with the concept of monster-like things coming out of one’s nose was not for me, but certain students will likely love it.
Who should buy this book? Some middle schools looking for adventure science fiction
Where would you shelve it? fantasy/sci-fi
Should we (librarians/readers) put this on the top of our “to read” piles? No
Reviewer’s Name, Library (or school), City: Laura Gardner, Dartmouth Middle School, Dartmouth, MA
Date reviewed: April 13, 2018
Youth Services Book Review 
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