It's Valentine's Day and a monstrous blizzard has descended upon Lovecraft Middle School, trapping twelve-year-old Robert Arthur inside the building. He and his companions have no choice but to spend the night - while snacking on cafeteria food, sleeping on the gymnasium floor, facing off against a sinister substitute teacher and thwarting an army of abominable beasts. This fourth novel in the Lovecraft Middle School series begins right where Teacher's Pet ended - with more action, more adventure, and more outrageous monsters...

Substitute Creature is the fourth book in the Lovecraft Middle School series. While this carries on where book three left off, it still works as a standalone novel. We missed out on reviewing book three, but to be perfectly honest Substitute Teacher could have slotted in after book one or two without causing any problems.

This time around the entire book is set inside the school. A freak snow storm traps Robert and Glenn inside the school with another pupil, Lionel; the janitor, Mac; the school's head nurse, Robert's mum; the school ghost, Karina; and a new and creepy substitute teacher, Miss Carcasse. It soon becomes clear that this is no ordinary snow storm and that someone or thing is planning to unleash some unspeakable horror from the bowels of the school.

As with the other books in the series, we have another wonderful lenticular cover to this novel which shows a 3D image of a rather stern Miss Carcasse and if you turn the book slightly she transforms into a grinning corpse.

So, another enjoyable book aimed at the younger reader. It's engaging and well written, it's certainly a series I highly recommend.

8

Nick Smithson