The Beast and the Bethany: Funny illustrated gothic middle-grade award-winning humour for 8+ readers, new look for 2023!: Book 1

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Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review. Obviously this book has moral lessons, lessons I’m pretty sure we all already know but we just don’t live by them. I liked that I felt as if I spent as much time with the side characters as with the main characters, which is impossible because most of the scenes only feature Ebenezer, Bethany and the beast. You guys were so fab and Dawn was such a lovely presence in the schools - I will absolutely be in touch next time I'm in your neck of the woods.

There are several twists to shake up your emotions while changing your idea of just where the story is headed. Daily, Fern visits the Zuckermans to sit and muse with Wilbur and with the clever pen spider Charlotte, who befriends him when he is lonely and downcast.

Colour in some of the adorable illustrations from Amazing Mum by Alison Brown and give to someone special! Sure, some sort of alien, magical creature that only wants to eat is one thing, you can get that impulse. This book has a really dark atmosphere and a lot of bad and cruel things happen, but there are also some very important and meaningful messages in this book and those are what really made this book special to me. Yesterday a parent came over to tell me how impressed she was by the book fair and that you did a fabulous job of selling the books to the children first. And the journey to where they are both heading together – wanted or not – was a very special one to follow.

The last word, when Wilbur is about to win a show prize and Charlotte is about to die from building her egg sac, is "Humble".The characters are fun and their developments is some of the best I have read in a Middle Grade book.