Room 13

FROM OUR EDITORS

Marilou McCormick, every high school boy's dream English teacher, leaves San Diego to teach in the quaint mountain village of Julian, California, after watching the savage murder of her boyfriend. But Julian is far from a Leave It to Beaver community: McCormick discovers her classroom is haunted by the increasingly violent ghosts of dead authors, and her only ally turns out to be Moondog, the eccentric school-bus driver who claims to be a werewolf -- and who may be responsible for the death of McCormick's boyfriend. Garfield writes colloquial prose and plot like a young Stephen King.

—Rick Koster

FROM THE PUBLISHER

English teacher Marilou McCormick has moved to tiny Julian, California, to recuperate - but a haunted classroom was not part of her plans. A small high school in the Southern California mountains looks like the perfect place for the young teacher to start over. But the new job brings some surprises: a classroom where an eccentric teacher died eight years ago, students who seem to be possessed by characters from classic literature, a decrepit heater with a mind of its own, a semi-literate janitor who develops a sudden interest in reading, and a bus driver who claims to be a werewolf. Marilou scoffs at the portents, but when subsequent events prove she is in danger, the bus driver, Cyrus "Moondog" Nygerski, turns out to be her only ally.

FROM THE CRITICS

KLIATT

Marilou McCormick, a sexy young high school English teacher, finds herself a new job so she can leave her hometown in the wake of her boyfriend's bizarre and bloody murder. Moving to the San Diego County mountain hamlet of Julian, she is assigned to a classroom that has lots of potential for trouble: apparently bewitched posters depicting classic American authors draw blood when she tries to remove them, a heater rumbles to life when displeased with activities in the room, and assorted students and fellow staff exhibit creepy behaviors running the gamut from handling mice to death to rape. The newly hired school bus driver is more of a cipher to Marilou than he is to readers, who will quickly recognize him for what he is, an intelligent and careful werewolf who works hard to keep the community safe from both his full moon self and other local dangers. More slowly revealed is the cause of all the blood and destruction that is wreaked on and in Marilou's classroom. Garfield laces his plot with clever though sometimes insensitive stereotypes. The spells cast by the classroom's posters have students, teachers and even the morning janitor rendering imitations of the themes of such often-studied high school staples as The Scarlet Letter, Of Mice and Men, The Call of the Wild, and The Great Gatsby. Like these literary works, the real town of Julian is portrayed with little sympathy. But Marilou and Cyrus Nygerski, the schoolbus driver who needs to hide away during full moons, offer valiant defenses against the evil powers of classroom 13 while becoming more appealing with each battle undertaken. The second in a trilogy featuring Cyrus, this stands alone nicely and is acceptable mind candyfor the insatiable horror reader as well as certain literary snobs. KLIATT Codes: S—Recommended for senior high school students. 1997, Simon & Schuster, Aladdin, 347p., $5.99. Ages 16 to 18. Reviewer: Francisca Goldsmith; Teen Svcs., Berkeley P.L., Berkeley, CA , September 2001 (Vol. 35 No. 5)

Kirkus Reviews

Forget Up the Down Staircase. Room 13 really is the classroom from hell.

Marilou McCormick's already wrestling nightmarish memories when she arrives at Drew Bailey Memorial High School in Julian, California. After all, her last boyfriend was killed by a werewolf. But the room she's been assigned to teach in—with its dark, gloomy walls, its blinds that won't open, and its baleful portraits of American writers that look as if they belong in a post office—would give anyone the willies. Gradually, in carefully calibrated stages, the room switches from passive- aggressive to full attack mode. Marilou's attempts to tear down the portrait gallery leaves her hands lacerated with paper cuts. The room's heater springs ominously to life even when the thermostat's turned down. The mice in the storage closet begin to put in appearances outside. Every plant Marilou brings in to liven up the place dies. Even more distressingly, Marilou's students start to act up—a little runt terrorizes his big dumb cousin, a black student shuffles and talks like a slave—and Marilou's colleagues begin acting a little funny, too. Luckily, Cyrus "Moondog" Nygerski, the new bus driver who's clocked driving the kids to school at 83 mph, has some experience with stuff like this (Moondog, 1995). Marilou will need every bit of his advice to battle Scott Lurvey, the late English teacher who's retired from life but not from Room 13—and who's using an ingenious, if amusingly literal, way of running his classes from beyond the grave. Marilou and Moondog even have time for a few after-hours sessions of their own, and their tender, improbable romance—Marilou greets the news that her new soulmate is a werewolf by sighing, "I really don't know how to take you"—is the high point of this witches' brew of a book.

A wooly screamfest that's also a backhanded tribute to the power of dead white male authors.