NNtG: Graveyard School #04: Little Pet Werewolf

It's time for another trip to Graveyard School. We've still not found the book I can say is my favorite, but I've enjoyed this series so far. This book has werewolves, and our ratio of good to bad werewolf books have usually skewed good, so maybe this could be the one. Or, knowing how I always get disappointed when a book looks great, this could be on the bad end. Let's hope not as we talk about Little Pet Werewolf.

I like this cover. Very simple, but still does what it sets out to do. And that's give us a little pet werewolf. And he sure looks pretty adorable with his fury face and freaky fangs and claws. Also we have a school desk just to make sure that yes, this book is set in Graveyard School. Not the most dynamic cover in the series, but still really good. Let that not be a harbinger for the quality of the story.

We start the book with our protagonist, the "I'm sure it's just ironic"-named Skip Wolfson, trying to train his dog Lupe for the upcoming pet week at school. Tyson Walker, his friend, mostly mocks Skip's inability to train as Lupe would rather do anything than learn basic commands. Skip's little brother Mark shows up with a finger in his nose and a dog biscuit in his other hand. He mocks the two before running back to the house and eating some of the dog biscuit in case eventual obvious twist is obvious. Skip remembers when Mark first came home with his parents and he looked odd for a baby with mouse-colored hair on his head and large hands and feet. How he always gnawed at his crib and drooled a lot. It's almost as if he might not really be Skip's brother. He also seems to really enjoy monster movies where the monster wins in the end. Not to mention it seems Lupe likes Mark more and Mark already wants to take Lupe to Graveyard School to be a part of first-grade pet day.

At Graveyard School, assistant principal Mr. Lucre announces that Pet Week works as follows. Each day for different grades in the school, with the winner of the most unique pet earning their owner a gift certificate to any store in Grove Hill, which Skip wants to use for new soccer cleats. They also need to do a report on their pets as well. Skip and Tyson talk about it, to which we learn that Skip's parents run a pet food supply store. After soccer practice, Skip talks with the other teammates, Marla Medina, ghost girl Kirstin Bjorg and Jason Dunbarr. Jason mocks Skip and Lupe and says that he's going to be the one to win the gift certificate. Fearing he might be right about Lupe being a lame duck for Pet Week, Skip tells Jason he has a better pet that will win him the prize. Skip heads home and he and Tyson rent a movie called Dead Werewolves. Mark comes in and eats some of their pizza. However, after a scene where the werewolf in the movie is killed, Mark suddenly starts acting strange, as if he's in pain. Mr. and Mrs. Wolfson take Mark to bed while not really explaining what's going on because it's going to be one of these stories. Later that night, Skip catches him staring at the full moon as if in a trance, but it's too early to put two and two together. 

The next day, Skip talks with his mother about going to their pet store to see if they can find something to report on. When they arrive, they see that a dog is in the front window. It looks like a very small German Shepherd. The store doesn't sell pets, but takes in ones from the shelter to help get them new homes. Mr. Wolfson tells Skip and Tyson the dog to walk. They run into Dr. Morthouse, who talks about wolves while conveniently looking at a stuffed wolf in the window of a taxidermy shop. After she leaves and the boys begin to walk off, Skip thinks he sees the stuffed wolf's head begin to move, but thinks he must be imagining things. They run into Maria, Kirstin and Jason again, with Jason once again provoking Skip over Lupe, but Skip promises to bring in a pet even greater than Lupe, a real live werewolf. So yeah, Skip's not too good when it comes to confrontation, so now he has to deliver on the werewolf end. Speaking of werewolves (unless the twist is he isn't which I'd honestly prefer), Skip returns home to see Mark digging holes outside. He then sees the newspaper with the headline of a wolf attack at a nearby farm.

That night, Skip hears the sound of something hitting their trash cans. He goes outside to see what looks like a wolf. He tells his parents, but they just think it's some stray dog. Later that night however, his dad catches something alright. It's just Mark sleepwalking again. Mark is taken to bed, to which Skip sees that Lupe is under Mark's bed and so is Mark. He tries to get some answers from his dad, who just says that it must be a phase. A phase of what? We have 50 pages until we get that answer. But after the wolf encounter the previous night, Skip tells Tyson that they should go on a wolf hunt. They can find the wolf, bring it in, and they'll get the reward money. After soccer practice, the two hear howling noises and run to Skip's house. They tell Skip's dad, but he thinks it could be the howl of any dog, not specifically a wolf, and you know, totally not of the were variety. But Skip isn't convinced. He heads to the taxidermy shop and checks the stuffed wolf, which doesn't move, because we're not at the twist yet. He hears the sound of something moving, but when he goes to check, there's no sign of anything. So he's missed out on another chance to catch a wolf.

So Skip's big plan is for he and Tyson to dig a large hole on grove hill overseeing the graveyard and fill it with a pot roast as bait to catch the wolf. That night, he again catches Mark sleeping and sends him back to bed. But he also notices a large mound of dirt in their backyard that looks suspiciously like a grave, flowers and all. He digs the grave to find the stuffed wolf from the taxidermy shop. And it begins to dawn on Skip. The weird dog-like mannerisms, the sleepwalking, Mark might not really be his brother. He might be a werewolf. That night, Skip again sees no sign of Mark in the house and runs up to the trap, where he sees the wolf. Skip ends up falling into the trap and the wolf runs off. So now Skip's stuck in a hole with a rotten roast while there's a wolf in the premises. Not the most ideal way to spend a night. He manages to get out when he's grabbed by Basement Bart. Skip runs off home and we go through this again the next night. 

He sees Mark look at the moon and run off. Skip chases after only to find the wolf, who runs through the hill and around town, only to get its nose caught in a trap. So Skip seems to have his proof that Mark is the werewolf. Especially after he sees Mark with an injured nose. He tries to tell his parents, but they just say that they used to be like that with all the tripping around. The next night, he again sees Mark leave and follows him, only to end up in the woods, and with several wolves now surrounding him. He runs off and meets with Tyson, saying that it's probably a dog, not a werewolf. He heads home however, to find werewolves in his kitchen. And here it is, what we all knew was coming.

Yep, Skip's family are all werewolves. Well, seemingly all but Skip as the process seemingly can skip a child, but Mark was definitely one of them. Skip is confused about all of this, but they say he does have the werewolf in him, he just doesn't have the power to transform, but maybe his kids will when he starts a family. Wait, is THAT why they named him Skip? Holy shit. They tell Skip that they don't kill or hurt humans, just other animals, and that most of what the media says about werewolves is completely overblown. Skip gets over all of this new data and then asks if he can take Mark to Pet Day. 

Well, looks like I'm saying it again, but I still haven't found the Graveyard School book I liked. This one was decent, but also felt like we were going around in circles until we got to the inevitable twist. I was hoping it wouldn't be this twist, that Mark's actions and the whole "Wolfson" name were just ironic. But nope, what you expect the story to be is exactly what the story ends up being, which is kind of lame. It also plays on one of my least favorite tropes when it comes to these stories. I have never understood the logic of keeping one member of the family in the dark about a very important detail like, say, being a family of werewolves. It just feels like a family gaslighting someone for no real reason. I get that without it, we really have no story, but every time I just come out of a story going "well the parents just suck ass I guess to put their kid in danger and then wait until things get too extreme to finally reveal things." What I do like is the swerve that Skip can't turn werewolf. It feels like an asspull out of plot convenience, but it does feel like one of the more load-bearing asspulls in a while.

Skip is okay as a protagonist. Not too much unique about him other than he's very quick to get himself in bigger trouble, particularly when it comes to running his mouth about having a great pet to compete with Jason. Tyson works as the best friend character. The Wolfson family are interesting, and the traits of Mark are fun to read about, even if it makes things way too obvious. The other characters mostly exist, with the books adding Dr. Morthouse, Mr. Lucre and Basement Bart, but, like I've said with many of these books, I wish they mattered more. That they weren't just here to be creepy, they actually had a unique idea to them that makes them more memorable. We still have a bit of this series left to see if they eventually do anything of note in these stories. 

So overall, this book was just okay. It's not the most dynamic werewolf story ever, and the twist is made way too obvious, and we don't actually get any of the pet week stuff, but there's some good atmosphere, the mystery is still fun to follow even if it's too obvious, and even the worst werewolf books are still at least decent. But it still leaves me wanting more out of Graveyard School. It feels like a book series with a cool idea, but rarely manages to take that idea to its full potential. Hopefully at least one of these books leaves me feeling like I read something great. Time will tell I guess. Little Pet Werewolf gets a B-.