Poblocki, Dan. The stone child

Poblocki, Dan. The stone child. Random House, 2009 [978-0-375-84254-2] Advanced reader's copy
Eddie’s family moves to the town of his favorite author. The town is dark, strange and creepy with an evil presence and the author appears to be missing. The people in the town hold the author responsible for the strange things happening in town. Eddie and his friends investigate. After his mother gives him a journal written in code by the author, he realizes that this journal might hold the clues to save the town from the evil. Eddie and his friends try to break the code and get more and more involved in the evil enwrapping the town. This 274 page book is a great suspense book dealing with evil. It reminded me a great deal of John Bellair’s early books, although it is a little more evil. There are large blocks of text written in a handwritten font which I found VERY difficult to read. This was a advanced reader's book so hopefully they will have changed that for the final edition. Expected publication date is August 2009.