Mind over Monsters

by Betsy Uhrig

Overview

Gordon Korman meets Scooby-Doo when anxiety-prone middle schoolers try a mindfulness app that has them face their fears all-too-literally in this spooky and humorous middle grade adventure.

FACE YOUR FEARS! That’s what the meditation app with the cheesy name De-stress-o-rama is telling Lena to do. She’s one of seven always-worried middle schoolers trying out this new app to see if it can help students handle stress. But something is going wrong—very, very wrong.

The group’s fears are becoming all too real, first lurking and dangling, then chasing them around and threatening to swallow them whole. From a stubborn inky blob that is fear of the dark, to the queasy giant in sweaty underpants that is fear of public speaking, monsters are invading Cranberry Bog Middle School! Can Lena’s group of worriers figure out how to conquer their fears before the whole school is swarmed?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781665950534
Publisher:	Margaret K. McElderry Books
Publication date:	07/16/2024
Pages:	304
Sales rank:	1,053,970
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.30(h) x 1.20(d)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Betsy Uhrig is the author of The Polter-Ghost Problem, Double the Danger and Zero Zucchini, Welcome to Dweeb Club, and Mind Over Monsters. She was born and raised in Greater Boston, where she lives with her family and way more books than you are picturing. She graduated from Smith College with a degree in English and has worked in publishing ever since. She writes books for children instead of doing things that aren’t as fun. Visit her at BetsyUhrig.com.

Editorial Reviews

04/29/2024

White seventh grader Lena Lennox is a “champion worrier.” When school administrators invite Lena and six of her similarly anxious Cranberry Bog Middle School classmates to participate in a mindfulness meditation trial meant to help reduce student stress via app, she’s skeptical but hopes it proves beneficial. Though the tweens find the first part of the exercises—“Calming and Clearing Our Minds”—to be useful, strange things occur when they begin part two: “Finding and Facing Our Fears.” Soon, their dread starts manifesting in the physical world as inky, tangible blobs. As the group try to uncover the app’s origins and ascertain how their terrors are becoming real, they must also find a way to keep the administration from deploying the program to the entire school. Uhrig (The Polter-Ghost Problem) keeps a steady pace and intertwines Lena’s encounters with her fear monsters with interpersonal worries surrounding her best friend Gina—now going by Regina—who’s “gone pretty” and started flirting with boys after returning from summer camp. Capably balanced humorous and heartfelt prose depicts kids finding the courage to face their demons, both internal and external. Ages 8–12. Agent: Ammi-Joan Paquette, Erin Murphy Literary. (July)

Publishers Weekly

2024-04-20
What’s a chronic worrier to do when a meditation app brings one’s fears to life?

Seventh grader Lena Lennox worries so much that she literally pulls her hair out, but some of her worries are well founded. Her strong-minded best friend, Regina, has “gone pretty” and turned boy-crazy. Her brisk, problem-solving mother shows little sympathy or patience for Lena’s mental health struggles. And when Lena and other anxiety-prone students from Cranberry Bog Middle School are chosen to test the De-stress-o-rama! mindfulness meditation app prior to schoolwide implementation, they discover that the section on facing your fears actually brings those terrors to life. Surprising herself, Lena, who’s white, rallies the racially diverse, self-dubbed Worriers into action—but can they protect the entire school? This book features hilariously wry metaphors, observations, and dialogue. Its sensitive portrayal of Lena’s struggles with navigating anxiety and relationships rings true. However, overall, the story grapples with its identity: There’s a mismatch in tone between the perceptive mental health theme and the humorous horror of the inexplicably incarnated fears and the kids’ cartoonworthy attempts to dispel them. In addition, the initial lengthy focus on Lena’s worries may lose readers who are in search of horror thrills. While the secondary characters are quirky and fun, especially Lena’s father and brother, the six Worriers besides Lena are thinly developed, and readers may find tracking them challenging.

A thoughtful anxiety story imperfectly dovetailed with a light horror romp. (character guide, author's note) (Horror. 10-13)

Kirkus Reviews