Shiver-by-the-Sea: Bella and the vampire by Erin Dionne, illustrated by Jenn Harney

I've read and purchased some of Dionne's work in the past, but I don't recall how this ended up on my to-be-read list. I had planned to just quickly skim through it, and didn't think I'd get into the story because it looked very "quirky" but for some reason it really clicked for me.

After a brief first chapter, showing a group of teen boys having a mildly spooky encounter at the abandoned movie theater with a "under new management" sign, the story begins in chapter two with the arrival of the "new management." Bella Gosi and her mom have moved from New York to live with her uncle Van and renovate and reopen the movie theater. Bella misses her former life and worries she won't make any friends, but is reluctantly helping her mom when Cooper (younger brother of one of the teen boys) shows up. They are getting along together when they open an old box and discover... a bat.

Which turns into a young vampire. Bram drinks sugar, not blood, and while he doesn't like the sun he doesn't burst into flames. More importantly, he's lost. Like Bella, his family recently moved, but from much farther away. Bella and Cooper try to work together to help Bram get back home, but after a series of disasters, some funnier than others, they'll need to get some grown-up help - and they'll also discover there's real magic in Shiver-by-the-Sea.

This is more goofy than scary, with some heartfelt moments and an amusing trickle of magic winding through. It's a quick read, at under 200 pages, with black and white illustrations, but doesn't feel like a beginning chapter to me. There's an underlying plot of the small town overshadowed by development as well as the theme of home and family.

Verdict: Hand this to kids who like gentle stories with just a frisson of spooky and magic. It's funny, sweet, and should appeal to fans of the Megabat series.

ISBN: 9781645951674; Published August 2023 by Pixel and Ink; Borrowed from another library in my consortium