Hide by Kiersten White

 

     

           Hide by Kiersten White - 240 pages 

The challenge: spend a week hiding in an abandoned amusement park and don't get caught.

The prize: enough money to change everything.

Even though everyone is desperate to win--to seize their dream futures or escape their haunting pasts--Mack feels sure that she can beat her competitors. All she has to do is hide, and she's an expert at that.

It's the reason she's alive, and her family isn't.

But as the people around her begin disappearing one by one, Mack realizes this competition is more sinister than even she imagined, and that together might be the only way to survive.

Fourteen competitors. Seven days. Everywhere to hide, but nowhere to run.

          

          While the idea of this book was promising I found the middle to be a bit boring and hard to get                through, however, it came together in the end.  

One Day at HorrorLand (Goosebumps #16) by R.L. Stine

One Day at HorrorLand (Goosebumps #16) by R.L. Stine-123 pages

I am enjoying reading the Goosebumps series for this month's challenge. In this one, Lizzy, Luke, Clay and their parents are traveling to Zoo Gardens Theme Park. However, they get lost along the way and forgot to pack a map. After hours of being lost, they stumble upon a menacing sign that reads "Welcome to HorrorLand: Where Nightmares Come to Life." The kids persuaded their parents to go to the park since they couldn't find Zoo Gardens. As soon as they park in the parking lot and get out of their car, their car explodes. The family all soon realizes that the park is very scary and it could be evil. While in the park, Lizzy, Clay, and Luke ride the Doom Slide, visit the House of Mirrors, and go through the Bat Barn among other things. Although, as they find out, these aren't your normal rides and attractions! Horrors attend the park and seem like very real monsters. Signs (and the Horrors) say that one never escapes HorrorLand. Are the signs a joke or does no one really ever leave? Will they escape HorrorLand?!

Where is Walt Disney World? by Joan Holub

Where is Walt Disney World?  by Joan Holub, 108 pages

This is a juvenile nonfiction book, but it is really for readers of all ages.  The book contains the entire history of Walt Disney World and covers the history of each of the parks: Magic Kingdom, EPCOT, Hollywood Studios, and Animal Kingdom.  The book also covers new attractions and hidden mickeys.  It is also includes how the different parks were built and behind the scenes of the daily operation of Disney World.

Joyland, by Stephen King

Joyland, by Stephen King, 283 pages

Devin Jones is spending his summer vacation working as a carny in a small amusement park.  He is recovering from a broken heart, finding out more about the park's alleged ghost, and overall having the summer that will define him for the rest of his life.  King is the master of nostalgia pieces, which is how I would best describe this- although mystery and ghost story would also apply.  Not a bad story, but not my favorite and not a work that best typifies Stephen King.