"But what starts out as a classic bit of detectivating quickly becomes weirder than they could have imagined. Who is the ghost in the attic? What's their history teacher doing with a time machine? And why do a crazy bunch of Vikings seem to think Mildew is a werewolf?"
The story starts off OK, but man does it get way better! Witty, funny and very engaging, great read for bedtime with your little ones.

I was unable to read this one to completion due to formatting problems with the eARC. However, I did enjoy the 20ish% I read and based my rating off of that.

Witty, Funny, and Much More Engaging Than Expected

If you were to read the blurbs for this book, and the first few chapters, you would be justified in expecting the tale to be a good but fairly standard and predictable British boarding school comedy. That's fine as it goes, and fair enough. It turns out, though, that the story has much more to it than expected, including a clever, devilishly twisty, and yet still fast paced and clear mystery/detectivating plot.

At first we just follow our heroes, Mildew, (the brighter and more confident one), and Sponge, (who starts out a bit dim and queasy but bucks up). This is a classic double act pairing reminiscent of Laurel and Hardy and the like. Fine. Mildew gets most of the best deadpan lines and throwaway bits, but Sponge is more than just a straight man, and he gets to puncture Mildew whenever Mildew goes off a bit too far. We meet the masters and students of Maudlin Towers, and there are many set pieces and bits of business that establish the school daze groundwork. Priestly goes big and exaggerated on a lot of this, which is amusing and likely to be engaging for a younger middle grade reader.

The humor here is rarely edgy, but if you like deadpan observations, and sly little quips and throwaway lines, then this will do nicely. Nothing here is ironic or mean spirited, and the author doesn't mock the genre. So this isn't farts and underpants stuff; it's smarter and more satisfying than that.

But wait. This isn't just school daze. The "School Spoon" has been stolen and unless it's found all will be punish-ed. Here's where the detectivating starts. MAJOR SPOILER. Not much later in, a time travel contraption comes on the scene. The boys are now traveling back and forth among eras, (always in the same geographic location, of course), trying to solve the spoon problem and a wide variety of other loose ends that have popped up here and there. This is the beautiful part - Mildew dismisses the time travel paradox and all of those tedious time travel complications as "nonsense", and so do we. The boys are free to gambol about, meeting and remeeting themselves at will, and changing history and stomping on butterflies wherever they encounter them, and yet it still all makes sense.

Amazingly, by the end everything makes sense and every odd loose end, (there are at least a dozen or two, including many you didn't realize were loose ends until the final scenes), is tied up nicely. And, (MILD SPOILER), it may be a comfort to those of you who are less then enamored of werewolf angles, that that is just a small and rather incidental part of the larger tale.

So, bright and funny heroes, a zipping plot with plenty of Marx Brothers style dashing about, and a satisfying conclusion. Just an excellent and amusing middle grade find.

(Please note that I received a free advance ecopy of this book without a review requirement, or any influence regarding review content should I choose to post a review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)

4.5/5 only because the formatting was so messed up on my Kindle and it was difficult to read.

I have had this book on my Kindle shelf for a while now and was super in the mood for a quirky Middle Grade so I decided to pick it up without even reading the synopsis. At first, I definitely wasn't too fond of the writing style. I even considered DNF-ing because I was worried the plot wasn't going to capture my full attention. However, I continued on and soon fell in LOVE with the characters and story. Anything time travel is up my alley so right when that part of the story came into play, I was hooked.

I really didn't like the way Mildew talked down to Sponge at first, but I'm so glad that was addressed and changed throughout the story. The humor in this story was hard for me to grasp at first, but I actually caught myself chuckling a bit through the second half. I always judge children's and middle grade books by if I would let/want my little brother and nephews reading them. While I do find this level of humor may not get entirely passed onto to younger children, I do this it's a very enjoyable story. I should also add, I found it funny that the title of the book doesn't really make sense until almost halfway through. I kept checking that I got sent the correct file! I assumed this one would mention something about time travel since that's the main focus of the story, but I still think the title is cute and catching.

I will say, I began reading this on Kindle and the version I was given was formatted so unfortunately, I could barely understand it. All the illustrations and same letters were missing. It was very odd and I actually attest my inability to get into the story to the formatting on Kindle. I switched around 25% of the way through to a version I downloaded on my laptop. It wasn't the most comfy reading situation, but it was better than not getting to read half the book.

Mildew and Sponge attend the prestigious boarding school within Maudlin Towers, which is as boring as it is grotesque. But when the prized School Spoon goes missing, Mildew decides to put his detecting skills to the test, with Sponge close behind. Vikings, suspicious school masters, a ghost in the tower, and a series of secrets await them as they brave the mysterious and the unknown.

Zinging dialogue and dry humor spin a hilarious mystery/adventure story where the clues are purposefully none-too-subtle but the twists and unbelievable turns keep you guessing at what will happen next. Mildew and Sponge face down werewolves, time travel, ghosts, their terrifying headmaster, and much more before the story reaches its conclusion.

Retaining oldschool charm that matches the quaint boarding school setting, <i>Curse of the Werewolf Boy</i> sports an impressive vocabulary and subtle humor that will appeal to fans of Terry Pratchett or Neil Gaiman's <i>Fortunately, the Milk</i>.

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The opinions and comments I share about this story are my own.

I adore this book! Mildew and Sponge attend Maudlin Towers, the creepiest boys' school around. Someone has stolen the famed School Spoon, and when the Headmaster threatens to cancel the Christmas holidays until the thief is properly punished, Mildew and Sponge spring into action to solve the crime of the missing trophy. However, they find werewolves, ghosts, a time machine, and curious Vikings standing in their way.

I'll be sending this title to our collection development librarian. It's so good!