Thank you to Lassiter Williams and @netgalley for a free copy of this ARC.

All 11 year- old Cody Seltzer wants is to be normal. He loves sketching, but his tattooed, skate boarding, movie-quoting parents have other ideas. In fact his entire city neighborhood likes to fly the freak flag extra high. It’s always quirky, but one day Cody discovers creeping, crawling shadows making bad things happen all over his neighborhood vandalizing mural art, uprooting gardens, and disrupting the community Halloween celebration.

Cody feels he is the only one who can see these shadows as everyone else is distracted by the fun, distracting video game challenges coming from their cell phones. In a show of resilience, he turns to a weird blend of old and new friends to figure out how to stop the creeping craziness and “get the flow back”. His worries of weirdness begin to heal as he works to save his lively, unique world.

I wanted to love this book more than I actually ended up doing. I enjoyed the characterisation in the story and thought that the messages around friendships, being yourself and supporting each other through adversity were great but for me it just fell a little flat as the storyline dragged a little and the mystery was held onto for too long and when revealed was a tad confusing and underwhelming. Overall a good read but just slightly disappointing.

This was a fun creepy read that my students will love! I am always looking for kid-friendly spooky books for Halloween and for my kiddos who enjoy horror, but there isn't much in the genre that I feel comfortable with putting in my classroom. Cody Seltzer is definitely one that I think will be a classroom favorite!

I received an advance copy. All thoughts are my own.

this was such an interesting book! i am so thankful to netgalley for letting me read this one early! such an amazing plot and characters!! blew me away!!!

I enjoyed it and think that children will love it as it's an unusual book featuring unusual characters.
Enjoyable and entertaining.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this arc, all opinions are mine

This is a very cute and fun Halloween story. It is obviously meant for younger readers but it is also a good pick for older readers who prefer their spooky stories to be more on the lighthearted side. Recommended.

This wasn’t quite what I was expecting, and while it was good in its own right, there wasn’t nearly enough spookiness for me to enjoy.

Cody Seltzer and the Creeping Shadows wasn’t exactly what I expected. And really realizing I wasn’t the right audience for this book. Early middle/middle school would love this. Especially if they love creepy. For me though? It wasn’t my type of spooky. It does take place on Halloween! And that’s why I still love it! Books about Halloween are hard to find at times. Thanks NetGalley for letting me read this! #CodySeltzerandtheCreepingShadows #NetGalley

This is a cute tale with some original twists and a lovely message....especially around the upcoming season, since this takes place around Halloween.

Cody is uncomfortable with his life, or rather, his surroundings. His parents are original enough, but since his entire neighborhood dances to their own tune, it's hard not to feel embarrassed when trying to get 'normal' kids to be his friends. As Cody tries to work around all of this, his artwork takes a strange turn. As everything he creates grows darker, shadows start popping up and wrecking havoc, but then, the growing problems in the neighborhood might also be due to a new video game. Either way, something sinister must be at play, and someone has to stop it.

While I was hoping for a spooky, or at least, somewhat Halloween-ish atmosphere read, this tale takes a turn into social issues instead. So, this already had me a little disappointed and probably skewed the rest of the read for me.

That said, there's quite a bit of good aspects about this read. It builds in various issues, while adding a dose of humor and hint of dark spooks. Cody has a lot to work out, mostly as he learns to accept those around him and not bend to whatever an ideal 'normal' would be just to fit in. There are some friendship highs and lows, and a little bit of mystery as well as tension built in. Plus, there's always something happening with several subplots twisting and turning, too.

While all of this makes it an enjoyable read, there were some aspects which made it stumble now and then. The heavy use of colors seemed to have an importance in the beginning but waned off as the book continued. There was the over use of using complete name descriptions, when this wasn't necessary. Then, there's the eerie hint at the problems Cody's artwork might be unleashing (think paranormal), but this remains pretty much unexplored by the end.

Still, it's an enjoyable read with unexpected moments and fun characters for those, who want to explore the issues of acceptance and such in an entertaining way.

Cody Seltzer is eleven years old and is looking forward to spending Halloween night with his new friends from his soccer team, Jaio and Aiden. His parents are a little on the eccentric side, covered in tattoos. His dad carried a surfboard through the neighborhood as his Halloween costume and his mom crochets bats!
Cody loves to draw but begins to notice that although he is using vivid colors, his drawings end up looking dark and gray. On Halloween night, he notices that creepy shadows are about and are not just being shadowy but are causing mischief in his town of West Adelfi. Can Cody and his friends solve the mystery of the creepy shadows? With mayhem and mischief, the children form bonds of friendship.
The characters in this spooky middle grade book are very likable. It was fast paced and I really enjoyed reading it.

All Cody Seltzer wants is to be normal, but his tattooed, skate-boarding parents have other ideas. In fact his entire city neighborhood likes being a little... different. Then one day Cody discovers creeping, crawling shadows that are making bad things happen all over his neighborhood, and Cody is the only one who can see them. To help save his neighborhood, he needs to choose between trying to be "normal", or joining his people as a "weirdo".

Written for an elementary/middle school audience, this book would captivate its audience. It has fun new terms like "boogersnarf" that will have children laughing. The book itself was written well and the beginning had the promise for a great story. I felt the ending didn't quiet match up to the tone if the reat of the book though. I liked the message of the book, family and friendships matter above all else and be yourself!

I rate this book as 3.5 🌟!

I'd like to say a huge thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for an ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

#readingchallenge #reading2022 #fallreading2022 #booklover #bookworm #bookwormlife #booksofinstagram #bookstagram #netgalley #readinggoals #codyseltzerandthecreepingshadows #lassiterwilliams #lassiterwilliamsbooks

I read this to a group of children and expected it to be more Halloween spooky than it actually was. They enjoyed the book and interacted and questioned some of the main themes but generally they would not particularly like me to read it again.

Another miss for me on every level and I cannot recommend this to parents of middle schoolers. The characters were unrelatable, the plot was ridiculous, and the "moral" was poorly written.

Cody Seltzer and the Creeping Shadows is a story set on halloween and then the days following it. I went into this expecting creepy shadows and spooky going ons but unfortunately that isn't what happens.

When the story initially starts out we are given insight into Cody's current situation. He lives in a strange town outside a big city where everyone embraces their weird and differences and welcomes all, plus they love going all out for Halloween! But little Cody just wants to be normal and have normal friends. He looks up to his older brother and envies his friends from the other side of the river, his normal soccer friends. Then he starts drawing these creepy shadows into his pictures that he doesn't understand why they are there and then the town starts to be vandalized and no one knows why.

To start with I was very unsatisfied with the role Wyatt, Cody's older brother played. He was talked about so much in this book, but we only got 3 interactions with him in total, and it felt like such a waste, especially when you find out how he is connected to what is going on in their little town. It would have been nice to have more interactions connecting him to everything. (Also his age needs to be addressed at the start of the story he is 17 and in the middle he is 16). Cody's parents are another piece that when initially introduced i was like "hey these guys are cool" they both have tattoos but the moms are shared in detail and this is pretty much never seen in middle grade books, she was also the standard idle type of an activist down to owning a bookstore that only sold self help books and those new age living guidebooks, she also liked to force people out of their comfort zones.. The dad is very unconventional himself, his best friend is the town squatter, he thinks he is a teenager still and is just that personification of "im a cool dad". But after while it got old because it was always brought up, especially with the mom and it lost its initial cool factor that i was digging.

I felt very indifferent about Cody, on one hand I can understand the want to be "normal" but what I hated was how quickly he was willing to insult and try to ditch his best friend all because he liked things to be in a certain order at all times, that was just too weird for Cody. Cody isn't a bad character just makes some very poor choices, he has his moments of wanting to give up and his little friend circle that he created through the story are decent. I did like that school bully slowly turned out to not actually be a bad kid, just unusual.

The story itself has some issues, there were lots of moments where it felt like the word count was being forced to met a certain goal, such as the focus on color names, it was chrome oxide green, or rotting mauve and such, it was something that started very heavily in the start of the story but then just kind of died off towards the end. When the evil villain was finally introduced his whole name and position was used after every line he gave, I just ended up reading his first name after a while and skipped the last plus title, like I got it the first time. The creeping shadows are never explained and kind of die off at the end, they have no real connection to the over all story, and the explanation of "the Flow" feels poorly handled as well. I just barely understand what it's trying to say. I feel the story got lost trying to address so many different topics, accepting one's self and others for who they are, spending less time on video games and social media, corporate take over, after a while it just didn't feel like a spooky halloween tale anymore.

One of my persona biggest issues, which maybe its because im adult, but I like to put myself in my child goggles when I read middle grade books, but the name calling was just terrible in this, we got boogerbucket, boogerwidget, boogersnarfs, you see a trend here? I have a 13 yr old child and when she was 11 she was never making name calling like this. it made the MC feel even younger than what he was.

Overall Cody Seltzer and the Creeping Shadows was a decent story but don't expect spooky halloween shenanigans.

What an excellent Autumn adventure for middle grade readers. Cody Seltzer and the Creeping Shadows takes place in the time between Halloween and Thanksgiving and centers around the family of Cody Seltzer and their lives in West Adelfi. Which I assume is based on West Philadelphia. Their neighborhood is bohemian and eclectic causing Cody to be embarrassed by how un "normal" everyone is when his soccer friends from across the river come to Trick or Treat. I believe my favorite character is the friend of Cody's dad, the eccentric dumpster diving squatter anarchist- Ralph Waldo Jones.
This book has a lot of good qualities, and is exhorted in values of community and beating your own drum. I didn't understand why the extensive use of color theory was used in the beginning, and why it tapered off. Was it replaced by Sweeties musical references? There is also a paranormal essence with the shadows in his drawings that is started in the beginning but never explained in the end.

Thank you to Net Galley for providing me with this novel for a fair and honest review.

Cody's neighborhood is an embarrassment. Everyone is weird and artsy and has tattoos or colored hair. They do a bang up job of Halloween, however, so he figures this is his best shot to win over his crosstown, soccer-playing friends Aiden and Jiao. The pressure is on for him to make his family and friends seem as "normal" as possible. All ends well. His friends have a great time and want to visit again.

But things are going awry in his town. Cody's artwork is getting darker. Classmate Sweetie's music is losing its flow. Creeping shadows are skulking around. Vandalism is on the rise. Aiden is convinced it has something to do with a popular video game called Kama's Game. It's so addicting that people are willing to do crazy stuff to get points and level up. They don't even notice their town falling apart around them. It's up to four kids to figure out what's going on and restore order.

I didn't much like this book. I thought it was going to be a scary book about Halloween and ghosts. Instead it's a statement about societal woes. Our society has much to be concerned about. I just don't like the way this book handles it. Yes, we need to be concerned about video game addiction and it's affect on creativity. Yes, we need to accept everyone, tattoos and all. Yes, we need to be concerned about the plight of the small business owner. But this book throws it all in your face in an overly dramatic, and at the same time, nonsensical way. It starts off kind of cute, but by the end the plot has spiraled out of control. I just don't think kids will go for it.

Cody just wants to be normal, in spite of everything that his parents put on him and his brother. One day as he is "grumpy drawing" his mom notices that his sketches are getting darker, and creepier and it's not like Cody to draw this way. In fact, the more that Cody sketches the weirder things get where he lives in West Adelfi. Cody and his band of friends, Jiao, Aden, Sweetie, and Zeke, go out and try to find what's disrupting the "flow" of West Adelfi, uncovering a weird plan to take over the city via a game.

This was a wonderful little story, perfect for those middle grader kiddos to read during the fall time. Each character's development was wonderful. In the beginning, Jiao and Aiden are rude and unlikeable but develop into wonderful friends for Cody. As most 11-year-olds are he is incredibly embarrassed by his parents who are tattooed and skateboard, calling them dude instead of being "normal" parents. As the story progressed you got to see more of why he felt embarrassed by the simple things that his parents did, sympathizing with him more. I think it was slightly adolescent as I don't hear 11-year-olds saying boogersnarf, but it wasn't terrible. I also found the book to be repetitive. Repeating the same person's name in full Stanley Mara, CEO as if he isn't the only one in the book. I would read this again around Halloween. It is just a cute little story.

Cody Seltzer and the Creeping Shadows by Lassiter Williams tells the story of an 11-year-old boy who struggles to define himself in opposition to his unique family. Cody’s parents are inked, skateboard riding rebels who live in West Adelfi, a section of the city that is full of funky houses, shops, and schools. When Cody joins the soccer team in the mainstream part of town and begins hanging around with “normal” kids, he worries that he will be judged by his quirky family and neighborhood.

Supernatural elements work to convey the author’s themes about acceptance, inclusion, and the evils of gentrification. Shadows begin to creep into his Cody’s art, upsetting the flow of his creative energies. Then, real-life shadows begin to vandalize the murals of West Adelfi, and Cody sets out to uncover the mysteries of these shadows with the help of new and old friends.

The novel begins on Halloween which adds a spooky tone to a story rich with themes of fairness and harmony. The lessons are heavy-handed but will work well to stimulate discussions about individuality, friendship, creativity, and personal responsibility in the target audience. Overall, a quick and fun read!

Thank you to NetGalley for a free copy of the book in exchange for a fair review.

Cody Seltzer is a kid who loves drawing and hanging out with his older brother and best friend, but everything starts to go wrong on Halloween. His brother grows distant, he starts to see shadows out of the corners of his eyes, and disaster begins to strike the community in the form of vandalism.
I have a lot of good things to say about this book. I sympathized a lot with Cody and what he was struggling with internally, the need to feel liked by his new “normal” friends, and that longing for normalcy in such a strange family. He felt embarrassed by many things that were normal to him but not to others, e.g. not having a phone, having parents covered in tattoos, and a few other things. I think his character went through a lot of growth by the end of the book. This book also had a variety of characters that I thoroughly enjoyed reading about. Zeke and Sweetie were amongst my favorites, and the dynamics each character had with each other were a lot of fun to read. I also loved the incorporation of color names that Cody uses to describe things!
I was a bit confused about how the creeping shadows had a part to play in this, and whether it was a metaphor or if there was something paranormal going on, but that could just be me. Overall, I had a great time reading this book!

(Thank you to NetGalley for letting me read this in exchange for an honest opinion)

An lighthearted and slightly creepy, but on the fun side, Halloween story about growing up and finding where you fit in. Lots and laughs and Halloween terror to be had.

I’m so glad I went into this book completely blind. I love that the themes of community, togetherness and uniqueness are rampant in this book and I think that anyone of any age can use a lesson in being kind and respectful of those around you. I was expecting creepiness and in a way, it was. And that’s solely because being consumed by our phones screens and our own daily lives long enough to pay attention what everyone else is going through, is something that hits close to him in todays society. .