The Notebook of Doom: Subject - Chomp of the Meat-Eating Vegetables by Troy Cummings, 90 pp, RL 2

The Notebook of Doom by Troy Cummings is part of a new line of books (seven series and counting) from Scholastic called Branches that has been selling like hotcakes at the bookstore where I work. The books in the Branches imprint are exactly what I have been looking for all these years of helping customers and my own children make that leap from leveled readers to chapter books. Now, with the Branches books, this developmental step doesn't have to be a leap. As their mission statement reads, the goal of the Branches books is to nurture independent readers by "bridging the gap between leveled readers and traditional chapter books." Having read a book in each of the new series, I can guarantee you that they are definitely bridging this gap. The Notebook of Doom is the perfect mix of silly and scary (one review of this series used the word "horrorlarity") that kids at this age seem to love. When Alexander Bopp, son of a dentist,