Heck : Where the Bad Kids Go (Circles of Heck Series #1) Book

WHEN MILTON AND Marlo Fauster die in a marshmallow bear explosion, they get sent straight to Heck, an otherworldly reform school. Milton can understand why his kleptomaniac sister is here, but Milton is—or was—a model citizen. Has a mistake been made? Not according to Bea “Elsa” Bubb, the Principal of Darkness. She doesn’t make mistakes. She personally sees to it that Heck—whether it be home-ec class with Lizzie Borden, ethics with Richard Nixon, or gym with Blackbeard the Pirate—is especially, well, heckish for the Fausters. Will Milton and Marlo find a way to escape? Or are they stuck here for all eternity, or until they turn 18, whichever comes first?

Publishers Weekly

In his uproarious send-up of all things purgatorial, debut novelist Basye gives readers a new lease on afterlifes. Milton, a blameless 11-year-old bookworm, and his "blue-haired, thirteen-going-on-thirty-year-old" sister, Marlo, are at the Mall of Generica (in Generica, Kans.), when they meet their demise in a ludicrous accident (Milton's nemesis plants a stick of dynamite in a 20-foot-tall statue made from marshmallow: "Smoke, noise, and burning marshmallow fused together to create a sickeningly sweet moment, one that was both ridiculously tragic and tragically ridiculous"). Unfortunately, Marlo has been shoplifting and stashed her goods in Milton's gear, so both get sent to Heck-a hell for the under-18 demographic. Never mind that Milton is technically innocent: "The devil's in the details," snaps Heck's principal, Bea "Elsa" Bubb. After a series of ill-fated yet deliciously documented attempts to escape, one sibling succeeds in returning from the Underworld, but the finale is almost beside the point. The author's umpteen clever allusions-characters' eternal fates are decided by standardized "Soul Aptitude Tests"; Mr. R. Nixon teaches ethics to evildoers in room 1972-make this book truly sparkle. Ages 9-12. (July)