Werewolf Bram is back for his second adventure at the Villains Academy, where he and his classmates are learning to be bad. New teacher Felix Frostbite, a famous dragon rider, has garnered the adulation of many students; even Master Mardybum seems in awe. Frostbite promises to teach a specially selected group of students how to ride dragons—but something about him seems off to Bram. Bram and his friends—witch Mona, lion Bryan, ghost Sheila, and skeleton Tony—self-titled the Weirdoughs, soon uncover Frostbite’s nefarious plot to rid the school of the dragons guarding it. Can they stop him in time?
As with the first volume of this chapter book series, there’s a lot of silliness here, from the names for characters (“Whiz Warmbottom, the teacher of Villainous Qualities”) to expressions like “Thank badness” (not goodness). Bram is an engaging protagonist with a penchant for woolly sweaters and a desire to please his two dads, whom he says are “super bad” (though we don’t actually see them or know what that entails). Other characters are each a little over the top in the best of ways.
Author/illustrator Ryan Hammond’s sketches of the action add fun to the volume, although it is not as fully illustrated as a picture book.
There’s a whiff of that other magic-school series in this one (Felix Frostbite has a bit of Gilderoy Lockhart about him), but delightfully turned on its head and geared to a younger audience. Light lessons about friendship and cooperation are balanced with fart jokes to create a story that should please both newly independent readers and their adults.
The publisher is calling this a middle grade book, but I really see it as a chapter book (it’s a very early middle grade title, if that), so I’m tagging it as both.
