Schiffer Publishing reached out to me with a fun little series that originally was let loose in 2003 and came back in 2013. Since it has a Valentine’s Day book in the series I thought now would be a good time to lay these guys on you. We’re talking about Dreary & Naughty.
The series focuses on its two main characters, Dreary (son of the Grim Reaper) and Naughty (daughter of the Devil). Both of them are in high school and the books focus on the sort of issues you face during those years, such as deciding what to do with your life, romantic rivalry, and feelings of ostracization. All of this is written by John LaFleur…..in rhyme. The books are all illustrated adorably by Shawn Dubin. The Dreary & Naughty books are like children’s picture books, for teenagers and adults. It may seem odd, but it works.
The first book in the series is “The Misadventures of Dreary & Naughty” and the third book is “Dreary & Naughty: The ABC’s of Being Dead”. Like I said, with Valentine’s Day being here, I thought we should focus on the second book, “Dreary & Naughty: Friday the 13th of February”.
I don’t want to give too much away, but we start with it being Friday the 13th of February, the day before Valentine’s Day. Dreary and Naughty are best friends. It almost goes without saying, but the teenage daughter of the Devil, Naughty, is smoking hot. Sometimes literally. Dreary, being an introverted skeleton, is not a big hit with the ladies. In fact, he didn’t receive a single Valentine’s card from anyone. Yet Naughty, despite the tail and horns, is rolling in cards from admirers.
This creates some tension between the friends. We see Dreary working hard to finish his gift for Naughty for their Valentine’s Day date. Does Naughty get her act together in time to let Dreary know how much he means to her? There’s only one way to find out!
Oh man–this is my kind of Valentine’s story!