The Introduction to Raven Pass is reminiscent of the classic introduction of “THE TWILIGHT ZONE”. It put you on edge and makes your skin crawl.

A middle school math test is about to begin. Three friends,  Jimmy with a C-, Mia, and Andrew with a perfect A grade, have just decided to cheat. Their teacher ” Mrs. Huckle won’t catch us.” The following day, Mrs. Huckle is absent, but her substitute teacher, Mr. Smith, returns their test papers. The three friend each get an A, “no one else got better than a C.” Mr. Smith is creepy in speech, appearance, and action.

Saturday night while Andrew is doing math homework, his book attacks him before bursting into flames. Mia is watching a horror movie by herself, when the movie changes to a different B&W show in which Mr. Smith is cooking a dinner for guests. Mr. Smith goes into the kitchen to pull a burnt roast out of the oven, but instead, it is Mia’s head. Jimmy is practicing his electric guitar.  The guitar and amp shock Jimmy and then the amp booms with increasingly louder and louder feedback.  The three friends decide they most confess to put an end to the creepiness of Mr. Smith. Andrew gets to Mrs. Huckle’s house first and confesses. It turns out Mrs. Huckle began all of this mess by reciting a spell to get a fair deal for her car repair, in which she feels she was cheated.

Mr. Smith prevents Mia and Jimmy from arriving at Mrs. Huckle’s house to confess. “We’re going to confess,” said Jimmy. “we’re going to tell her we cheated on the math exam, so she can forgive us. Then you can go back to whatever dimension you came from.”

All, but two chapters, have a full page B&W illustration, which definitely adds to the creepiness!

Includes: 3 Discussion Questions and 3 Writing Prompts.