On a dark, stormy Halloween night a car breaks down and with the sound of wolves howling in the distance the frightened driver makes his trembling way on foot to the door of an old mansion on a hill.

How can the driver be so foolish?! Doesn't he know that there is usually a mad scientist lurking in a place like this? Maybe he doesn't know it because he is a pudgy little pig who happens to be a short-order cook named Sheldon. Maybe pigs don't get around much and he has never seen the movie Frankenstein. He steps between the two glowing jack-o-lanterns on the doorstep and knocks on the heavy door. No Sheldon...Don't do it! Too late...a trap door under his feet opens and he tumbles down a chute into the basement laboratory of the evil Doctor Vermin.

Strapped to an examination table, amidst explosions, flashes of light and the crazed exclamations of the mad doctor, the hapless pig is transformed into a monster pig many times his normal size. At first the doctor thinks he has complete control of Sheldon's mind and he plans to use Sheldon to rule the world! Mwah-ha-ha-ha-hah! Sheldon hides the fact that he is still in possession of his own mind. He tries to fake the mad scientist out but the doc is on to him.

They walked into a large kitchen, and Doctor Vermin reached into the refrigerator and pulled out a liverwurst sandwich. Sheldon had a strong dislike for liverwurst. He had always felt it had an appropriate name.
The doctor held out the sandwich and said, "Here, eat this."
"No, thanks," said Sheldon. "I'm not hungry."
"Curses!" shouted the doctor. "I knew you were faking! You're not under my spell at all! You're of no use to me! Get out, pig monster!"

Sheldon's not out of the woods yet. He meets up with two others who were once the experimental subjects of Doctor Vermin and the three of them work together to put a stop to his evil ways. Candy apples, wolves in human form and a talking mouse enter into the plot but you'll have to read this to a child to find out just how they all figure in the story. I will tell you that this is basically a story about facing one's fears and realizing that one's inner strength and courage might be stronger than one thinks.

Sheldon is a cute, likable character and this Halloween story is not the worst I've seen. Unfortunately, this book has only Sheldon going for it. The character of the mad Doctor Vermin looks like Wilford Brimley and thus is not one bit scary. The inside of the laboratory does not look scary. The storm-tossed path through the woods is not scary. Even a giant lumbering pig does not look scary. Get the idea? NOT SCARY...and this plot is one of the classic scary plots of all time. Not even the youngest of the 4-8 year old readership for whom it is intended will lose a moment's sleep over this dark mansion on a hill or its "evil" occupant. There is no good natured, silly, spooky part that might make it a memorable Halloween story. With a character like Wilford Brimley Vermin the reader can't even add flavor to him with a spooky voice. It's not scary, not funny, not fun.

The large illustrations found on every page are all very similar and are executed in ink and watercolor, using rather dull, uninteresting hues. The characters show little expression and little animation and do not engage the reader. The text is confined to the bottom 1/4 of each page and is no more than a few lines per page but it is very uninspired text. There is some tongue-in-cheek humor but it will probably not interest the intended readership very much. The only thing that interested the kids to whom I've read it is the part where Sheldon has trouble convincing anyone that there really is a wicked scientist and that was because I questioned them on how they thought he had disappeared.

This book is one of the many Halloween books that are checked out of libraries because so many people want a Halloween story at this time of year and the libraries only have so many available. People probably check this out because they're forced to take pot luck when the Halloween books get too picked over. This will please your children as any story read to them by a loving adult will please them. It will not fascinate them. If his illustrations had been great, Tim Egan, the author of this book might have been able to sneak the weak plot by some children. As it is, he loses them after Sheldon's initial transformation to Monster Pig. His plot becomes convoluted and trails off into being vaguely preachy. Not good.

Tim Egan has written and illustrated many books featuring Sheldon and various other pigs and cows in human adventures and from the ratings I've seen on Amazon they might be better than this one. I give The Experiments of Doctor Vermin two stars because it started out pretty well and Sheldon is kind of cute...and believe me, there are worse Halloween stories with even dumber plots and characters, but still, I can't recommend it.





Recommended: No