Hush-a-Bye

July 1, 2021
A doll's head mysteriously helps two sisters deal with their school bullies--until its evilness becomes uncontrollable. Lucy and her younger sister, Antonia, live in a trailer with their waitress mom, which leads mean girls at their middle school to taunt Lucy with the nickname Trash Licker. Lucy tries to keep her head down and stay quiet, but Antonia is different. When the pair find an old doll's head by the river, Antonia demands to keep it. She names it Hush-a-bye, talks to it, and tells Lucy that it talks back. Wary at first, Lucy begins to believe after impossible things happen to those who have wronged the sisters, and Antonia says that the doll is responsible. However, Lucy soon realizes that Hush-a-bye has its own desires and will stop at nothing to get what it wants, no matter who gets hurt in the process. Creepy dolls are a horror staple, and Hush-a-bye fits right in. The full extent of her scariness is only exposed in the climactic finale; before that point, Lucy and Antonia's realistic sibling relationship propels the story, and it's the everyday cruelty of other kids that is most frightening. An abusive absent father is mentioned but doesn't play any substantial role, so this element feels underexplored. Main characters are cued as White; Lucy's favorite teacher is a gay man, and Antonia is possibly neurodiverse. A winning combination of sisterhood, school, and a spooky doll. (Horror. 8-12)

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Starred review from August 1, 2021

Gr 4-8-Is there anything creepier than a possessed doll? How about one that begins as a cracked and dirty head with a single gleaming green eye but does not end that way. One that whispers to Antonia and Lucy, and can makes things happen-bad things. Lucy and Antonia are sisters, but they are very different. Lucy lives her life in middle school by her personal code, which means she talks to no one and keeps her head low to avoid the bullies and whispers. Antonia walks to the beat of her own drum and collects odds and ends that she finds including Hush-a-bye, the doll head found on the riverbank. As the school year starts, Antonia insists that Hush-a-bye speaks to her. At first Lucy doesn't believe her. But as time passes she can no longer ignore the events that keep happening whenever the doll is around. She can't ignore the whispers she begins to hear, or the growing danger as Hush-a-bye changes and her missing parts appear slowly, making her whole and more powerful. Can Lucy save Antonia from the lure of the doll? Or will she be too late to save both of them? Mott's deft prose and well-written characters will keep readers engaged from start to frightening finish. VERDICT An age-appropriate, scary tale of sisters and the terrifying doll that haunts them. This is the perfect read for people who love the chill of terror running down their backs. -Elizabeth Speer, Weatherford Coll., TX

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