Think Amityville Horror
with a happy ending—the bedeviled family ends up enjoying the good life on an Acapulco beach—and that pretty much sums up this vibrantly imagined if bumpily executed debut work. The Fell family is forced to share their home with a junior devil ("He came with the house. He was nothing but trouble"). Sick of his shenanigans—which include waterskiing down the stairs, tethered to the cat—the Fells strike a deal with the officious, mysterious and completely green Ms. Phisto, only to have things get much, much worse (hence the title). Hale's acrylics offer a comical take on the underworld (younger readers may find the pictures a bit too vivid). He's clearly had great fun detailing the Walpurgisnacht that envelopes the house with Ms. Phisto's arrival; the book's visual tour de force is a spread devoted to a sizzling Disneyland for demons (aka "Devil's Playground"), complete with an attraction called "Hot Seat." What's missing is another kind of magic: a sense of narrative rhythm. The book feels crammed with incident, but the drama never builds. Consequently, the denouement arrives with a soft thud, despite Hale's considerable visual talents. Ages 4-7. (Sept.)
