Ghosthunters and the Incredibly Revolting Ghost!

Cornelia Caroline Funke's Ghosthunters and the Incredibly Revolting Ghost is a spooky, giggly adventure for 7 year olds about a boy who meets a ghost in the cellar.

What happens

Tom is having one of his days. His jeans are knotted, he's brushed his teeth with Mum's face cream and he's spilled cocoa down his jumper (his big sister Lola thinks it's hilarious). Then Mum sends him down to the cellar for orange juice.

The lightbulb explodes. The door clicks shut. And something with green eyes and icy fingers grabs him in the dark!

Of course nobody believes him. Lola laughs her head off and Dad says he's got an overactive imagination. Only Grandma listens properly. She sends him to her friend Hetty Hyssop, who knows a LOT about ghosts.

Hetty is brilliant. Her whole flat is red and full of mirrors. It's an Averagely Spooky Ghost, she says, a perfectly routine job. Then she tells him he'll be getting rid of it himself.

So at eleven at night Tom creeps downstairs dressed all in red. He's got a hot water bottle up his T-shirt, a mirror round his neck, a raw egg and some Mozart. Can you picture it?

Then the ghost starts to sob. His name is Hugo, and a much nastier ghost has blown him right out of his own home. Suddenly Tom is on Hugo's side, and things get a lot more dangerous.

The fun is in how real Tom's fear feels next to how daft the ghosts can be. Hugo moans, sulks and leaves slime everywhere (the grumpy caretaker makes Tom scrub the stairs until three in the morning). There's a night flight out of a window too, and a graveyard full of tiny giggling ghosts.

If your reader has ever been sure there was something in the dark that the grown-ups couldn't see, they'll be right behind Tom.

Worth knowing before you hand it over

The opening is properly scary. The ghost grabs Tom by the throat in a pitch-black cellar, and afterwards he lies awake for three nights with his heart pounding. He also sneaks out of the flat at night with pillows stuffed under his covers.

A very nervous reader might like to share those first pages at bedtime. If your reader likes their ghosts slimy and a bit silly, they'll have a great time.

What to read next

If this one goes down well, Ghosthunters and the Totally Moldy Baroness sends Tom, Hetty and Hugo to a stormy old castle where the saucepans fly through the air.