A Tangle of Spells

Michelle Harrison's A Tangle of Spells is a spooky family adventure for 9 year olds about three sisters whose new home has been sealed up against something.

What happens

Betty Widdershins and her sisters Fliss and Charlie are leaving the damp island of Crowstone for good. Betty is thrilled. Fliss cries as they leave (and is then sick three times on the boat). Charlie is mainly worried about the grumpy pub cat, who chases the wagon and comes too.

Then they see Blackbird Cottage. It's filthy, the roof sags and the floors are so wonky you feel seasick walking across them. "It looks like a witch died in there," says Betty, which is exactly the kind of thing Betty says.

It gets stranger. There's a line of salt along every windowsill and a silver coin in every corner of every room. Granny, who is usually fearsome, goes very quiet. Was whoever lived here before trying to keep something out? Or keep something in?

The sisters have a secret of their own. Betty carries a set of wooden nesting dolls that can make things vanish, which is how Charlie keeps her three-legged pet rat Hoppit hidden from Granny (Granny thinks he's imaginary!).

The best thing about reading it is how real the three of them feel. Betty is the sensible one who refuses to be spooked and then gets spooked anyway. Fliss goes all fluttery around a friendly boy from the blacksmith's. Charlie mishears everything ("I'm on tentacles!") and is hungry pretty much all the time.

Pendlewick looks perfect on the surface, with a tea shop and the best ice cream they've ever tasted. But there's a bare, leafless tree on the green with a ring of standing stones round it. There's a little boy who hasn't said a word since an accident two years ago. And when Fliss tells a local lad where they live, his grin freezes and he runs off.

It has a proper shiver to it without being gory. In the opening chapters it's whispered superstitions and odd looks rather than monsters. There are hints all the way through that the girls have been through something big together before this book, which gives the family a lovely sense of history.

What to read next

If they love a spooky old house full of secrets, try Michelle Harrison's The Thirteen Treasures next. Tanya has seen fairies all her life and has learned to keep very quiet about it, and her grandmother's manor has secrets of its own.