Calendar Mysteries – October Ogre

October Ogre is a Halloween mystery by Ron Roy for 5 year olds, set in a pretend haunted house where the children who go in never seem to come out.

What happens

For one night, Green Lawn's Shangri-la Hotel is a spooky cave. There's a tall green ogre on the door, and somewhere inside is a basket of sweets. Pinch some without getting caught and you win a prize.

Bradley has come as Mount Rushmore (in a cardboard box). Brian is an astronaut with a salad bowl on his head. Lucy is Sacagawea, and Nate has wrapped himself in rags to be a mummy.

Nate isn't at all sure about that ogre. So the friends sit outside and wait while every other child goes in ahead of them. Not one of them comes back out.

It's lovely how they handle Nate's nerves. Lucy says friends stick together, so if Nate doesn't go in, nobody does. Bradley agrees straight away.

Inside it's foggy and dark, with glowing green footprints to follow. A skeleton sits up on the front desk. A ghost hands round "yummy fingers" (biscuits with raspberry icing, phew). Tiny plastic spiders rain down when Bradley pulls a broom handle.

Then Brian reaches for the sweets and vanishes. So does the police officer the others ring for help! Where is everybody going?

Nate steals the show. He's convinced the witch is making kid soup, and he announces that whoever invented Halloween should go to jail. There's a nice bit of science too, when Officer Fallon explains why the witch's pot bubbles without ever getting hot.

Worth knowing before you hand it over

It's properly spooky in places. Children disappear one by one in the dark, a headless zombie carries a face around in a basket, and a stew recipe asks for three small children. A child who's easily frightened by the dark or by Halloween might want to share this one with you.

That said, the friends keep pointing out that everything is plastic, rubber or cardboard, and Nate's panicking is played for giggles. If your reader enjoys a shiver that's mostly a laugh, it's a great pick for October.

It's the tenth Calendar Mysteries book, and it's a complete case by itself.

What to read next

For more spooky goings-on at the very same hotel, try The Haunted Hotel. This time it's the big kids' turn. Dink, Josh and Ruth Rose read that a ghost has been seen at the Shangri-la, and the guests are hurrying out with their suitcases.