Daisy and the Trouble with Vampires

Kes Gray's Daisy and the Trouble with Vampires is a funny Halloween story for 5 year olds about a girl who isn't scared of anything (in the daytime, anyway).

What happens

It's Halloween week, and Jack Beechwhistle has decided everyone should start being very afraid on Monday. There's a haunted drinking fountain in the playground. There's a zombie graveyard under the classroom. Mums might be secret witches in disguise! And then there's the hooley-hooley man, a skeleton so covered in cobwebs he looks made of them, who goes hunting for a new wardrobe to hide in on Halloween night.

Daisy and her best friend Gabby pinkie promise to ignore every word. Then they promise again. By Tuesday it's a quadruple pinkie promise, and they still end up hearing every single story.

Then, on the day itself, Daisy's neighbour Mrs Pike invites her round to carve pumpkins and go trick-or-treating. When the door opens, Mrs Pike is wearing a long red dress, a black cape and white pointy teeth. GULP.

Daisy is forever explaining "the trouble with" something, and her logic is hilarious. The trouble with desk lids is hers creaks. The trouble with being turned to stone is you'd be really heavy at the swimming baths. When her school socks are pulled down after lunch, it must have been a zombie reaching up through the floor!

Mum is brilliant too. She doesn't do Halloween at all and has a joke for everything (going as Snow Gorilla with a bunch of bananas, anyone?). The pumpkin carving scene with Mrs Pike is lovely, all cold slimy goo and fizzy "blood" that tastes of cherryade.

It's a fantastic read-aloud, with lots of CAPITALS to shout and plenty of shared giggles. Some of Jack's tall tales are gruesome in a silly way, like heads exploding at hopscotch or a boy who grows up stuck in a wardrobe. If you've got a little one who half-loves and half-dreads Halloween, this is spot on (you might just need a torch by the bed afterwards).

What to read next

If Jack's whoppers were their favourite bit, he's got a book of his own. Attack of the Giant Slugs has Jack telling you all about his top-secret missions as a Junior Defender of the World, with Harry and Colin right behind him.