Ghosthunters and the Muddy Monster of Doom!

Cornelia Caroline Funke's Ghosthunters and the Muddy Monster of Doom is a spooky, silly adventure for 7 year olds about a boy sitting his final ghosthunting exam in a village that's sinking into the mud.

What happens

Tom is a very experienced ghosthunter. He's also eleven, and the examiners have noticed. All that stands between him and his diploma is one field test. Catch one ordinary ghost, write it up, done.

Then he meets the new examiner. Professor Slimeblott is pale from his hair to his lips (Tom privately decides he looks like a glass of skimmed milk). He cuts Tom down to one helper and bans every home-made gadget his partner Hetty Hyssop has ever invented.

So Tom and Hetty drive off to a foggy place called Bogpool. Hugo the ghost is under strict orders to stay at home. Does he? Of course not. Tom finds him hiding in the boot, and threatening him with salt only makes him sulk.

Their welcome to Bogpool is the hand of the church clock plunging to the ground exactly where Tom was standing a second ago. That's a lot of bad temper for a Category Three ghost. And something much older is stirring under the village. The streets start to squelch, and a very strange smell hangs over everything.

Half the fun is the ghost-hunting gear and the daft initials. There's the Averagely Spooky Ghost, the Incredibly Revolting Ghost and the Foggy Figure Former, and the story stops every so often to explain them to you, "Gentle reader". Tom piles chilli and garlic on his chips so ghosts won't fancy him. Hugo talks like a draughty window ("Iiiiii'm cooooming!").

It's scary in the fun sort of way. There's fog, a dark church and a ghost with a screech that melts the candlesticks. A reader who likes a proper shiver at bedtime will love it. A very jumpy one might want a grown-up close by for the church scenes.

What to read next

If they want more of Tom, Hetty and Hugo on a case, try the Totally Moldy Baroness. This time the three of them squelch across a drawbridge into a gloomy old castle where a ghost has been causing trouble for years.