Ghosthunters and the Totally Moldy Baroness!

Cornelia Caroline Funke's Ghosthunters and the Totally Moldy Baroness is a spooky, silly castle adventure for 7 year olds, with a boy ghosthunter, a grumpy ghost friend and a very nasty lady on a ghost horse.

What happens

It starts with a fax. Mr and Mrs Worm have just taken over Gloomsburg Castle and things keep flying through the air. Saucepans. Lances. Spears. So the ghosthunters of Hyssop & Co. pack the car and set off in the rain.

That's Tom, brave Hetty Hyssop and Hugo. Hugo is an Averagely Spooky Ghost who wobbles about like green jelly, leaves slime on everything and can't resist scaring people (even the poor man walking his dachshund).

They've barely stepped inside when the ghost of a Baroness jumps into Mrs Worm's body. Her head glows like a jack-o'-lantern and green slime drips from her hair! Tom sprays her feet with salt water and the ghost is gone. But poor Mrs Worm is left with hiccups for twenty-four hours.

What follows is a long, stormy night of ghostbusting. Mint toothpaste painted round the doors. Salt on the windowsills. Horrible lozenges to suck. A net full of Tiny Biting Ghosts caught in the cellar with paper that smells of mouse droppings (they nibble bigger ghosts, which comes in VERY handy).

Kids will love all the ghost codes. HIGA, GIHUFO, GHADAP, TIBIG. Tom and Hetty explain every one to the baffled Worms, and it makes you feel like you're on the team.

And Hugo is the best bit. He sulks, he moans that the fire is too warm, and he gets teased for having a bit of a crush on the Baroness. Who doesn't love a ghost who's scared of tiny ghosts?

It's worth knowing the Baroness is a proper villain. In the old book they find, she murdered her husband and drowned people in the moat before she was drowned there herself. That's history read out loud rather than something that happens in front of Tom. The Baroness also threatens to turn people into puddles and slurp them up.

It's all told with a wink, but a very nervous reader might want to share it at bedtime rather than read it alone in the dark. If your reader likes their ghosts gross, noisy and a little bit scary, they'll have a brilliant time.

What to read next

For another case with the same team, try Ghosthunters and the Muddy Monster of Doom. This time Tom has to catch a ghost on his own to win his Ghosthunting Diploma, with a very unfriendly new examiner and a very offended Hugo.