Mr Majeika and the Ghost Train

Humphrey Carpenter's Mr Majeika and the Ghost Train is a daft, magical school adventure for 6 year olds about a class trip that goes very wrong.

What happens

Mr Majeika used to be a wizard. Now he teaches Class Three at St Barty's, and most of the time he has to do boring teacher things like taking the register. But strange things do keep happening.

This time the whole class gets free tickets for the opening day of Adventure Galaxy, a new theme park down the road. Even horrid Hamish Bigmore suddenly wants to go, which is very suspicious. (He's had a letter, and Jody is sure the handwriting is Wilhelmina Worlock's, and she's a wicked witch.)

Hamish insists everyone rides the Ghost Train. Then he jumps off and waves goodbye with a nasty laugh.

The train whooshes down a hole in the ground. It rattles past a ghostly station where Julius Caesar is grumbling that his train is late and Queen Victoria wants everyone to shove over. And it stops at the Weather Factory, where all the world's weather is made by one worn-out old man.

Guess who wants Class Three to take over the job for ever?

Meanwhile Jody, who hopped off to buy Melanie a teddy bear balloon, has to turn detective. She finds a manhole cover stamped W.W., takes a very nervous Hamish down a winding staircase, and meets Dennis, a sad dragon locked in a cage. Dennis talks about himself all the time and says "Poor old Dennis" every few lines, which is great fun to read aloud.

It's a quick, silly story with plenty to giggle at. Mr Majeika's spells go wrong in the best way (at one point he's floating round the factory as a giant balloon!). The children run riot pulling the weather levers. And back at school, poor Mr Potter the head teacher gets thunder, snow, a rainbow and fog while he's trying to take Class Two out for PE.

There are just eight short chapters, so it's a nice one for a reader who's new to chapter books, or for sharing at bedtime. Jody is the real hero, brave and sensible while the grown-up wizard is stuck.

What to read next

If they're after more magic at St Barty's, go back to where Mr Majeika first flies in, on a magic carpet through the classroom window on a wet Monday morning.