Notebook of Doom 9 – Rumble of the Coaster Ghost

Troy Cummings's Rumble of the Coaster Ghost is a funny monster-hunting adventure for 6 year olds about a school trip to the most boring amusement park in the world.

What happens

Alexander Bopp is very good at two things. Fighting monsters and passing secret notes in class. So when his teacher announces a surprise field trip, he packs his monster-fighting gear (a potato masher, a salt shaker, rubber gloves) and the notebook he never goes anywhere without.

The park turns out to be Safety Land. Everyone wears a helmet. The teacups are slow and steady, the haunted house is well lit and the roller coaster is out of order. His loudest best friend Rip is FURIOUS. Can you blame him?

Then a very bad magician called Count Chad looks into his crystal ball and warns Alexander about a coaster ghost. Things around the park keep getting snipped. A costume strap. A curtain. A teacup chain. Then the new girl, Dottie, goes missing, and something is rumbling over by the roller coaster.

This is the ninth Notebook of Doom book, but you don't need the others first. The opening chapters introduce the Super Secret Monster Patrol, its clubhouse in an old train carriage and the notebook all over again.

It reads like a proper chapter book, just a very friendly one. There are sixteen short chapters, big type and a picture on every page. Sound effects come in huge capitals (KERPLOF!). Every so often you turn to a page from Alexander's notebook, hand-lettered on squared paper, with a monster sketch and a WARNING. Who doesn't want to know that a cutterfly eats coupons and homemade valentines?

The jokes are everywhere. Mr Hoarsely, who drives the bus and is also the school nurse, PE teacher and caretaker, turns up in knee pads and sings a song about safety. Rip wins at ring toss and his prize is the ring. Then he straps his helmet onto a cow at the petting zoo (a stuffed one, to be fair).

The scary bits are the jokey kind. There's a dark tunnel, a skull with glowing red eyes and one very tense coaster ride, but the friends stick together and nobody gets hurt. Dottie gets a brilliant moment near the end too, and I'm not saying what it is.

What to read next

If they love a day out that turns into a monster mystery, try The Wrath of the Woolington Wyrm. Mary-Kate goes on a trip with her mum to a very quiet village, hears about a monster from a local legend and starts writing her questions down in a notebook of her own.