Pip and the Twilight Seekers

Chris Mould's Pip and the Twilight Seekers is a spooky winter adventure for 8 year olds set in a walled city where children have to stay hidden.

What happens

Hangman's Hollow is at war with the dark Spindlewood forest. Creatures creep out of the trees at night looking for children, so the city authorities sweep children off the streets. Families hide their little ones under floorboards and in false-bottomed carts.

Worst of all is the city warden, Mister Jarvis. He has a hook for a hand, a crow called Esther and a carriage shaped like a black pumpkin. And he hates children.

Pip is an orphan, lying low at the Deadman's Hand inn alongside Toad and Frankie. They bake cakes, play games and listen to dark stories by the fire while the snow piles up. Toad eats cakes whole ("Swallowing food is a skill!"). Frankie misses her family terribly. Pip lies awake wondering who his own parents were.

Then a cursed wooden toy soldier turns up. Captain Dooley can see exactly where every hidden child in the city is, and he can't keep his mouth shut. Guess who gets hold of him?

The narrator chats straight to you ("I hear you ask"), which makes it feel like a spooky story being told by the fire. There are brilliant moments too, like Frankie hiding from a search party inside a flour barrel and popping out like a small ghost.

This is a dark one for this shelf, so it's worth reading the first few chapters together. Jarvis sets fire to the inn while the children are asleep inside. A little boy of about four sleepwalks into the forest and is carried off to the wood witches. Children are threatened with being locked up in the forest. Nobody is hurt in the fire and the children do get out, but a nervous reader could find it all a bit much. A reader who loves a proper shiver (and a villain to boo at) will be gripped.

This story follows on from Pip and the Wood Witch Curse, so it's best to start there and meet Pip, Toad and Frankie from the beginning.

What to read next

For something lighter from Chris Mould, The Great Cheese Robbery has a crew of pirates no bigger than matchsticks living in a ship in a bottle. Their cat has been kidnapped by the mice behind the skirting board, and only a trip to the Fridge will get him back.