Ravenfall

Kalyn Josephson's Ravenfall is a spooky magical mystery for 10 year olds about a girl whose only gift is seeing other people's deaths.

What happens

Anna Ballinkay's family run Ravenfall, an inn in the magical town of Wick, Oregon. The house is alive. It catches you in a chair if you trip and sulks when it's in a bad mood. The family cat, Max, isn't really a cat at all.

Everyone in Anna's family has a psychic gift. One sister reads minds, the other reads feelings, and her mum sees the future (and drops whatever she's holding when she does). Anna turned thirteen a few months ago and got the gift nobody wants. When she touches someone who has seen a death, she sees it too.

At the party the inn throws every autumn, a stranger brushes her hand and she sees a murder in a motel room. The very next day a boy called Colin arrives at the door with dried blood on his shirt. He's the boy from her vision.

The chapters swap between Anna and Colin, so you get both sides. Anna is chatty, stubborn and sure she's the useless one in a family of stars. Colin has spent months moving from motel to motel and doesn't believe a word of it (yet). Her rule for him is "embrace the weird", and it's lovely watching him try.

Their friendship stays a friendship, by the way. Anna says plainly that she's not interested in romance, and never will be, which is refreshing to see.

This one is darker than the cosy inn and the singing ivy suggest. Colin's parents have been killed just before the story begins, and we see it through Anna's vision. There's a body on the floor, a man dying, and a fight with knives. Anna's visions leave her with nightmares, and Colin's grief is very raw. It isn't gory, but a child who is sensitive about death, or about losing a parent, may find it hard.

For a reader who loves a creepy house, a mystery to solve and a heroine who doesn't quite fit, it's a great autumn read. Pumpkin cake served by a house that won't take no for an answer? Yes please.

What to read next

If they'd like another girl growing up in a town where ghosts are part of everyday life, try The Clackity. Evie lives in Blight Harbor, the seventh most haunted town in America, with an aunt whose job is sorting out other people's ghost problems.