The Beasts of Knobbly Bottom: Attack of the Vampire Sheep

Emily-Jane Clark's The Beasts of Knobbly Bottom: Attack of the Vampire Sheep is a very silly monster story for 8 year olds, told by a girl who is VERY sure she's right.

What happens

Maggie McKay is nine, the smallest in her class and absolutely furious. Her mum has moved the family from Leicester to a village called Knobbly Bottom (which is not a bum, she'd like you to know).

There's one church, one shop and field after field of sheep. Mum also sort of said yes to a horse, which goes straight onto Maggie's list of the lies her mum tells.

Then the warnings start. The shopkeeper has a sign up about gobbling children. A tiny old lady in a pink bobble hat offers them grubby lollies and says the countryside is dangerous for folks like them. And one night a huge sheep with glowing red eyes stares up at Maggie's bedroom window.

So Maggie investigates. Her little sister Lily (five, obsessed with superheroes) comes too, whether Maggie likes it or not. So does Fred from next door, whose dad is in the army and who has a rule for everything. The first rule of army training, apparently, is to always carry a wooden spoon.

Nobody believes her, of course. Grown-ups never do.

Maggie talks straight to your reader, and she's very funny. Chapter Two is two lines long, just so she can tell you she's not giving the secret away yet! Her lists of grown-up lies are exactly the sort of thing a child will want to read out loud at the dinner table.

It calls itself a SCARY STORY. The scares are fangs and red eyes and a gang leader called BAA face who wears sunglasses. There's also an old lady with a leaf blower strong enough to blow a barn door clean off. Maggie even offers a picture of an apple pie to look at if anyone's too frightened to carry on (very thoughtful of her).

If you've got a reader who likes a spooky giggle more than a proper fright, and who knows exactly how it feels when nobody listens, this is great fun.

What to read next

For more shouty capital letters and a gang of friends who are sure something monstrous is going on, try A Monster Ate My Packed Lunch by Pamela Butchart. Izzy's class are off on a school trip to a lake, and her best friend Jodi has a WEIRD FEELING about it before they've even arrived.