The Breakfast Club Adventures: The Ghoul in the School

Marcus Rashford and Alex Falase-Koya's The Ghoul in the School is a Breakfast Club Adventures mystery for 9 year olds about a basketball team that's convinced it's been cursed.

What happens

Things aren't going well for the Breakfast Club Investigators. Their very first case was months ago. Since then they've failed at three more, including why the school bananas are always bruised on Thursdays.

Marcus is worried. No cases means no club. And no club might mean no friends. (He doesn't say that last bit out loud.)

So when Gbenga, captain of the basketball team and a bit of a school legend, knocks on the door of their hideout, it feels like a last chance. The team has lost ten games in a row. Balls go missing. Kits turn up soaked in something smelly. And some players swear they've seen a tall, hunched shadow in the gym after dark.

Stacey, the group's leader, is thrilled. She's sure it's a ghoul, and she has an encyclopedia of the supernatural to prove it. Marcus isn't so sure. Lise builds motion-activated cameras. Asim sketches suspects and turns up to the stakeout with his very large dog, Saint.

It's genuinely funny. Stacey diagnosing ectoplasm with total confidence while Asim mouths "gross" behind her is a joy. But there's a proper shiver too, when the gang creeps through the empty school at sunset and hears slow, shuffling footsteps coming down the corridor towards them.

What's lovely is the worry underneath it all, which is really about friendship. Marcus's mum tells him his friends won't leave just because they stop solving mysteries. He's not sure he believes her.

There's a rival gang of sleuths too, the Journalism Club, who keep pinching their cases. Marcus can't stand them (so it's quite a surprise when one of the Investigators turns out to be an old member).

If you've got a reader who likes a spooky mystery that's also a bit silly, this is a great pick.

What to read next

If they'd like to see where the Investigators began, The Beast Beyond the Fence is their very first case. Marcus kicks his football over the school fence, it vanishes without a trace, and he can't stop thinking about it.