The Ghost of Grotteskew

Guy Bass's The Ghost of Grotteskew is a spooky, silly story for 8 year olds about a stitched-together creation whose heart might not be his own.

What happens

Stitch Head has spent years quietly curing Mad Professor Erasmus's monsters from the shadows of Castle Grotteskew. Now his friend the Creature has roped him into its amateur dramatics society. His part is the dead body in a murder mystery, which means lying perfectly still for three and a half hours.

He can't do it, because somebody keeps saying his name. A huge, see-through man in a bearskin coat, with a chain of bones round his neck, keeps appearing and vanishing and bellowing "GIVE IT BACK!" Nobody else can see him.

Arabella, the fearless girl from the town, knows exactly who it is the moment Stitch Head describes him. For the first time ever, she's frightened. It's the ghost of Mawley Crackbone, the bully who once ruled Grubbers Nubbin. And he says the heart beating in Stitch Head's chest is really his.

That's a big worry for a small creation. If he's got a wicked man's heart, does that make him wicked too? Stitch Head frets and frets about it, and Mawley is very happy to stir it up.

There's still plenty to giggle at. The Creature directs its play in a flowing scarf and calls Mawley every wrong name going (Crawly Backbone, Twirly Smacktome). Arabella promises to deal with the ghost using her special ghost-kicking boots.

Worth knowing before you hand it over

There's a darker edge to this one. It opens with the townsfolk poisoning Mawley and the professor dragging his body up to the castle. Arabella explains that Mawley killed the people who stood up to him and wore his enemies' bones round his neck. Then the ghost starts trying to talk Stitch Head into letting him in. A reader who's easily spooked might like a grown-up close by. One who already loves Grotteskew will be gripped.

It carries on from earlier Stitch Head adventures and mentions what happened in them, so start with the first book, Stitch Head, if you can.

What to read next

For another good guy whose good name is suddenly in doubt, try No More Mr Nice Spy. Spynosaur, the world's only secret agent dinosaur, rescues a princess's pug from a runaway train with his daughter Amber, and then everyone watches in horror as the pug vanishes down his throat.