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Barry Hutchison's The Moon-Faced Ghoul-Thing is a funny, spooky adventure for 8 year olds that starts with a dressing-up night and ends up somewhere much, much stranger.
The Feast of Scarrabus has come round again in the village of Lump. That's the darkest night of the year, when children dress up as the scariest creatures they can think of and leave sweets on every doorstep. The sweets keep Lord Scarrabus away. Or so the story goes.
Ben has found the perfect costume in his big book of monsters. Paradise has come as a witch (not very original, Ben tells her). And Wesley, a wizard who got kicked out of wizard school, has spent weeks making a butterfly. A butterfly! On the scariest night of the year!
The three friends argue about whether the legend is real. Paradise says it's just a way for grown-ups to get free sweets. Wesley is terrified. And Ben? Ben would quite like to find out. So when the others head home, he quietly scoops the treats back into his bag.
That night something white-faced and spidery appears on his ceiling.
What follows is a proper romp. There's a castle where you have to climb the stairs to get down, a demon lord who's VERY touchy about being the real one, a chained-up baby dragon and a Bad Luck Goblin whose trousers fall down six times a day.
The jokes come thick and fast. Wesley steals every scene he's in, narrating his own panic as it happens (he's especially worried about ending up with a bottom where his head should be). Paradise is tiny, fierce and does NOT want any height jokes. Ben is brave, cheeky and not always as sensible as he thinks.
It's spooky in a silly way. There's a throne made of bones and a threat to drain Wesley's magic, but nothing stays scary for long before someone falls over or says something daft. If your reader likes a shiver with their giggles, this gets the balance just right.
This isn't the first time Ben, Paradise and Wesley have gone looking for trouble. The book mentions earlier adventures, and a sword stuck fast in a stone that Ben still can't pull out. It reads fine on its own, though, and everything you need is explained as you go.
If they want more of the three friends, The Swivel-Eyed Ogre-Thing is another of their adventures, starting with a furious goat charging through Lump and a very grumpy troll.
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