The Peculiar Incident on Shady Street

Lindsay Currie's The Peculiar Incident on Shady Street is a ghost story for 9 year olds about a girl who moves into a very old house that doesn't seem to want her there.

What happens

Tessa Woodward has swapped sunny Florida for rainy Chicago, all because of Dad's new job with the symphony orchestra. She's left her best friend Rachel behind. The new house is a huge grey stone place from the 1800s (and Tessa reckons it's watching her).

Strange things start straight away. Her favourite pastels turn up on the floor. A mark she never drew appears in her sketchbook, and then it grows. The bathroom lights flicker, the door won't budge and a crackling sound fills the room.

Her little brother Jonah says there were ghosts in the hallway. He's four and takes a ventriloquist's dummy called Reno everywhere, which doesn't help one bit!

Reading it is a lot like being inside Tessa's head as she tries to talk herself out of being scared. Is it just an old house with dodgy wiring? Mum thinks so. Tessa's not convinced, and your reader won't be either.

It's also a story about being new. Tessa writes letters to Rachel, misses the beach and has no idea how she'll face seventh grade on her own. Then a funny boy called Andrew, kicking a ball about in the park, guesses exactly where she's from.

It's properly spooky in places. A door that won't open, icy cold air upstairs and a window flung wide in a storm all come early on. There's nothing gory in these chapters, but it could be a lot for a child who hates the dark.

If your reader likes a shiver with a mystery to solve, though, this is ideal. Tessa is twelve, and it has that slightly older feel lots of confident readers enjoy.

What to read next

For another girl dragged away from her best friend to spend the summer in a creepy old house, try Mimi McCoy's The Dead End.