The Phantom Lollipop Man

Pamela Butchart's The Phantom Lollipop Man is a giggly, spooky school story for 7 year olds about four friends who are convinced their school is being haunted.

What happens

The grumpy old lollipop man has vanished. In his place is a smiley new lollipop lady called Mabel. Maisie hopes he's gone on holiday to Rome.

So Izzy goes and asks the terrifying office ladies, who tell her he's "moved on". Everyone knows what THAT means. Doesn't it?

Then Maisie spots him standing by the creepy old bike shed. And then he disappears.

Zach has a theory. The lollipop man has come back as a phantom! Izzy panics so much she faints (usually that's Maisie's job).

What follows is a full-blown ghost investigation. They interview Zach's mum, who loves anything spooky and does the interview surrounded by candles. They question a Year 6 girl who claims she can see ghosts (Jodi isn't convinced). There's a strange cloud behind the bike shed, a weird smoky smell, a fire alarm, and a lollipop stick floating along the bottom corridor!

Izzy tells the whole thing in one breathless rush, with LOTS of words in capitals. It's exactly like listening to a kid who can't wait to tell you what happened at school today. Every little aside matters to her, from the one long hair on the office lady's chin to Gary Petrie dipping his crisps in his soup.

The gang is brilliant together. Jodi takes charge of everything, Zach worries, and Maisie is scared of pretty much everything. But she can also pull off a fake faint to get them into the staff room birthday party, which is genius.

It's spooky in the silliest possible way, and the scares are mostly the gang scaring themselves.

One small thing to know. The kids decide the lollipop man has died, and a lot of the fun comes from them planning posters for his funeral. If your reader has lost someone recently, that might land differently. For most children it'll just be very, very funny.

What to read next

If they want more of Izzy, Jodi, Zach and Maisie, try There's a Yeti in the Playground. It snows and snows, Maisie turns up wearing four coats, and an enormous footprint appears that can only mean one thing.