Violet Black & the Curse of Cam

Kevin M Folliard's Violet Black & the Curse of Cam is a spooky summer-camp mystery for 10 year olds starring a girl who's a ghost hunter in secret.

What happens

Violet is thirteen. Her dad is a world-famous paranormal investigator. Violet has spent her summers with him chasing curses, werewolves and banshees. This year he's dropping her at Camp Coldwater for six whole weeks instead. As far as Violet's concerned, nothing is worse than summer camp.

She's barely out of the car before she's standing up to the Tucker triplets. They've just thrown a small boy's shoes into a tree. That boy is Hector Chang, who is jumpy, a bit of a motor mouth and hungry all the time. They're friends by teatime.

Then, round the campfire, the head counsellor tells the camp's favourite scary story. It's about Happy Harry, a woodcutter with an axe who waits in the woods for children who wander too far.

That same night Hector comes screaming out of the trees. He swears he's seen Happy Harry, with glowing eyes and an axe that gave off heat! Nobody believes him. Except Violet, who goes back into the woods with a torch and finds a fresh, burnt notch in a tree at exactly head height.

So she takes his case.

Violet is super likeable. She's clever and dry and very sure of herself, and she's hopeless at sport (her roommate Kelly is going to train her up). She keeps quiet about the family business so she won't be the weird ghost girl. There's something quite sad under all the jokes too, as her mum has died and her dad worries about losing her as well.

A heads-up before you read it at bedtime, though. The campfire story is properly grim. It says Harry killed his neighbours with his axe, and then his own family, and he enjoyed it. The counsellors are supposed to leave that bit out (they don't). Hector also gets picked on a lot, and in one angry moment says he wishes the bullies would die.

If your reader likes a good shiver and a mystery to solve, they'll be desperate to know who, or what, is out in those woods. A child who's easily frightened might want to wait a bit.

What to read next

For another camp where something isn't quite right, try Camp Scare, about a girl who arrives hoping to make friends and soon feels sure someone is following her through the woods.