Lora Senf’s The Clackity is a properly spooky story for 11 year olds set in Blight Harbor, which ranks seventh in America for hauntings (per capita, as the book is careful to point out).<\/p>\n
Evie Von Rathe and her Aunt Desdemona share a house. In their town, ghosts are just part of everyday life. Everyone knows which cinema seats are always taken, and Evie waves to her best friend’s house ghost on her bike ride to the library.<\/p>\n
Aunt Des writes a newspaper advice column for people with supernatural problems. She’s warm and eccentric, with hardly any rules. But the one she does have is serious. Nobody goes near the old slaughterhouse on the outskirts.<\/p>\n
So of course that’s exactly where Evie follows her. Someone has covered the back wall with a hundred little drawn birds that weren’t there yesterday. Outside there’s birdsong and crickets. Inside, not one living thing.<\/p>\n
Then Aunt Des vanishes inside that building, and Evie goes looking for her.<\/p>\n
Evie tells her own story and she’s great company. Funny, stubborn and a little bit prickly. She’s also anxious. Her parents disappeared four years ago and she gets panic attacks (her aunt calls them spells). The book handles that really tenderly. In one lovely scene Aunt Des finally gives her the undercut she’s been begging for, plus black eyeliner and a heavy silver chain, so she can see herself as the brave girl she already is.<\/p>\n
Worth knowing before you hand it over. The creepiness is the real deal. The slaughterhouse smells rotten, and the town’s bogeyman is a serial killer from a hundred years ago who is thought to have got rid of his victims there. Fingers and toes get a mention. There’s a little mild swearing too.<\/p>\n
For a child who scares easily, that’ll probably be too much. For a reader who loves a good shiver, it’s a great pick, and it’s as much about grief and courage as it is about ghosts.<\/p>\n
The Stone Child has more of that small-town dread. In it a boy who loves scary books moves to the town where his favourite horror author once lived, and something steps out of the woods before they’ve even arrived.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Lora Senf’s The Clackity is a properly spooky story for 11 year olds set in Blight Harbor, which ranks seventh in America for hauntings (per capita, as the book is careful to point out). Evie Von Rathe and her Aunt Desdemona share a house. In their town, ghosts are just part of everyday life. Everyone […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":12412,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"lr_next_read_post_id":9431,"lr_next_read_anchor":"The Stone Child","lr_seo_hook":"A haunted town, a forbidden slaughterhouse and an aunt who goes missing."},"book_tag":[1051],"age_group":[28],"book_type":[1044],"book_author":[639],"class_list":["post-8935","our-books","type-our-books","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","book_tag-scary-books","age_group-books-for-11-year-olds","book_type-paid","book_author-lora-senf"],"yoast_title":"The Clackity by Lora Senf | Little Reads","yoast_metadesc":"A haunted town, a forbidden slaughterhouse and an aunt who goes missing. For ages 11+. 3,000+ books in the Little Reads app. 7-day free trial.","acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n