'Araminta Spook lives in a wonderful old haunted house, but her crabby aunt Tabby wants to move. Aunt Tabby is determined to sell their house—Araminta "has" to stop her! With the help of a haunted suit of armor named Sir Horace, a ghost named Edmund, and a lot of imagination, Araminta hatches a plot for an Awful Ambush that is so ghoulish, it just might work!'
Araminta Spook: My Haunted House is a fun little book designed for young readers with an interest in the creepy and spooky. Perfect for young teens to read on their own, or for parents to read to younger audiences.
The story introduces us to Araminta, a strange young girl who lives in a creepy old house with her Uncle Drac, and Aunt Tabby following the tragic death of her parents. It quickly becomes clear that Araminta has an interest in the supernatural, and desperately wants to be able to see a ghost one day. Despite searching through her aunt and uncle's creepy old house numerous times she's yet to find any proof of the paranormal.
The house itself is like something out of The Addams Family, described as being old, huge, spooky, and falling apart. The house is that big that Araminta has a different bedroom for every day of the week. My personal favourite being her Saturday bedroom, which can only be accessed by climbing up a rope. The house is that big and old that a different kitchen is used every time the story needs one, and her Uncle sleeps in a huge tower where the floors have been removed and he sleeps in a sleeping bag that hangs from the rafters with his pet bats.
Araminta's quest to prevent her aunt from selling her beloved house is a fun one, where she employs trickery and nasty tactics to scare away potential buyers. When preparing her greatest 'Awful Ambush' she discovers a secret passage hidden inside the house, that provides her access to a number of mysterious rooms, and introduces her to her first real ghost; a young boy named Edmund.
Soon after she and Edmund are joined in their mission by the haunted suit of armour Sir Horace, and the three of them manage to pull of their plan to humiliate a family that are interested in buying the house. However, the strange family absolutely love the trick, and the house, and want to buy it. Thankfully, Araminta is able to convince her Aunt not to sell, and the two families end up becoming good friends and living together, setting the stage for more stories to come.
The book is filled with cliches and silly humour, but thanks to never setting foot into the realm of seriousness it is able to pull off a lot of this without it going too far into the realm of the ridiculous, but managers to remain charming. A lot of this is helped by the wonderful illustrations throughout the book, provided by Jimmy Pickering. The artwork is much like the writing, in that it manages to capture the sense of the spooky, whilst keeping an element of fun and silliness that gives it a lot of charm. An excellent book for young readers that love The Addams Family and want something similar, yet more aimed at kids.
Buy Amy A Coffee
Go to Amy's Blog
No comments:
Post a Comment