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Ghostlands
Ewan is amazed to discover the ghost of a boy in the house where he's staying, but soon they become firm friends. The ghost, Ziggy, and his other ghoulish friends are in desperate need of Ewan's help. The local ghost-nappers are out to get them - they want to take them away to the Ghostlands theme park, from which there is no escape. Stephen Elboz's quirky and original style brings the story to life with a great sense of humour and a sharp wit.
128 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1996
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
May 7, 2016
Ewan Niles isn't thrilled when his parents receive an invitation from his dad's godfather to send him for a visit. Only the rare luxury of a first-class train ticket softens his resistance. But at the other end of a tiring journey, the sight of Dr. Malthus' house, with its unkempt garden and its lack of modern comforts, immediately makes him regret coming. It isn't fun to be entertained by a host who has no interest in seeing him, leaving him under the tut-tutting housekeeper's supervision, and forbidding him to climb the one good climbing tree in the garden - the one planted in memory of the doctor's son Ziggy, who died when he was Ewan's age.
Just when Ewan writes a letter to his parents urging them to bring him home, odd things start happening that soon change his mind again. He begins to suspect the house is haunted. Soon enough, he knows it for sure, as Ziggy's ghost introduces himself and flies Ewan to the graveyard to meet all his friends. No sooner has Ewan made up his mind that seeing dead people is fun, than the needle on the adventure-meter swings over to "dangerous and scary," thanks to a local coven of witches whose powers are drawn from enslaved ghosts. Behind them, and behind a kitschy theme park that uses genuine ghosts to provide thrills and chills, something even more sinister is at work. Ewan must join forces with some unlikely allies to save Ziggy and his ghost friends.
This is not a particularly thick book - my edition of it weighs in at 119 pages, divided into 18 chapters. But it is packed with excitement and fun, populated by memorable characters, and oozes imagery that will delight all the mind's senses. While Harry Potter fans - always the set I have in mind when I review books like this - may wrinkle their noses at Mrs. Mulligan's view of witchcraft as a vice of idle, uppity women, Phyllis Flight and her cronies make it fun to share that view. Also, I think Elboz may have found a better use for an endearingly silly headless-knight ghost than J.K. Rowling did. But this book's biggest shock for Potterheads may be its depiction of a poltergeist as a figure of terror rather than mere mischief. It's a ghost story that talks you out of being afraid of ghosts, before presenting something much, much scarier.
Just when Ewan writes a letter to his parents urging them to bring him home, odd things start happening that soon change his mind again. He begins to suspect the house is haunted. Soon enough, he knows it for sure, as Ziggy's ghost introduces himself and flies Ewan to the graveyard to meet all his friends. No sooner has Ewan made up his mind that seeing dead people is fun, than the needle on the adventure-meter swings over to "dangerous and scary," thanks to a local coven of witches whose powers are drawn from enslaved ghosts. Behind them, and behind a kitschy theme park that uses genuine ghosts to provide thrills and chills, something even more sinister is at work. Ewan must join forces with some unlikely allies to save Ziggy and his ghost friends.
This is not a particularly thick book - my edition of it weighs in at 119 pages, divided into 18 chapters. But it is packed with excitement and fun, populated by memorable characters, and oozes imagery that will delight all the mind's senses. While Harry Potter fans - always the set I have in mind when I review books like this - may wrinkle their noses at Mrs. Mulligan's view of witchcraft as a vice of idle, uppity women, Phyllis Flight and her cronies make it fun to share that view. Also, I think Elboz may have found a better use for an endearingly silly headless-knight ghost than J.K. Rowling did. But this book's biggest shock for Potterheads may be its depiction of a poltergeist as a figure of terror rather than mere mischief. It's a ghost story that talks you out of being afraid of ghosts, before presenting something much, much scarier.
November 10, 2012
Worst book ever.... Don't reads... Waste of time
September 16, 2009
NICE.
My first English book!
My first English book!
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews