Mountwood School for Ghosts Page 20
Amanda Craig
About Eva Ibbotson
Eva Ibbotson was born in Vienna, but when the Nazis came to power her family fled to England and she was sent to boarding school. She became a writer while bringing up her four children, and her bestselling novels have been published around the world. Her books have also won and been shortlisted for many prizes. Journey to the River Sea won the Nestlé Gold Award and was runner-up for the Whitbread Children’s Book of the Year and the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize. The Star of Kazan won the Nestlé Silver Award and was shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal. The Secret of Platform 13 was shortlisted for the Smarties Prize, and Which Witch? was runner-up for the Carnegie Medal. The Ogre of Oglefort was shortlisted for the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize and the Roald Dahl Funny Prize. Eva Ibbotson died peacefully in October 2010 at the age of eighty-five.
‘They ought to be in the country,’ said Mrs Hamilton. ‘It’s where children ought to be.’
When Madlyn Hamilton and her younger brother Rollo are sent by their mother to stay with their Uncle George at crumbling Clawstone Castle, they can see that action is needed before the castle falls down completely! With the help of a team of scary ghosts – including Mr Smith, a one-eyed skeleton, and Brenda the Bloodstained Bride – they hatch a spooky plan to save their new home. But with a sinister scientist after the estate’s prize cattle, money might not be enough to save the mysterious white beasts of Clawstone Castle . . .
‘We must kidnap some children,’ announced Aunt Etta. ‘Young, strong ones. It will be dangerous, but it must be done.’
Three children – Minette, Fabio and Lambert – are stolen and taken away to a bizarre island, home to mermaids, the strange and enormous boobrie bird, selkies and the legendary kraken. But soon the children find themselves in great danger as the island is under siege from a wicked man with plans to use these extraordinary creatures to make money. Can the children save themselves and their new friends?
‘Well, this is it!’ said Ernie Hobbs, floating past the boarded-up Left Luggage Office and coming to rest on an old mailbag. ‘This is the day!’
Platform 13 at King’s Cross Station hides a remarkable secret. Every nine years a doorway opens to an amazing, fantastical island and its occupants come visiting. But the last time the doorway was open the island’s baby prince was stolen from the streets of London. Now, nine years later, a rescue party, led by a wizard and an ogre, is back to find him and bring him home. But the gentle prince seems to have become a spoilt rich boy, and he doesn’t believe in magic and doesn’t want to go home. Can they rescue him before the doorway disappears forever?
‘And remember,’ he said, throwing out his arms, ‘that what I am looking for is power, wickedness and evil. Darkness is All!’
Arriman the Awful, feared Wizard of the North, is searching for a monstrous witch with the darkest powers and is holding a sorcery competition to discover which witch is the most fiendish. Glamorous Madame Olympia conjures up a thousand plague-bearing rats, while Belladonna, the white witch, desperately wants to be a wicked enchantress, but only manages to produce flowers not snakes. Can she become more devilish than all the other witches?
First published 2014 by Macmillan Children’s Books
This electronic edition published 2014 by Macmillan Children’s Books
a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited
20 New Wharf Road, London N1 9RR
Basingstoke and Oxford
Associated companies throughout the world
www.panmacmillan.com
ISBN 978-1-4472-7102-4
Copyright © Toby Ibbotson 2014
Cover illustration by Alex T. Smith
The right of Toby Ibbotson to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
You may not copy, store, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means (electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
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