Mr Ripley's Enchanted Books - Favourite Children's Book Picks - September 2026 - UK Post

 

Gryffin Murphy - Twig's Traveling Tomes - Published by Zaffre (8 Sept. 2026) - ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1806171521 - Hardback - Age: 9+

A witch with a magical affinity for books who owns a travelling bookstore reluctantly teams up with a charming rogue, her former professor and a gnome in search of a rare stolen grimoire. Perfect for fans of Rebecca Thorne, India Holton, Travis Baldree and Sarah Beth Durst. 

Louella Twig is the only witch of her kind, much to the disappointment of her former mentor and her previous academic ambitions. While others connect to nature as their source of magic, Louella has an affinity with books. Denied her graduation broom, Louella carves a new path using her talent, creating a magical ambulatory bookshop that travels throughout the realm, uniting readers with stories.

She lives a cosy, stable life, until she collides - quite literally - with a mysterious man between the Romance and Adventure aisles. Everett Sharp is handsome, charming ... and a rogue on the run. He's absolutely not someone Louella wishes to share either an adventure or a romance with. But then her old mentor arrives with a desperate request: a valuable grimoire has been stolen and there is only one witch who can retrieve what has been lost ... a witch who now finds herself in need of a bandit with experience.

Together with friends both old and new, Louella and Everett embark on an adventure across the four kingdoms, encountering whimsical creatures, a flying greenhouse full of plant pirates and a magical World's Fair. Along the way, Louella starts to wonder if this new chapter of her life could include some romance after all ...

 P. J. Killburn (Author), Markia Jenai (Illustrator) - Deep Yard: Deep Trouble - Published by ‎Little Tiger (3 Sept. 2026) - ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1788957922 - Paperback - Age: 8

Jermaine is determined to put the events of his great-great-uncle Carl's Dead Yard behind him. No more supernatural shenanigans! 

But that's easier said than done, and soon Jermaine is hearing a voice calling out to him from the water. Then several kids in his class disappear into the Thames and return with zombie-like personalities, to top it off, snakes are bursting out of the school sinks. 

Jermaine and his friends reluctantly admit there must be a new spooky threat in town. Could it be another monster from Caribbean legend, and does Jermaine have what it takes to stop it? 

The second in a spook-tastic new series, perfect for fans of Goosebumps, Hide and Seekerand Dread Wood.

Emma Carroll - Dracula & Daughters: School for Slayers - Published by Faber & Faber (10 Sept. 2026) - ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0571388820 - Paperback - Age: 9+

At last . . .

Dracula & Daughters are open for business.

Their mission: to heal vampires and keep the streets of Temstown safe.

Trouble is, the new Guildmaster is insisting the city is now vampire-free, and wants Dracula & Daughters to close.

But the undead are still lurking. After a string of strange events at the prestigious Poisonwood School for Boys, frightened pupils start holding vampire slaying lessons in secret.

It's up to Mina, Buffy and Bella to convince them that slaying isn't the answer. But when vampires are appearing by the classful, is it already too late?

The granddaughters of Dracula are about to have their healing skills firmly put to the test . . . And are reminded never to underestimate the undead.

9+ readers will devour the atmospheric setting, the vampish powers and the gothic details - including a talking raven - perfect for fans of Murder Most Unladylike, The Swifts and TV show, Wednesday.

Guy Bass & David Roberts - The Worst Thing That Could Possibly Happen - Published by Little Tiger (3 Sept. 2026) - ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1788954198 - Paperback - Age: 8 

I have a question.
What's the worst thing that could happen?
Wait.
Before you decide, let me tell you a story...

Take a trip through the sideways door and let supernatural secrets come alive in these chilling tales of terror! Meet the nightmare pig, a sinister swine with teeth on her mind. Witness the terrifying reality of swapping places with your reflection or visit the ravenous monster in the shed. And, if you dare, come face to fear-filled face with Doctor Panic, who's seen far too much of the world behind the sideways door. But be warned - your world may never be the same again...

Mr Ripley's Enchanted Books - Favourite Children's/kids Book Picks - OCTOBER 2025

 

• Author: Dominique Valente
• Title: Witchlight (Witchspark)
• Publisher ‏: Usborne Publishing Ltd
• Publication Date: 9 Oct. 2025
• ISBN-13 ‏: ‎978-1805316800 - Paperback
• Reading Age ‏: ‎ 9 - 12 years

Return to the magical world of witches, royalty and curses in this spellbinding sequel to Witchspark. 

Miss Hegotty's Secret Society of Witches has a lot of work to do. The Department of Isle-Spark Regulation is up to no good.

For Princess Victoria at the palace, this means possibly losing her powers forever. And for Eglantine Bury, her magical home can't stop sneezing, causing total chaos with each "ACHOO!".

As if that wasn't enough to worry about, Eglantine's house isn't the only magical being falling mysteriously ill. With dragons and gargoyles getting sicker and sicker, the witches will have to use time travel, disguise spells and genie wishes to uncover the truth...before it's too late.

https://uk.bookshop.org/a/10860/9781805316800

• Author: Phil Hickes 
• Illustrator: Oriol Vidal
• Title: The Last Day of October
• Publisher ‏: ‎Barrington Stoke
• Publication Date ‏ : ‎ 9 Oct. 2025
• ISBN-13 ‏: ‎978-0008748517
• Reading Age ‏: ‎9 years and up

• A spine-tingling middle-grade horror perfect for Halloween! (Dyslexia-friendly)

Bored with trick-or-treating, three friends venture into the woods on Halloween night to hunt for the haunted McBride House in this spine-tingling horror story from Phil Hickes.

If you go down to the woods today, you’re in for a nasty surprise …

Seeking creepy thrills instead of candy, Cody and his friends set out on Halloween to search for the ruins of the haunted McBride House in the woods near his home in Oregon.

The house has taken on a sinister legendary status after it burned down a hundred years ago with tragic consequences, and it’s said that the ghosts of the family who lived there return each year on the last day of October.

But when they find the house, the truth of what is happening on this eerie autumn night is more terrifying than the three teenagers could ever have imagined …

https://uk.bookshop.org/a/10860/9780008748517

• Author: Frank J. Camacho 
• Title: The Monsters They Made Us (The Heirs of Driftmoor) BK 1 
• Publisher: FJC Books
• Publication Date ‏: ‎1 Oct. 2025
• ISBN-13 ‏: ‎979-8998781810
• Reading Age ‏: ‎15 - 18 years

For fans of supernatural dramas and dark academia comes a new tale of salt-soaked secrets, blood-bound legacies, and a coastal town where every wave carries the weight of centuries-old curses.

Some monsters are born. Others are made. But the worst are inherited.

Long before Driftmoor was a town, it was a threshold where the veil between the natural and supernatural ran thin. Where wicked bargains were struck in the dark. Bargains that cursed four bloodlines forever.

Dorothy arrives at Driftmoor Academy hoping to leave her past behind and become someone new. But after a car crash leaves her teetering between life and death, dark abilities awaken inside her. Whispers through the halls. Nightmares claw at her sleep. And death follows wherever she goes.

As Dorothy is pulled into the gilded world of Driftmoor’s elite, pieces of a forgotten legacy begin to surface—along with a power she doesn’t understand and a past someone tried to erase. And she’s not the only one marked by what came before.

There’s the boy touched by the sea, who’s drawn to a song no one else can hear. The socialite carved from gold and expectation, clinging to perfection before it shatters. And the son born in shadows, raised by a family that never intended to keep him.

Linked by the bargains of their ancestors, the heirs of Driftmoor must each decide: will they surrender to their curses, harness the power they’ve inherited, or let it destroy them?

• 
  
• Author: Katherine Child
• Title: The Notted Island 
• Publisher: ‎Flying Eye Books
• Publication Date ‏ : ‎ 9 Oct. 2025
• ISBN-13 ‏: ‎978-1913123147 - Hardback
• Reading Age ‏: ‎ 9 - 11 years

Before 1861, the world was black and white. As Colour reached the end of his job, world-weary he stopped to rest on Last Island: the last uncoloured place. The people of the island are believed to be the reason for this and seek to better themselves, in the hope that Colour will recognise their efforts and bring colour to the island. To make matters worse, the islands Nott - a deity responsible for drawing the curtain of night - begins to make more and more mistakes. As the islanders grow restless, they send a letter threatening Nott. However, when the letter finds itself in the hands of Tisky, a young islander with pockets full of cake, she tasks herself with bringing unity back to Last Island.

https://uk.bookshop.org/a/10860/9781913123147

The Best Children's US Book Picks September 2022 - Mr Ripley's Enchanted Books

 

Lindsay Currie - The Girl in White - Published by ‎Sourcebooks Young Readers (September 6, 2022) - ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1728236544 - Hardback - Age: 8+

Mallory hasn't quite adapted to life in her new town of Eastport yet. Maybe it's because everyone is obsessed with keeping the town's reputation as the most cursed town in the US.

And thanks to the nightmares she's had since arriving, Mallory hardly sleeps. Combined with the unsettling sensation of being watched, she's quickly becoming convinced there's more to her town. Something darker.

When Mallory has a terrifying encounter with the same old woman from her dreams, she knows she has to do something―but what? With Eastport gearing up to celebrate the anniversary of their first recorded legend Mallory is forced to investigate the one legend she's always secretly been afraid of . . . Sweet Molly.

Colin Meloy - The Stars Did Wander Darkling - Published by ‎ Balzer + Bray (September 13, 2022) - ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0063015517 - Hardback - Age: 8+ 

A suspenseful and atmospheric horror set in 1980s Oregon, perfect for fans of Stranger Things, Neil Gaiman, and Margaret Peterson Haddix, from New York Times bestselling author and the Decemberists’ lead singer/songwriter, Colin Meloy.

Maybe Archie Coomes has been watching too many horror movies.

All of a sudden, the most ordinary things have taken on a sinister edge: a penny on a doormat. An odd man in a brown suit under a streetlamp. The persistent sound of an ax chopping in the middle of the night.

He keeps telling himself that this is Seaham, a sleepy seaside town where nothing ever happens. Or at least nothing did, until his dad’s construction company opened up the cliff beneath the old—some say cursed—Langdon place.

Soon, though, he and his friends can’t deny it: more and more of the adults in town are acting strangely. An ancient, long-buried evil has been unleashed upon the community, and it’s up to the kids to stop it before it’s too late. . . .

Mary Downing Hahn - What We Saw: A Thriller - Published by Clarion Books (September 6, 2022) - ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0358414414 - Hardback - Age: 8+

A chilling murder mystery lies at the heart of this page-turning thriller about a missing teacher, small-town secrets, and turbulent tween friendships from the master of middle-grade horror Mary Downing Hahn.

When best friends Abbi and Skylar witness a clandestine meeting between a mysterious woman and someone in a dark van, they're thrilled. Finally, a mystery to spice up the summer!

Who could these people be? Why are they meeting? Are they spies? Criminals? The two girls are determined to find out. But then a local woman goes missing and is found dead in the woods. And Abbi and Skylar realize that their detective work could hold the keys to solving her murder. Suddenly, sleuthing isn't so fun anymore.

As tensions rise and their friendship frays, the girls find themselves in increasing danger, and must choose between keeping a secret or exposing a life-altering truth.

Kalyn Josephson - Ravefall - Published by Delacorte Press (September 6, 2022) - ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0593483589 - Hardback - Age: 9+ 

• One magical inn, two kids with supernatural powers, and an ancient Celtic creature trying to destroy their world by Halloween night...
   
  Halloweentown meets Supernatural in this spooky middle-grade series from the acclaimed author of the Storm Crow duology!
  
  Thirteen-year-old Annabella Ballinkay has never been normal, even by her psychic family’s standards. Every generation uses their abilities to help run the Ravenfall Inn, a sprawling, magical B&B at the crossroads of the human world and the Otherworld. But it’s hard to contribute when your only power is foreseeing death.
   
  So when fourteen-year-old Colin Pierce arrives at Ravenfall searching for his missing older brother and the supernatural creature who killed their parents, Anna jumps at the chance to help. But the mysteries tied to Colin go much deeper than either of them expects. . . .
   
  As the two team up to find answers, they unearth Colin’s family’s secret past and discover that Colin has powers beyond his imagination. And now the supernatural creature, one with eerie origins in Celtic mythology, is coming after him. If Anna and Colin can’t stop the creature by Halloween night, the veil to the Otherworld could be ripped open—which would spell destruction for their world as they know it.

Alex Foulkes - Author Interview (Q&A) - Rules for Vampires - Mr Ripley's Enchanted Books #23

Hello to you all. It's time to flap your fantasy wings and crack out the garlic in our second fantastic interview. I'm delighted to be able to introduce Alex Foulkes, who is the author of a dark, funny series called Rules for Vampires. Ghosts Bite Back is the second book in the series and will be published later this year (Sept 2022 by Simon and Schuster). We thought we would ask the 'jammy' author and school librarian some questions on how to keep Vampires at bay and how she 'staked' a claim in writing horror fiction. We hope you enjoy this 'bleeding' marvellous interview; did you like what I did there? Enjoy! You can buy the book Here. 

• Rules for Vampires is your first children's book, do you think Vampires actually have rules?

Yes! Vampires actually have loads of different rules throughout literary history - too many to include in one book. If you added in every vampire rule out there, you would have a very long story (and one that would contradict itself!) When I was writing Rules for Vampires, I wanted a clear set of Vampiric Laws to govern the world. I chose my faves and added a few of my own. My favourite Vampiric Law is probably concerning vampires being unable to enter uninvited, which I think is one of the coolest vampire limitations.

• Would your younger self enjoy reading this book and why?

The character of Leo is actually based on myself when I was eleven, as well as children I've worked with in my time as a school librarian and a teaching assistant. I was a weird sort of kid and Rules for Vampires is definitely a very weird story! When I was a young reader, I definitely wanted something with a bit of bite, lots of fight scenes, scares and laughs. This has been my checklist for Rules for Vampires.

• Are there any books that you have read that you think may have influenced your writing?

Oh, absolutely loads. A stand-out series is definitely Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, mostly for its gothic tone, amazing villain and eerie, unsettling atmosphere. I read these books growing up and absolutely wanted to be Violet Baudelaire! I think these stories have stayed with me all the way through to adulthood.

• How do you think Sara Ogilvie's illustrations add another dimension to the storytelling and did she also illustrate the wonderful book cover?

Sara Ogilvie absolutely did illustrate the spine-chilling cover for Rules for Vampires! Her artwork takes this story to another level; her imagining of these characters and this world is so rich, so fun and so detailed. When you pick up a copy of Vampires, Sara brings you into the Dreadwald in a way that words on their own wouldn't do quite as well. She's seriously magical. Her work on Leo in particular added additional depth to the way I now write this important character. I think it's because I have Sara's strong picture of Leo's design in my head as I write her.

• I read somewhere that "World Book Day would be your Jam." What would be your perfect World Book Day?

Hahaha! World Book Day is indeed my total jam - you've been on my author website! Fangs so much! World Book Day is an important day to librarians everywhere and I am no exception. My ideal WBD would definitely be in school, with lots of dress-up and fun activities. Of course an open, busy library. And - most important of all - sharing stories. Reading together. Talking about books. Of course, reading is for every day, but WBD is such an amazing celebration of reading for enjoyment, why not make a point of it? Discussing our favourite reads is so important.

• Ghosts Bite Back will be the second book in the series (published this September 2022). What can readers expect in this book and is humour a key role in this story?

If readers have enjoyed Rules for Vampires, they will find that Ghosts Bite Back is even BIGGER, even GHOSTLIER, with oodles of fights and laughs and chills. I wanted to take everything I loved about writing Vampires and turn it up to eleven for Ghosts. Leo and Minna are facing some serious danger in this story! In spite of this, humour is absolutely still a key element to Ghosts Bite Back. I find that, no matter what I write, having a lightness and a sense of fun is always important.

• What is the best thing about being a published author? 

The best thing about being a published author... is going into schools, libraries and bookshops and meeting readers. It's absolutely the best thing in the world. I also love talking to aspiring writers and hearing about their creativity and writing journeys.

• What question were you hoping I might have asked? (Please could you answer from the perspective of one of your characters in the book)

I have spoken to Rodrigo, Leo's spidery roommate, and he had this to say:

"You must want to know what it's like being the secret TRUE HERO of this story! Of course Rules for Vampires should have been called Rules for Spiders, as I am clearly the most important character on the page. My chapters are clearly the best. I'm working on being included in EVERY chapter of Ghosts Bite Back, as I think this would improve the story eightfold.

"I've found fame tricky to deal with, ever since Rules for Vampires came out. Paparazzi chase me at every turn. Please understand - I know I am a big deal and you want to put me on the cover of every magazine - but I am just a humble spider. So humble."

Mr Ripley's Enchanted Books - Fantastic Halloween Spooktacular Kids Book Reads 2021

 

Phil Hickes (Author), Keith Robinson (Illustrator) - The Bewitching of Aveline Jones: BK 2 - Published by Usborne Publishing Ltd (16 Sept. 2021) - ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1474972154 - Paperback 

Turn on your torches and join Aveline Jones! Aveline is thrilled when she discovers that the holiday cottage her mum has rented for the summer is beside a stone circle. Thousands of years old, the local villagers refer to the ancient structure as the Witch Stones, and Aveline cannot wait to learn more about them. Then Aveline meets Hazel. Impossibly cool, mysterious yet friendly, Aveline soon falls under Hazel's spell. In fact, Hazel is quite unlike anyone Aveline has ever met before, but she can't work out why. Will Aveline discover the truth about Hazel, before it's too late? The second in a deliciously spine-tingling, spooky series, where mysteries are always solved, spirits are always laid to rest, and everybody gets to bed on time.

Pádraig Kenny (Author), Edward Bettison (Illustrator) - The Monsters of Rookhaven - Published by Macmillan Children's Books (30 Sept. 2021) - ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1529031485 - Hardback 

Sometimes the monsters take us. Sometimes we become the monsters.
Mirabelle has always known she is a monster. When the glamour protecting her unusual family from the human world is torn and an orphaned brother and sister stumble upon Rookhaven, Mirabelle soon discovers that friendship can be found in the outside world.

But as something far more sinister comes to threaten them all, it quickly becomes clear that the true monsters aren't necessarily the ones you can see.

A thought-provoking, chilling and beautifully written novel, Pádraig Kenny's The Monsters of Rookhhaven, stunningly illustrated by Edward Bettison, explores difference and empathy through the eyes of characters you won't want to let go.

Chris Priestley - Freeze - Published by Barrington Stoke (2 Sept. 2021) - ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1781129838 Paperback 
When Maya and her classmates are asked to write a creepy story with a winter theme, they come up with some brilliant ideas. Rising floodwaters uncover long-buried bodies and ghostly children take to the ice on a frozen canal. But as each of the stories is read out in class, Maya grows more and more uncomfortable. She features in each of her friends’ creepy tales and they start to feel a little too real. Finally, when a mysterious new girl stands up to read the last story of the day, the light outside dims and it starts to snow. The classroom starts to freeze but everyone is trapped. Can Maya stop the story before the nightmare comes true?

Alex Foulkes (Author), Sara Ogilvie (Illustrator) - Rules of Vampires - Published by Simon & Schuster Children's UK (16 Sept. 2021) - ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1471199554 - Paperback 

There are highs and lows to being a vampire. On one claw, you get cool powers like beastly strength and hypnotism and the ability to GRIMWALK.  On the other claw, however, vampires are bound by the Vampiric Laws: rules to protect the balance between the worlds of the Living and the Undead.  And unfortunately, 11-year-old Leo has just forgotten rule number one . . . The Rules for Vampires don't tell you what to do when you make a ghostly enemy, or accidentally restart an ancient war.  But Leo and her very unusual family are more than up to the job.

A monstrously funny and devilishly dark new adventure from debut talent Alex Foulkes, illustrated throughout by the award-winning Sara Ogilvie, Rules for Vampires is the series that fans of Lemony Snickett and Skulduggery Pleasant will devour for breakfast.

Guest Post: Nick Tomlinson - The Ghouls of Howlfair - How I Became a Horror Writer

Hello everybody. The nights are getting darker and Halloween is getting closer. I hear you all asking, what's new in the scary kid's book world? What book is going to get your heart racing and your spine-tingling? Well, this is the book for you. It's the fantastic debut spooky mystery by Nick Tomlinson (illustrated by Kim Geyer). The Ghouls of Howlfair will be published by Walker Books this October (2019). This might just be the book that you've been looking for. 

Welcome, Nick, to Mr. Ripley's Enchanted Books. Thank you for writing this guest post about the book and how you became a Horror writer. I am sure that this post will entice everyone to pick this book up and read it this coming autumn. Bookdepository.com

Firing Jacob and Hiring Molly – How I Became a Horror Writer 
Aeons ago, after my first book (written for grown-ups) got good reviews but only sold four copies, I decided to become a children’s writer. Everyone was going loopy about Harry Potter, and becoming a famous children’s writer struck me as the best way to achieve my artistic dream of selling more than four books. Also, I’d had an amazing idea for a middle-grade fantasy story, and I wanted to write it before someone else got there first. 


In kids’ fantasy books, you tend to get the main character who journeys to a magical world (say, Narnia) from somewhere real (say, Smethwick). Often there’s a reason why the character’s destined to go to that fantasy world. They have credentials - they’ve defeated Voldemort or they’re meant to fulfil an ancient prophecy or something. This is where I tripped myself up: I had a good reason why my character, Jacob, was supposed to journey to my fantasy land (Howlfair, a scary town full of monsters), but it was so flipping complicated that it took me half the book to explain it. Jacob and my book were doomed from the start, but I wrote it anyway, and rewrote it, and rewrote it. 


There was something pure about my early efforts to write the book. Specifically, they were pure rubbish. Every other page saw some soothsayer step from behind a curtain and deliver a speech about a meaningful aspect of Jacob’s backstory. By the final scene, the monsters were so bored with delivering speeches that they wanted to be killed. 


My agent didn’t deal with children’s books, so we parted ways and now I had no agent. I wrote hundreds of drafts and sent them to scores of agents; many liked the opening chapters but spat out their coffee when I told them the final word-count. They’d advise me to cut fifty-thousand words, so I’d chop the manuscript in half and then neaten up the edges by adding some clarifying dialogue about Jacob’s highly significant past, and suddenly presto! The manuscript was even bigger than before. Like a self-renewing monster from Greek myth. 


I carried on hacking down and bulking up my manuscript for fifteen years, always convinced that the next draft would be the one that’d get published. 


My fantasy setting, Howlfair, was a town built over a gateway to Hell. Miners had accidentally opened the gateway, flooding the whole valley with monsters. The townsfolk had organised themselves into special groups to take on the monsters – the Order of Noble Vampire Hunters, the Order of the Silver Bullet, etc. My protagonist, Jacob, accidentally found himself joining a group of wimpy warrior-farmers that everyone else laughed at. But, owing to a three-hundred-page backstory involving a potion Jacob had drunk when he was four, Jacob’s destiny was to lead this rag-tag group in a mission to save Howlfair from a demon. It was a pretty good premise, I thought - but I couldn’t make it work. It wasn’t until I was lounging in a beer-barrel hot-tub on a dog-friendly eco-holiday in Wales, a holiday my wife and I had booked after adopting a dog we’d found outside a petrol station in Birmingham, that I suddenly realised how to save the story. 


What if I stopped trying to write a fantasy book and wrote horror instead? In horror, a character doesn’t go from Smethwick to Narnia. In horror, something malicious comes from Hell to Smethwick. Something evil invades the day-to-day. Your character doesn’t need a reason to go where the action happens, because in horror the action happens right here. 


Unfortunately, this meant that I had to fire poor Jacob. His backstory was a many-tentacled presence in my mind. The thought of him gave me vertigo. I needed a new protagonist, one without baggage. 


For a long time, a character called Molly Thompson had been patiently haunting my imagination. I’d never considered her for this story because she wasn’t a feisty brave hero like you nearly always get in kids’ fantasy books. She was a shy bookworm, based on the shy bookworms I’d taught in a Birmingham girls’ school, girls who described themselves as weird and clumsy and socially awkward. I’d hoped to write a book one day in which these girls could meet a character like themselves, a character who was shy and awkward but 
unstoppable, and Molly would be the star of that book. But the more I thought about it, the more I felt as though Molly wanted to be in my Howlfair story. 


I turned Howlfair from a fantasy world into a corny tourist town with lots of silly old legends about monsters, legends nobody believes in. Nobody, that is, except a shy, unstoppable amateur historian named Molly Thompson, who lives in the creepy Excelsior Guesthouse. Molly knows the old legends better than anyone else, and she certainly knows them well enough to spot when one of them – the legend of the Ghouls of Loonchance Manor – is starting to come true… 


How does Molly fare? Well, she’s definitely not your usual brave adventurer. But, though I feel bad for Jacob, I hope readers will agree that once the scary old stories of Howlfair begin coming to life and someone needs to stop them, Molly turned out to be the right person for the job.

Twitter: @Tomlinsonio
Website: https://www.nicktomlinson.com

Barry Hutchison (Author), Lee Cosgrove (Illustrator) - Night of the Living Ted - Mr Ripley's Enchanted Books Book Review

When Lisa Marie and her step-brother Vernon pop into town to get their dad a birthday present, they discover the Create-a-Ted shop is offering free Halloween bears! Making two grisly bears for themselves and choosing an Elvis bear named Bearvis for Dad, they head home. That night the shopkeeper brings the bears to life for nefarious purposes … but Vernon’s bear, Grizz, doesn’t want to be a slave to humans – he wants to rule the world! Converting the shopkeeper’s Stuff-U-Lator into a machine for turning living matter into stuffed bears, he begins to prowl the streets. Can the children and Bearvis save themselves – and the world – from being stuffed?

WARNING: No Teddy Bears were harmed in the making of this book - they were only stuffed!

One of the most asked questions we receive is: what books would you recommend for readers around the ages of six or seven that have a scary element to them but are not ghost stories? This for me would be a good start to answering this question. It is the latest book by Barry Hutchison entitled Night of the Living Ted. The first book in a brand new series, this has already been published by Stripes Publishing and is out in shops now. 

The book has been illustrated by Lee Cosgrove which makes it even more fun and appealing to this particular age group. The illustrations add life to a story that is already brilliant and very enjoyable. The book cover image is especially clever; it really gives the reader the idea of what to expect inside the cover. For me, it captures the essence that you will definitely love it and, if you don't then we will set the teddies on you. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED. Only five-star ratings on Amazon PLEASE. 

The magic of this book is that it will appeal to everybody regardless of age. You will laugh all the way through this crazy plotted story that harks back to the early books written by Barry Hutchinson's such as the INVISIBLE FIENDS series. The book is so funny that I found myself laughing on many occasions, especially if you are familiar with "THE KING" (Elvis Presley). The puns come quickly just like the action. The concept of the story revolves around Teddy Bears coming to life and wreaking havoc on their local neighborhood. Stealing, destroying and turning parents into slugs, what more could you want. It will both hook and transport you into the slightly sinister world of the author's childhood fantasies. (I think he might have read too many comics if you ask me!)

This book will provide great family entertainment. However, it also depicts the relationship between step-siblings and the feelings they have between each other. It develops another side to the story which just adds a little element of thinking.

You will never look at a Teddy Bear in the same way again. Those glassy eyes will be staring at you in a sinister way - you might want to watch your games console, just in case .... You'll certainly want the planet to be saved from these cuddly monsters. This is a five-star book full of fun, laughter and much much more .... Just watch your step and remember no teddy bear is to be trusted!