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Strange and stinky things are happening at Gloomsburg Castle. To begin with, the creepy place is crawling with TIBIGs (Tiny Biting Ghosts, per the Indispensable Alphabetical Index). And now it appears that the murderous spirit of a 400-year-old, Totally Moldy Baroness has possessed the palace's owner, infecting her with a killer case of hic-hic-hiccups!
To put an end to the foul play and dispel this rank, decaying royal for good, count on ghost-busting boy wonder Tom, Averagely Spooky Ghost Hugo, and the ever-resourceful Hetty. Go ghosthunters!
Gr 3-5
In Moldy Baroness , expert ghosthunter Hetty Hyssop, her young assistant Tom, and Hugo the ASG (or Averagely Spooky Ghost) track down the awful specter of a 17th-century baroness with a nasty streak. Hetty has invented ghost-catching technologies that come in handy when confronting the ghost of Jaspara von Gloomstone, who rides around Gloomsburg Castle on her spectral horse, body-nabbing anyone unlucky enough to be nearby, and thriving on the castle's electrical power. The only way to defeat her is for Tom to reenact her death, wearing one of her old gowns, and to persuade her to touch that dress. In Muddy Monster , the now-11-year-old Tom is ready to take the exam for his GhostHunting Diploma. Suspiciously, Professor Slimeblott gives the boy an "easy" assignment-to capture a ghost (only a Danger Category Three) in the village of Bogpool. But when Tom and the other ghosthunters arrive there, it soon becomes clear that solving the mystery of what's haunting Bogpool won't be safe or easy at all. These tales are more humorous than horrific, and their plots gallop along, accompanied by fun pen-and-ink cartoons. Hugo's constant tricks and complaints provide fine comic relief, and Hetty Hyssop always has another ghost-catching invention or formula up her sleeve.
—Walter MinkelCopyright 2006 Reed Business Information.
An ardent fan of such childhood classics as Tolkien's Ring Trilogy and the tales of C. S. Lewis and J. M. Barrie, Funke was naturally drawn to the world of fantasy. She explained her attraction in a 2006 interview with the genre blog Writer Unboxed: " [T]he wonderful thing about fantasy is that it is the oldest way of story telling -- to clad what we feel and fear into disguises and make them more clear, to pass the borders of our every day life and use our imagination for travels into unknown worlds and unlimited experiences."
Although Funke was an immediate success in her native Germany, she was largely unknown outside Europe -- that is, until a young bilingual fan wrote to a British publishing firm inquiring why her favorite author's books were not available in English. The publisher hunted down what was, at the time, Funke's most recent book (The Thief Lord) and, in 2002, published it in translation. Already the recipient of several literary honors in Europe, the engaging YA fantasy went on to win the 2002 Book Sense Book of the Year Award.
One by one, as they are translated into English and published in America, Funke's wonderful stories have become huge bestsellers. Her ingenuity, imagination, and artistry shine in stand-alone novels like Dragon Rider and the Inkworld Trilogy -- Inkheart (2003), Inkspell (2005), and Inkdeath (2008). She has also produced picture books for younger readers, including The Wildest Brother, Pirate Girl, and Princess Knight. Fans who worry that this natural-born storyteller will run out of ideas can take solace in an author interview conducted in 2008 by Britain's Daily Telegraph. Asked if she had many more books in mind, Funke replied, "Oh yes, I am quite sure I won't be able to write them all down in a lifetime."
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Posted January 3, 2013
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Overview
Strange and stinky things are happening at Gloomsburg Castle. To begin with, the creepy place is crawling with TIBIGs (Tiny Biting Ghosts, per the Indispensable Alphabetical Index). And now it appears that the murderous spirit of a 400-year-old, Totally Moldy Baroness has possessed the palace's owner, infecting her ...