The Great Ghost Rescue

by Eva Ibbotson, Alex T. Smith (Illustrator)

Overview

With a beautiful cover illustration by Alex T. Smith, creator of the Claude series, The Great Ghost Rescue is a wonderfully spooky young fiction title from the award-winning author of Journey to the River Sea, Eva Ibbotson.

'Nobody knew what had gone wrong with Humphrey. Perhaps it was his ectoplasm . . .'

Humphrey the Horrible sounds scary, but he's actually a very friendly skeleton, with twinkling eye sockets and jangling finger bones. Humphrey dreams of being ghastly, like his brother – a screaming skull – or terrifying, like his bloodsucking vampire-bat cousins. But when Humphrey discovers an evil plot to exorcise his family, he finally realizes you don't have to be spine-chillingly fearsome to be a hero.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780330477475
Publisher:	Pan Macmillan
Publication date:	09/04/2008
Sold by:	Macmillan
Format:	eBook
Pages:	160
File size:	893 KB
Age Range:	7 - 11 Years

About the Author

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. Journey to the River Sea won the Nestlé Gold Award and was shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal, the Whitbread Children's Book of the Year and the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize. Some of her other young fiction titles include The Secret of Platform 13, Which Witch? and The Great Ghost Rescue. Eva died peacefully in October 2010 at the age of eighty-five.
Eva Ibbotson was born in Vienna in 1925 and moved to England with her father when the Nazis came into power. Ibbotson wrote more than twenty books for children and young adults, many of which garnered nominations for major awards for children's literature in the UK, including the Nestlé Smarties Book Prize and the Whitbread Prize. Eva's critically acclaimed Journey to the River Sea won the Smarties Gold Medal in 2001. Set in the Amazon, it was written in honour of her deceased husband Alan, a former naturalist. Imaginative and humorous, Eva's books often convey her love of nature, in particular the Austrian countryside, which is evident in works such as The Star Of Kazan and A Song For Summer. Eva passed away at her home in Newcastle on October 20th 2010. Her final book, One Dog and His Boy, was published in May 2011.

Alex T. Smith has drawn and written stories since he could hold a pencil. After considering several career options (space traveller, cake maker, professional rabbit), Alex decided to train to do the job he’d wanted to do since he was five – an illustrator specializing in the world of children’s publishing.

Alex graduated with a first-class degree in Illustration in 2006 and also won second place in the Macmillan Prize for Illustration in his final year. Since then Alex has gone on to work for a wide variety of clients, not just in the publishing industry, as well as writing and illustrating his own picture books, many of which have won prizes and have been read on TV during the Bedtime Hour on the CBeebies channel. Alex is also the creator of the bestselling Claude series for early readers, now an animated TV series on Disney Junior. His wonderful Christmas adventure How Winston Delivered Christmas is published by Macmillan Children's Books.

When not working, Alex enjoys doodling in his sketchbook, reading, people-watching and eavesdropping. He is also a big fan of cake and a nice cup of tea. He lives with and under the constant ‘supervision’ of his canine companions in Warwickshire.

Editorial Reviews

Eva Ibbotson unleashes a host of displaced ghosts in this spookily spirited book that'll keep you laughing! When construction workers begin remodeling dismal Craggyford Castle to build a holiday camp, the family of ghosts residing there -- including a father named the Gilding Kilt, a Hag for a mother, screaming George, Wailing Winifred, and gentle Humphrey the Horrible -- decide they must find new digs. Stumbling into a school dormitory, they meet Rick, a student who learns the only real help for them is Britain's prime minister himself. After a number of other ghosts join their cause, along with a couple of hauntings to make a few nonbelievers in ghosts shiver in their shoes, Rick and the ghost family finally wind up at 10 Downing Street, where they are awarded a marvelously "hulking black ruin" named Insleyfarne Castle. But have the ghosts really found their dream home, or is it a political plot to get rid of them? Loaded with lighthearted adventure that's ghastly exciting, The Great Ghost Rescue is another imaginative treat from the author of Which Witch? and The Secret of Platform 13.

bn.com

Eva Ibbotson is inventive and witty and writes with great fluency and charm. (Philip Pullman, author of "The Golden Compass")

"Eva Ibbotson is inventive and witty and writes with great fluency and charm."

From the Publisher