Hey everyone! I'm so excited to be bringing back my first book review in a while for Bella Bright and the Ghost Game by Carolyn Ward. Not only that, I am lucky enough to be part of the blog tour for this awesome book!
If you would like to check out any of the other posts on the blog tour, check out the schedule and bloggers below:
Let's start with the synopsis for this story, Bella Bright and the Ghost Game:
Eleven-year-old Bella Bright has just moved into Darkling House in Castleton. On her first day at her new school, she is spotted by a pair of manipulative mean girls, Skylar and Regan. They push her into inviting them to a Halloween sleepover. Another much friendlier girl, Lex, comes to Bella's rescue and offers to join the sleepover to support Bella, who is delighted to be making a real friend.
On Halloween night, things start getting spooky for the four girls, when the huge front door appears to shut itself and their mobile phones lose signal. They decide to order pizza using the landline, but a hair-raising whisper comes down the line.
Skylar suggests they play hide and seek but, as she utters the words, the house appears to wobble and they discover all the exits are impossibly locked. Bella searches the manor and a ghostly teenage girl appears in front of her. She reveals herself to be Alice, a young girl who died in the house 150 years ago during a game of hide and seek gone terribly wrong. She has hidden Bella's three friends and gives Bella a rhyming clue to find them in the enormous and cavernous house.
Bella has until midnight. After that, Alice will get to keep the girls as her playmates for ever...
Well, I was immediately hooked in by that description!
I love a good child-friendly Halloween story (it's the same when it comes to Halloween films) and middle grade reads are a favourite of mine in general, being a Year 6 primary school teacher. I even had a couple of children in mind to pass this on to after I'd finished it. Both were interested and apparently going to read it together over FaceTime, exchanging the book each day and taking it in turns to read. So wholesome!
Anyway, before they could read it, it was my turn. First of all, I loved the map on the first page. I don't know why, I just love a book with a map - especially as this map showed the layout of the house. This was great to flick back to during the book when Bella starts searching the house during the creepy game of hide and seek.
I was hooked in from the first chapter. Starting with arriving at a spooky, almost certainly haunted house was a winner for me. I was also pulled in by the fact that ghostly antics started right from that first chapter too.
Even though this book is for middle grade readers, it doesn't scrimp on the tension, drama and suspense. Carolyn Ward is a very talented writer when it comes to writing suspenseful situations. Experiencing the tension as Bella is looking for the others, as time ticks away, is certainly one of the many elements that kept me reading
I also love a book when you actually connect with the main character and want them to succeed. You can tell from the start that she's rather fed up with moving around for her mum's work and just wants a 'normal' life where she can settle and make friends. This story introduces the opportunity of a friend in the character of Lex, but the story of her moving into this manor house and having this sleepover was anything but normal.
Without any spoilers, I must say that the biggest moment for me in the book was the reveal of how Alice came to be a ghost. I also really liked Alice's character from the beginning. You could see why she acted in certain ways and what had driven her to that. I was nice to connect with both the hero of the story and the so-called villain.
I have to make a special mention about Beatriz Castro's glorious illustrations. Her art style in incredible and I found myself looking at the line detail in her drawings for ages. My personal favourites, if you have the book, are the full-page illustrations on pages 48, 165 and 259. They really add to the story and it's nice to see a chapter book for younger readers that still keeps the magic of pictures alive. I know so many children that would connect with this book more than others just because of those picture breaks... although I personally didn't love the rather life-like spider sketches on one particular page!
Overall, I thought this was a great book. It's well paced, spooky and the perfect middle grade Halloween read!
I'm also excited to be sharing an activity pack full of fun pages, including a wordsearch, quiz and symmetry art. You can download these great resources here.
I have just started a 'Cosy Club' at my school where children can come and read, draw or do activity sheets such as these, in a calm, quiet environment with blankets and cushions, so you can guarantee these activity sheets will be out in my room for today's Cosy Club!
Thank you for taking the time to read my review. Do check out the book - it's awesome - and drop in on the other posts on the tour too!
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