Product Description

Can two children foil an outrageous criminal plot with the help of some of the funniest and maddest ghosts ever invented? Clawstone Castle is ancient and famous, but its elderly owners have no money. In its great park live a legendary herd of wild white cattle that have roamed there since the days of the Druids, and now their future is threatened. Rollo and Madlyn come to stay with their uncle and aunt and, with the help of a mysterious recluse in the castle library, they collect an impressive team of phantoms who agree to help them turn Clawstone into a tourist attraction. There's a bloodstained bride, an aristocrat whose chest is permanently gnawed by a rat, a girl who was sawn in half in a circus, a pair of feet without a body, and more. Paying visitors soon pour through the gates. But then a terrible fate befalls the cattle, and the ghosts and the children find themselves facing some very sinister enemies.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2215514 in Books
• Published on: 2005-05-06
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 192 pages

From School Library Journal
Grade 5-8–Victims of busy parents, Madlyn, 11, and Rollo, 9, go to stay with an eccentric cast of relatives at Clawstone Castle. Along with Great-Aunt Emily, her brother Great-Uncle George, and no-longer-living Cousin Howard, the real attraction is the legendary and noble Wild White Cattle herd. The children join the family's endeavors to support the animals by turning the place into a museum, but when the bovines are cow-napped, each family member plays a part in their return, along with Ibbotson's usual cadre of banshees and ghosts, as well as a pair of Scottish feet. Everything readers like about this author is present in good amounts. From the first chapter, they will make an emotional connection with Madlyn and Rollo and with the impoverished, yet creative castle denizens. While a ghost with a rat munching on its heart may not leave a pleasant feeling in one's stomach, it cannot be denied that it is memorable, even more so when Ibbotson convinces readers to pity the rat. She deftly brings in such contemporary issues as land development, animal rights, and the environment without creating an obvious message. The story's quest pattern (find the cows!) makes the plot easy to follow and well structured, accompanied by humorous and disgusting details aplenty. Hawkes's whimsical, full-page line drawings are scattered throughout. More of a page-turner than some of Ibbotson's recent stories, this novel will find a following among readers of Suzanne Collins's Gregor the Overlander (Scholastic, 2003) or Angie Sage's Septimus Heap series (HarperCollins).–Caitlin Augusta, The Darien Library, CT
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
Eleven-year-old Madlyn and her younger brother, Rollo, are sent to stay with their great-aunt and -uncle Clawstone at crumbling Clawstone Castle, only to be embroiled in the castle's financial troubles; the castle must attract more paying visitors to maintain its legendary herd of Wild White cattle. To compete with a nearby attraction, the castle needs some chills and thrills, so the Clawstones select some vulgar, terrifying ghosts and set up such a frightening show that tourists scream, faint, and retch--only to return with their friends. Through the machinations of some unknown persons, however, the Clawstones lose the cattle, leaving the children (and the ghosts) with a mystery to solve. Plot embellishments are sometimes distracting, and the convoluted story comes together in a series of coincidences. Ibbotson's charismatic ghosts are great, however------as human as they are horrific--and there's plenty of quirky humor in this energetic, diverting read, loaded with charm. Krista Hutley
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
The book offers a plethora of tangled threads and comic characters. -- Publishers Weekly

Customer Reviews

New book by Ibbotson
This book was published in England in May 2005 and will release in USA in 2006. So I bought the British copy as I could not wait for another marvelous story from Eva to send me into stitches of laughter.

In the story a brother and sister, Madlyn and Rollo, are sent to stay with their kindly Uncle at his "Castle Clawstone" set in the Scottish Highlands. On arrival they find out the dreamy sounding castle is falling apart. The castle is under a huge debt and no funds are available for repair. There are friendly ghosts living in the castle, as well as some rare wild white cattle living on the property and they are at risk if the castle isn't saved. And who is the mysterious being hiding in the library? The siblings have auditions with ghosts to find the best ghosts to scare visitors to complete their plan to turn the castle into a haunted tourist attraction. As usual; Ibbotson's ghosts are nutty as they can be including the Bloodstained Bride ,a pair of hairy Scottish feet without a body, a girl cut in half in a magic act, and others. Madlyn turns out to be a natural financial genius and they start making money. But a neighbor has very evil plans for the cattle, and it will take every effort by the siblings and their new alllies to fight back. I highly reccommend!