The Haunting of Granite Falls - Hardcover

Eva Ibbotson, born Maria Charlotte Michelle Wiesner (21 January 1925 20 October 2010), was an Austrian-born British novelist, known for her children's books. Some of her novels for adults have been successfully reissued for the young adult market in recent years. For the historical novel Journey to the River Sea (Macmillan, 2001), she won the Smarties Prize in category 911 years, garnered unusual commendation as runner up for the Guardian Prize, and made the Carnegie, Whitbread, and Blue Peter shortlists. She was a finalist for the 2010 Guardian Prize at the time of her death. Her last book, The Abominables, was one of eight books on the longlist for the same award in 2012.

Gr. 3-7. When Hiram C. Hopgood purchases a Scottish castle, called Castle Cara, for his daughter, Helen, and has it shipped back to Texas, he has no idea that he has also acquired a coterie of ghosts that have lived in the castle for hundreds of years. But after Helen and the castle's former owner, 12-year-old orphan Alex MacBuff, who has accompanied Hopgood to America, are kidnapped, it's the resident ghosts (including Krok, a Viking warrior; Miss Spinks, a governess intent on drowning herself; Stanislaus, a toothless vampire; Flossie, a child/poltergeist; and Cyril, a hellhound) who come to the rescue. Ibbotson, the author of The Great Ghost Rescue (2002) and numerous other humorous fantasies, excels in her depiction of quirky characters, and the idea of Scottish ghosts in rural Texas adds absurdity to the convoluted, comical plot. Briticisms abound, but they should pose few problems for American readers already familiar with Harry Potter. Kay Weisman
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