Goth Girl – Kaycee And Ella’s Book Club & Book Review #19

Goth Girl

Kaycee and Ella haven’t had a book club this month yet. They’ve both been busy with school projects and family outings.
We’re hoping to organise it in the next week or so. At least everyone has had plenty of time to read their books!

Looking ahead to book club next month, they received Goth Girl and the Ghost of a Mouse to review. It’s written and illustrated by children’s laureate, Chris Riddell. Kaycee started reading it first and she’s going to pass it on to Ella when she’s done.

We’re passing it around to each member of the book club and Kaycee’s going to get them all to dress like Goth Girl when they meet to discuss the book.
I can’t wait to see them all dressed up and to share the photos with you!

Cover Design

I have to say I love the design of the cover. I was a wannabe goth when I was a teenager, I just never had the courage to be different to everyone else!
The book is aimed at readers aged 7 – 11 but speaking as a 40-year-old reader, it’s got something for everyone.

Goth Girl and the Ghost of a Mouse is the first book in the Goth Girl series. The illustrations make the book for me. They actually made me long for the days when all the books I read had pictures!

Ada Goth

The book centres on Ada Goth.

She’s the only child of Lord Goth of Ghastly-Gorm Hall.

Her mother died when she was little. She looks just likes her mother and her father can’t face seeing her too often because it makes him sad.

He makes her wear big clumpy boots so that when he hears her coming, he can go into his study to avoid her.

It all sounds quite sad when it’s put like that but Ada understands why her father acts the way he does. They do spend time with each other once a week when Ada takes tea with him.

Ishmael

At the start of the book, we’re introduced to the little ghost mouse whose name is Ishmael.

I have to say, though, it’s another sad part when Ishmael’s telling Ada how he followed a delicious smell to a part of the house he wasn’t familiar with when…. SNAP! He was white and see-through and hovering in the air.

Plenty Of Humour

It’s not a sad book, though, it’s really not, no matter what impression I’ve just given you from my review! It’s funny and entertaining and just a really good read. I laughed out loud when we saw Ada’s previous governesses. Hebe Poppins, who kept bursting into song was my particular favourite!
When she found that Ada wasn’t unhappy or shy, she ran away with Van Dyke, the chimney sweep!

Ada is sometimes lonely so she’s very happy when she meets William and Emily. They’re the children of an inventor whom Ada’s father invited to stay at the hall and then forgot about.
William and Emily are members of the Attic Club and Ada asks them if she can join. Other members include the young maids who aren’t normally allowed to talk to Ada.
When one maid asks if she’ll get into trouble for talking to Ada, Emily tells her, ‘what happens in the Attic Club, stays in the Attic Club’!

I love the little nods to other literary works, historical figures and movies, like Fight Club, Peter Pan, Frankenstein and Mary Shellfish, the novelist! It’s these that makes the book enjoyable to older readers.

I can’t wait for Ella to read this book, she’s going to love it. I know the rest of the Goth Girl books will be on the birthday wishlists on Amazon very soon 🙂

Amazon Blurb

Here’s the blurb from Amazon where it’s now available to buy in paperback.

Chris Riddell’s Goth Girl and the Ghost of a Mouse is the beautifully illustrated winner of the Costa Children’s Book Award.

Ada Goth is the only child of Lord Goth. The two live together in the enormous Ghastly-Gorm Hall. Lord Goth believes that children should be heard and not seen, so Ada has to wear large clumpy boots so that he can always hear her coming. This makes it hard for her to make friends and, if she’s honest, she’s rather lonely.

Then one day William and Emily Cabbage come to stay at the house and, together with a ghostly mouse called Ishmael, the three children begin to unravel a dastardly plot that Maltravers, the mysterious indoor gamekeeper, is hatching. Ada and her friends must work together to foil Maltravers before it’s too late!