Donald can see ghosts - and talk to them. His friend Merry can just about make them out. His mum is a clairvoyant, and is sometimes hired to talk to ghosts to put them to rest. His dad is dead - but lives on as a ghost in a big house in the woods playing records.
Donald's mum hears word that there are ghostly goings on on the South West coast, so Donald and Merry accompany her to a caravan holiday park to investigate. Unfortunately, the rather unpleasant boy Danny also turns up there with his family and latches onto them. They also encounter the scary Estella, a very clever medium, who hatches an evil plan to get rid of the ghostly monsters once and for all. Donald finds himself in a life threatening situation - how will he get out of this alive?
This is a very funny story for about 10 year olds - Ally really gets you giggling on each page. Sometimes the writing and the story is a little loose and haphazard, but overall I really enjoyed it. I also loved her last book - Midnight Pirates.
Midnight Pirates
by Ally Kennen
Gosh, what a lot of action in this book - jam packed! At first, I thought there was TOO much, it jumped around a bit too much, but it soon settles down into a good adventure. On the plus side too, it's set in Cornwall, so I could put a few towns in the map and knew whereabouts the author was setting the story.
Miranda and her brothers Jackie and Cal (cool surfer dude, with great surf-talk which makes you giggle) live in a hotel which is owned and run by their parents. The hotel is right on a cliff overlooking the beach and the kids just love it. However, the parents run into financial difficulties and have to put the hotel up for sale. They take a break abroad and send the kids to a boarding school for a few weeks while they're away. The kids never make it to the school - they run back to the hotel, phone the agents to tell them the house is off the market, and start to take in holiday-makers to keep the money coming in. Unbeknownst to them, some of the tourists are not who they seem and trouble is lurking on their own doorstep.
A great adventure for 9+. If you like Cornwall based adventure stories, then try Itch by Simon Mayo, Dead Man's Cove by Lauren St John, The Whistling Caves by Helen Moss, North of Nowhere by Liz Kessler and Fritha's Summer by Susan Morris.
