The Spirit Snatcher

By Author / Illustrator

Cat Gray, David Dean

Genre

Adventure

Age range(s)

Publisher

Usborne Publishing

ISBN

9781801310048

Format

Paperback / softback

Published

28-09-2023

Synopsis

Welcome to Elbow Alley, home of the most monstrous mystery and a whole lot of spooky fun! Pip was not expecting his new neighbours to be vampires, banshees and ghosts. Worst of all is the mysterious spirit snatcher, which appears out of nowhere and sucks away people's personalities. When it attacks Pip's parents, the only way to save them is to find and destroy it. But no one knows who it is...

Along with his new friend Fliss and her dog Splodge, Pip sets out to investigate, facing murderous ghouls, werewolf attacks and a dangerously mouldy cheese. Because if he and Fliss can't stop the creature by their thirteenth birthdays, they'll be spirit-snatched too.

"More magic, mystery and mayhem from the amazing Cat Gray." Thomas Taylor, author of Malamander. "Fun and thrilling in equal measure, with a heart of spookiness and danger." Nicki Thornton, author of The Last Chance Hotel

Reviews

Pip Ruskin is embarrassed by his parents. It isn't just the wacky way they dress, or the fact that they never watch TV, or the way his mum makes him the smelliest lunches ever known, they are just different. Then, to make matters worse, they decide to up sticks and move their life to the dark and dingy Elbow Alley, in the hidden backstreets of London.

Then something appears in the dead of night; something evil, something strange, and Pip's parents are left as shells of themselves. With the help of local girl Fliss, he sets out to uncover the secrets of the inhabitants of Elbow Alley as he searches for the Spirit Snatcher. Can he solve the puzzle and save his parents before he turns 13? Or will he be doomed to be an empty shell for the rest of his life, too?

Cat Gray's book The Spirit Snatcher is an eerily mysterious whodunnit. Red herrings and false leads take us down many different paths, whilst introducing us to the mystical world of ancient creatures. And at the heart of her story, a young boy finds his first friendship in the most unusual of places, and learns that being proud of what we are is better than trying to be one of the faceless many.

Curriculum links to: mythical creatures, loneliness, isolation, belonging, friendship, accepting self, teamwork.

272 pages / Reviewed by Donna Burkert, teacher