Frightfully Friendly Ghosties by Daren King

Frightfully Friendly Ghosties by Daren King
Buy Frightfully Friendly Ghosties by Daren King at Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com
Category: Confident Readers
Reviewer: Keith Dudhnath
Summary: Daren King is as great as always, this time turning his attention to a loveable band of ghosties who try to rescue one of their number from a locked attic and a leggy spider. It oozes charm and silliness by the bucketload. Recommended.
Buy? Yes	Borrow? Yes
Pages: 128	Date: February 2010
Publisher: Quercus
ISBN: 978-1847249937
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Pamela Fraidy has gotten herself locked in the attic with a leggy spider. Her fellow frightfully friendly ghosties are doing all they can to help her, but it's not easy to pick up a key and carry it up the stairs if you don't have a body. In the process of rescuing their friends, they also decide to make friends with the still-alives who inhabit their house. The ghosties are fed up of the still-alives being so mean - running off screaming every time the ghosties say hello.

We love Daren King here at the Bookbag. As I read Frightfully Friendly Ghosties, I had to keep reminding myself it wasn't Sensible Hare. It's one of our absolute favourite books for confident readers, so any comparisons wouldn't really be fair. Go buy and read Sensible Hare and come back here when you've finished. ...All done? Loved it, didn't you? Great. Thought you would. Now you'll want to read Frightfully Friendly Ghosties. The simple plot is a perfect hook for the quirky characters and their daft ideas to hang on. The numbering scheme for the ghosties' three rules, in particular, is just pure genius!

It's ostensibly a ghost story, but really it's just Daren King being Daren King, letting his imagination run wild and getting kids to snigger along with the silliness. I'd have liked the daftness cranked up even further, but that's just me being greedy. It's silly, it's charming, it's a joy to read. The writing is clear and crisp, allowing the plot to toddle along at its natual pace, but always willing to throw in a silly joke to keep the audience amused.

I love silliness. I love cheesy bits repeated over and over. Charlie Vapour often tips his hat because it's the polite thing to do. It's not even really a joke, but pausing to do it time and time again... and again... and again... gives Frightfully Friendly Ghosties a delightfulness that raises it above a light read. It's the sort of book that you'll want to dig out when you're not sure what else to read. It's the sort of book you'll want to flick through when you're too old to be reading a book for confident readers. Recommended.

Must. Not. Re-mention. Unfair. Comparison.

My thanks to the publishers for sending it to Bookbag.

For more daftness (I'm going for the record of the most uses of the word daft in a review), check out Toad Surprise by Morris Gleitzman, Stone Goblins by David Melling and A Children's Treasury of Milligan by Spike Milligan.

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