Age 7-9

There is something old-fashioned about this enjoyable tale, not simply because it concerns the ghosts of a Victorian kitchen boy and his grandfather, who was a butler. It speaks to its young audience clearly, without postmodern tricks, or allusions aimed at adults reading aloud; it uses such tried and tested elements as vivid characters, a chase and a heart-warming ending. For all its simplicity and light-heartedness, it is gently educational. It tells you in passing, for instance, that there were no sewers in Georgian times, and that Assisi is in Umbria, in Italy. It dares to introduce such words as “woad”, “orangery”, “narrowboat”, “ingot” and “acetylene blowtorch”. And it has unexpected thoughts, such as: “There is nothing like the deep peace of a walled garden.” It is the story of a couple of ghosts who win a holiday in a hotel that specialises in spirits; the boy ghost befriends a modern girl who joins in a burglar-foiling exploit. Throughout, the ghosts lament how they miss their human senses; the reassuring theme is that being alive is better.

(Bloomsbury £4.99)

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