When Carolina Giddle moves into the Blatchford Arms, no one knows what to make of her sequin-sprinkled sneakers and her trinket-crusted car. But the parents are happy there’s a new babysitter around, and Carolina seems to have an uncanny ability to calm the most rambunctious child with her ghostly stories.
The once-grand apartment setting, eccentric character names, and many candlelit storytelling sessions call to mind children’s novels of yesteryear. Innerst’s moody illustrations make Carolina’s eerie tales feel all the more real. —Publishers Weekly
This middle-grade spookfest from Governor General Award winner Huser promises goose bumps and chills. —Kirkus Reviews
These moderately scary stories should make great read-aloud sessions, making this perfect fare for Halloween. —Booklist
Blatchford was scary any night of the year, not just on Halloween. It was a very old part of town with crooked streets and bad lighting. Cats yowled and scrapped in the alleys, and teenagers with tattoos hung out under the bridges by the park.
In the middle of it all, a huge apartment building loomed like a castle, darkened with age. It poked up above all the buildings around it. And when there was a full moon, its two towers looked like they were nibbling at it.
Some said it was haunted...
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Dwayne and Dwight didn’t notice the car creeping along the street beside them...
Inside the car, Carolina Giddle sighed and shook her head, so that the crystal globes dangling from her ears spun around. Sometimes, when things got out of kilter, spinning the crystals helped.
The truth was, she was lost. As she tried to look at a street map and steer, she wasn’t moving much faster than the boys ...
Carolina Giddle came to a full stop. She patted something about the size of a shoebox on the seat beside her. It was covered with a red bandana.
lS.