Groosham Grange

Forced to attend Groosham Grange by his frustrated parents, thirteen-year-old David Eliot is shocked by the strange things he sees and quickly comes to understand the beastly nature of the people who attend and teach there after dark secrets are suddenly revealed.

From School Library Journal

Grade 4–6—This dark, sinister tale, which reads like a cross between Lemony Snicket's books (HarperCollins) and R. L. Stine's "Goosebumps" series (Scholastic), involves maniacal parents, supernatural monsters, and some difficult choices for its characters. David Eliot's parents make the Dursleys from "Harry Potter" seem like a loving family. Not only are they mentally abusive, but they are also horrifyingly physically abusive (Mr. Eliot throws a knife at David and is nonplussed when it ends up in his wife's chest instead). After David is expelled from school, a mysterious letter arrives, offering him a place at a boarding school located on its own island off Norfolk, England. On the train trip to Groosham Grange, David meets a boy and girl who have also been sent away for not measuring up to standards. Once they arrive, they discover strange, otherworldly teachers and students who behave in a secretive manner, rising from their beds at midnight and disappearing without a trace. David and his friends must discover the secret of Groosham Grange before their 13th birthdays, when they will be forced to make a difficult decision that will change their lives forever. Though the author portrays punishments and moments of cruelty as absurd and unrealistic, these instances may disturb some readers. Still, the mysteries, elements of witchcraft and the supernatural, and occasional instances of humor may appeal to fans of (mostly) bloodless horror.—Debra Banna, Sharon Public Library, MA Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Horowitz takes a step away from his Alex Rider series to fashion a funny little spot of horror for a younger set of readers in this riff on the classic boarding-school tale. After David Elliot is expelled from a private school, he is invited to enroll in a mysterious boarding school called Groosham Grange. The school, a sort of bizarro Hogwarts, has a faculty of vampires, ghouls, and worse, and all the students have phony names, sport matching black-stone rings, and don’t seem to mind being taught by monsters. For the most part, David’s subsequent adventures and attempts to escape the school are more zany than scary, but there’s still plenty of yikes moments and eerie passages peppered among the silliness. The cartoonishly evil folks at Groosham make a fine point that as bad as they may seem, they’ve never dropped an atomic bomb on anyone, and are just the sort of “rather pleasantly evil” characters ideal to give kids a few goose bumps in between snickers. Grades 5-8. --Ian Chipman

About the Author

Anthony Horowitz has been called “the busiest writer in Britain” by a major British newspaper—and with good reason. He is passionate about his work, often writing ten hours a day as he tries to balance multiple careers as a popular novelist, playwright, and screenwriter for television and movies. He is also the author of The Devil and His Boy and the Diamond Brothers Mysteries. Mr. Horowitz lives in London with his wife, Jill, and their two sons, Nicholas and Cassian.

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