Philip Cullen

Barnabus Kwerk’s dreadfully rich, horrible family keep him locked in the attic, when all he wants is to go to school and be a normal boy. But Barnabus is far from normal. When Aunt Jemima appears, Barnabus learns she knows all the secrets: about his family, about his missing mother, about his unique gifts. She steals Barnabus away to the centre of the Earth where his life is turned upside-down.

Riley Cain enlists some literary magic to provide a countdown of poems for Halloween, in a book which is brightly written and vividly illustrated. Poems range from the lighthearted (a house inhabited by mummies and Banshees), to the wonderfully absurd (sweet-loving Vikings) to the genuinely haunting (The Phantom Highwayman).