Children in Key Stage Two are always asking for more scary books. With Hallowe’en just around the corner, The Corny Scaredy-Cat Paranormal Investigation Squad is the perfect mix of creepy and funny to keep readers turning pages long into the night.
When a new girl joins Alistair’s Year 6 class, he makes a friend who’s surprisingly interested in ghostly unsolved mysteries. Suddenly, his life is turned upside down as he finds himself a member of an unlikely team of ghost hunters. A dark cave, a mystical sword and an overactive little brother means Alistair and Saoirse end up in more trouble than they bargained for!
Alistair sees the world differently from the other children in his class. What he sees as nobody liking him is actually nobody quite understanding him and his neurodiversity. In Saoirse, he finds a friend who tries to understand him and challenges him to try new things – something he both loves and hates. There’s no mistake the result is an adventure he’ll never forget.
I’m so pleased to welcome author David Wandsworth to my blog with a special guest post:
Where did you get the idea for these characters?
Alastair is an exaggeration of my own neuroses and fears, which I think we all must have to some degree. Or maybe it’s just Alastair and me? In which case, I’m probably deserving of your pity, if not your outright contempt. While Saoirse is an attempt to write a cool girl character I would have wished to be friends with if I were Alastair’s age again. The story had to have someone competent and able to take control, as Alastair would only lead them into a closet to hide, while Billy would lead them directly off a cliff.
As far as Billy goes, I’ve always liked agents of chaos: the Marx Brothers, Jerry Lewis, Mr Bean, and all that lot. When you introduce them into a social situation, it’s like adding sulfuric acid to fruit punch—sit back and watch the party begin. There’s something anarchic and liberating in watching someone who clearly lacks all respect for authority and social norms get away with it. Billy evolved out of little games my daughter and I used to play with her figures. She’d be manipulating Peppa Pig and Suzy Sheep gathered for a birthday party, or a Sylvanian Family tidying their log cabin, when I’d usher in a smaller character who would burst open its potty mouth and act irrationally, violently and inexplicably, sowing chaos, confusion and the seeds of lifelong psychological scars amongst the other figurines—what’s not to love?
Find out more about The Corny Scaredy-Cat Paranormal Investigation Squad & David Wandsworth on the Everything With Words website:
www.everythingwithwords.com/book-author/david-wandsworth/
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Scope for Imagination 