Shortlisted for the 2015 CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal - Winner of the Costa Children's Book Award 2013 Bestselling author/illustrator Chris Riddell creates a fantastical world in which Ada Goth, daughter of the strange Lord Goth of Ghastly-Gorm Hall, is growing up. Ada’s mother is dead and her father is very, very strange! Surrounded by a motley crew of servants and many ghosts, Ada’s life is lonely until she meets Ishmael, a ghostly mouse. Soon Ada and Ishmael are off on some very special adventures! Magic and invention pour forth in this splendidly entertaining story which is also packed full of jokes. Chris Riddell’s illustrations bring everything he imagines to life.
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The Costa Book Awards honour some of the most outstanding books of the year written by authors based in the UK and Ireland.
The full shortlist for the Children's Book Award is...
A beautiful fresh cover for the paperback edition of Chris Riddell's Costa Award-winning Goth Girl and the Ghost of a Mouse. Illustrated in black and white thoughout, full of adventure and dark humour, it is perfect for children aged 8 to 11!
Ada Goth is the only child of Lord Goth. The two live together in the enormous Ghastly-Gorm Hall. Lord Goth believes that children should be heard and not seen, so Ada has to wear large clumpy boots so that he can always hear her coming. This makes it hard for her to make friends and, if she's honest, she's rather lonely.
Then one day William and Emily Cabbage come to stay at the house and, together with a ghostly mouse called Ishmael, the three children begin to unravel a dastardly plot that Maltravers, the mysterious indoor gamekeeper, is hatching. Ada and her friends must work together to foil Maltravers before it's too late!
Continue this deliciously dark series with Goth Girl and the Fete Worse Than Death, Goth Girl and the Wuthering Fright and Goth Girl and the Sinister Symphony.
a deliciously dark offering from the award winning author illustrator of Ottoline The Bookseller's Buyers Guide
...the most covetable book of the year. It is simply the most outstandingly beautiful piece of book design and production...This book is a triumph from an author and illustrator at the height of his powers... ReadingZone
I'm sure this will become a cherished book and will be opened more than once. The Book Bag
Both illuminated and illuminating this is a magnum opus from the singular talent of Chris Riddell and is certain to be the jewel in the crown of every book case it adorns. Droplets of Ink
What I discovered with this book is that [Chris Riddell]'s a pretty children's writer... This whole book is a delight - a worthy winner of the Costa children's book award. awfullybigreviews.blogspot.co.uk
Through its entertaining play of surface trappings, the book opens out into a varied network of gothic texts that lead the reader down several enticing garden paths - reminiscent of the overgrown gardens that surround Ghastly-Gorm Hall itself. I urge readers to give into the temptations offered by the sumptuous packaging, and enter the delightfully silly world of Goth Girl and the Ghost of a Mouse. Have fun exploring! gothic.stir.ac.uk
Fans of Chris Riddell's Ottoline books will love this quirky story. With its purple-edged pages and silver-foiled endpapers, this beautifully-designed book is a real treasure. Booktrust
Goth Girl and the Ghost of a Mouse is a warm, witty and beautifully illustrated and presented book which delivers an original, entertaining and heart-warm tale of courage, friendship and loyalty as well as a teeny, weeny surprise tucked into the back cover. Lancashire Evening Post
This is an extravagantly well produced book... Great detail in both pictures and words work in unison so that it is all sheer delight in the long tradition of entertaining codswallop. Codswallop of the highest order and a compulsive read for many youngsters. The School Librarian
Author
About Chris Riddell
Children's Laureate 2015-2017
Chris Riddell, the 2015-2017 UK Children's Laureate, is an accomplished artist and the political cartoonist for the Observer. His books have won a number of major prizes, including the 2001, 2004 and 2016 CILIP Kate Greenaway Medals. Goth Girl and the Ghost of a Mouse won the Costa Children's Book Award 2013. His includes the bestselling Ottoline books, The Emperor of Absurdia, and, with Paul Stewart, the Muddle Earth books, the Scavenger series and the Blobheads series.
Chris has been honoured with an OBE in recognition of his illustration and charity work. Chris lives in Brighton with his family.
Chris Riddell on John Tenniel : "Before I knew a thing about him, John Tenniel was a hero of mine, or rather, I should say, his white rabbit was. As a child I copied Tenniel’s illustrations from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland obsessively, particularly his drawing of the White Rabbit in waistcoat and frock coat, umbrella tucked under one arm and a pocket watch in paw, a look of suppressed panic in his eye. I loved analysing the shading, intricate lines of cross-hatching, the folds of the sleeve, the tilt of the head, that wide-eyed rabbit stare. Tenniel was one of the reasons I became an illustrator."
