Spooky recommendation for this 2021 year!
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A typical December for the Alexanders consists of gingerbread baking, movies, and looking at Christmas lights, but after their parents are called in to work, Ava, Nolan, and Charlotte are sent to stay with their most feared relative for a week-Great-Aunt Poppy. Have mom and dad gone mad?
Of course, the children are terrified. Who wouldn't be? No one believes them when they say that Poppy-or Groppy as they call her-is a witch. If the haunted house isn't bad enough, there are thousands of crazy cats, chaotic and deadly spells, and even worse-frightening howls from the woods that grow louder and closer every second. Something deadly lurks outside. Staying alive while living with Groppy for an entire week is-well-impossible!
In order to survive the holiday, it will take all the bravery and wit the kids can muster. But who knows? Things aren't always what they seem! The best holiday surprise this Christmas might be hiding in the most unlikely place imagined!
Spooky is the genre of the year I feel like and sometimes kids think they're ready for scary, spooky, suspense; but in reality they don't want it that scary - this is the BEST recommendation for those kiddos! This was the right amount of spooky-esque and so well written that kids are going to buy in big time. Ava, Nolan, and Charlotte are just like all kids their age. They're about to go stay with a great-aunt they hardly know and not looking forward to this moment whatsoever. Everything their "Groppy" tells them not to do... they do. Ending and resulting in amazing adventures along the way. Of course with disagreements and disobedience comes getting into a little bit of trouble, but throughout all of that they learn how to be together, work together, and use teamwork.
Magic
Mayhem
Mystical Creatures
The magical creation that is perfect for the holiday season, but slightly eerie.. only in a slightly way.
These are a few of my favorite reviews I read on Goodreads!
Wouldn’t you just love to spend Christmas in a haunted house with a real witch? Well, the Alexander children are about to do just that! Ava is the oldest of the three siblings and is the only one who has ever met Great-Aunt Poppy. After meeting her she nicknamed her Great-Aunt Groppy because she dressed and looked like a Groppy. Nolan and Charlotte, Ava’s younger siblings, thought that Ava was just exaggerating… that is until they actually met her themselves. (Insert creepy music here)!
Would you stay with a witch for a week?
Great-Aunt “Groppy” sure dressed the part of a witch with her all black clothes, purple and green striped socks, and big moles on her face that you could see for miles. And her house? Oh yeah, it fit the part to with spider webs in every crook and cranny, paint peeling, and shutters hanging on by just a nail. And did I mention the cats? Black cats with yellow beady eyes? It seemed like there were hundreds and hundreds of them. Not to mention the owls on the wallpaper that seemed to watch you wherever you went. And the blood-curdling howls that came from the woods that surrounded the house. Oh my!!
Forget a week! Would you stay even one night???
The Alexander children didn’t have a choice. Their parents were both doctors and the week before Christmas was horrible at the hospital with all kinds of sickness. The Alexander children would have to spend Christmas in a haunted house with a witch and hundreds of black cats. Could things get even worse? Oh yes, especially when Groppy tells them “Don’t go up the stairs!” Wait, what?
Insert here the magic, mayhem, and monsters part!
When Nolen wakes up on the first night to find a cat at his window, he doesn’t think anything about it, that is until he lets it in and he starts talking to him. Meet Merlin, the talking black cat! He very quickly lets Nolan know about a magic room that has a cauldron full of a wishing spell and he can get whatever food he wishes for (Nolan is a very picky eater and couldn’t eat what Groppy served for dinner). Nolan slides the doorknob on the red door from the left to the right and… voilà, the most perfect grilled cheese sandwich Nolan had ever seen.
Who wouldn’t want a magic spell to wish for anything you want?
The Alexander children find out very quickly that it isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. If you do not word your wishes in just the right way, bad things can happen… and boy do some bad things happen! What do you think is going to happen when Great-Aunt Groppy find out about what they have done? And what about the werewolf that is roaming through the woods at night? Did I forget to mention that? Well, if you want to know what happens you are just going to have to check it out for yourself! Don’t miss this one!!
Want to know why I love this book so much?
This book just blew my mind with how amazing it is!! It starts right off the bat full of suspense when the kids first pull in in Great-Aunt Groppy’s driveway and it doesn’t let up until the very end! Throw in some humor from Nolan ("Just bury me outside by the shed and on my tombstone write the words: Here lies our favorite child. We should have fed him pizza and let him stay at home.") and some sassiness from Merlin (“Well, there is no need to get snippy,” the cat hissed back. “You only asked if I had a name. You didn’t ask what it was.”) and you’ve got yourself a fantastic book!!
This book has just the right amount of scariness and suspense to keep any reader reading way past their bedtime! I loved every minute of it and it only keeps getting better the more you read. I could not put it down! As a matter of fact, when I finished I sent a message to Hallie and told her that I had to have a book two of the Alexander kids and Great-Aunt Groppy (and she assured me there would be one - yay!!) I will be ordering several of these for my library because once I book talk this one, they will fly off the shelves!!
This book just blew my mind with how amazing it is!! It starts right off the bat full of suspense when the kids first pull in in Great-Aunt Groppy’s driveway and it doesn’t let up until the very end! Throw in some humor from Nolan ("Just bury me outside by the shed and on my tombstone write the words: Here lies our favorite child. We should have fed him pizza and let him stay at home.") and some sassiness from Merlin (“Well, there is no need to get snippy,” the cat hissed back. “You only asked if I had a name. You didn’t ask what it was.”) and you’ve got yourself a fantastic book!!
This book has just the right amount of scariness and suspense to keep any reader reading way past their bedtime! I loved every minute of it and it only keeps getting better the more you read. I could not put it down! As a matter of fact, when I finished I sent a message to Hallie and told her that I had to have a book two of the Alexander kids and Great-Aunt Groppy (and she assured me there would be one - yay!!) I will be ordering several of these for my library because once I book talk this one, they will fly off the shelves!!
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