#the beasts of clawstone castle

[haveyoureadthisfantasybook]

vote yes if you have finished the entire book.

vote no if you have not finished the entire book.

(faq · submit a book)

[kattahj]

A tip to fans of the "Ghosts" TV show, whether the UK or US version: if you haven't already read the children's books by Eva Ibbotson, you should! They have a very similar vibe, with quirky ghosts making friends with humans. I am thinking in particular of The Beasts of Clawstone Castle, The Great Ghost Rescue, The Haunting of Hiram, and Dial-a-Ghost. (She has also written books about witches, adventure stories, and romances, if you feel like branching out.)

More info below!

The Beasts of Clawstone Castle is the one I remember best. In it, some children are trying to keep their relatives' castle from going bankrupt by hiring some ghosts and making it a tourist attraction. The first ghost they meet is Cousin Howard, who was a meek, shy man who has become a meek, shy ghost. Clearly no good for haunting! But they then encounter the following:

Brenda, a bride who was murdered on her wedding day and has been bleeding ever since.

Sunita, a magician's assistant who was cut in half for real.

Ranoulf, a former prisoner who looks like a romantic pirate but has a ghost rat gnawing on his ghost heart.

Mr. Smith, a former taxi driver who took dieting too seriously and is now a skeleton.

And a pair of big smelly feet that were cut off... somebody.

The Haunting of Hiram / The Haunting of Granite Falls is about a castle that gets sold to an American who doesn't want any ghosts in it, which leaves the already present ghosts homeless. They are:

Krok Fulbelly, a Viking warrior.

Miss Spinks, who is always throwing herself into water.

Stanislaus, "Uncle Louse", who used to be a vampire in his youth but then grew into a very old man in a wheelchair and eventually killed himself in his nineties.

Flossie, an angry poltergeist child.

And a ghost dog called Cyril.

The Great Ghost Rescue is also about a family of ghosts who are in danger of becoming homeless when their castle is made into a holiday resort. An added complication is that one of the sons, Humphrey the Horrible, is not at all horrible and in fact quite sweet, which is embarrassing for a ghost.

The other ghosts are:

The mom, a Hag.

The dad, a Scottish warrior who got his legs cut off in battle.

The brother, a screaming skull named George.

The sister, a wailing, bloodstained ghost named Winifred.

Aunt Hortensia and her disembodied head.

A big black dog.

Dial-a-Ghost is about ghosts being hired to haunt different places. One set are a nice family called Wilkinson. The others are a pair of terrors called the Shriekers. The agency hires the Wilkinsons to haunt a convent, and the Shriekers to haunt a castle, but accidentally gets the locations mixed up. The Wilkinsons arrive at the castle, where they find a boy called Oliver, whose evil relatives were hoping to scare him to death and inherit his money.

The Wilkinson family consists of grandma, aunt Maud, uncle Henry, the teenage ghost Eric (who is a boy scout), and the adopted daughter Addie (short for Adopta), who has a mysterious past: she was so traumatized by dying that she got amnesia, and nobody knows where she comes from.

All the books are cute and funny, and the ghosts are not necessarily always NICE, but always nice to get to know!

[throughoutthestars]

Books I’ve read this year:

A lot of manga:

Inuyashiki (dark science fiction with a non-traditional main character)

My Monster Secret (tame humor/romance monster theme, kind of harem?)

Kase-san and the Morning Glories (girls romance, i dont read this usually but its REALLY GOOD and REALLY CUTE AF lmao)

The Royal Tutor (tutor looks like a kid and has to teach a bunch of complicated princes, fantasy and humor)

Land of the Lustrous (animes a ton better in my opinion, but manga is pretty good if not a bit strange and the characters look a bit too similar sometimes in black and white, theyre rocks and the main character goes through a lot of development from incompetent/happy to cold/sad/knowing)

School-Live! (messed up zombie apocalypse where girls are trapped in a school, friendship is highly important)

Girl from the Other Side (fantasy, different drawing style, young girl lives with sort of monster-father-figure, sweet with dark undertones)

Barakamon (family, humor, highly recommend for a good time)

Kamisama Kiss (romance between average girl and shrine dude, very funny)

Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches (some students have super-powers, this guy just happens to have one where he can switch bodies with people he kisses, so he ends up kissing a lotta folks [both guys and girls])

I Hear the Sunspot (not gonna lie, I’ve forgotten what this one was but i remember it was pretty decent)

Laid-back Camp (girls go camping)

Delicious in Dungeon (a bit like a game set up, a fantasy crew fights monsters and ends up cooking them for meals as they go through shenanigans)

My neighbor Seki (girl sits next to guy who cant stop doing weird things that are totally normal to him, and no one else sees him do it except the girl, very funny and strange) 

Monthly Girls Nozaki-kun (funny as hell, guy writes popular girls romance without knowing a thing about it, girl befriends him and ends up liking him and hes oblivious, shenanigans between friends)

Flying Witch (great humor, friendship between witches)

Erased (really great mysterious books with friendship, dark themes and time re-dos)

Girl’s Last Tour (humanity has diminished, two friends set out wandering the earth and discovering things)

Merman in My tub (guy discovers a merman in his tub)

The Promised Neverland (kids raised to be food so they try and escape, dark themes obviously)

Novels:

Less (middle aged white gay man who travels the world once his life falls apart, romance)

Witchmark (gay witchcraft fantasy)

Esio Trot (by Roald Dahl, cute kids book)

The Ghost and Mrs Muir (old romance book between a ghost and a lady)

The Road Home (gay romance, ghosts and stuff, its alright, mystery)

The Little Prince

The Beasts of Clawstone Castle

Other sorts of books:

Sharky Malarkey (Internet humor and sharks, highly recommend, could not stop snickering to myself)

Check Please (followed this comic for a long time and didnt realize it became a book, so i reread the entire thing! really good romance between hockey players)

Egghead, or You Cant Survive on Ideas Alone (poetry by Bo Burnham)

Johnny Appleseed (biography graphic novel about the man)

Tom’s Midnight Garden (graphic novel about a boy who happens to time travel of sorts)

[malcolmschmitz]

Ooh, ooh, I'm a middle-grade author! Here's some more recommendations:

- anything by Rick Riordan or from from the Rick Riordan Presents line. They're the gold standard for humorous children's urban fantasy, and the first Percy Jackson series in particular is quite good.

- Lexi MacGill and the Teleportation Tournament by Kim Long. Funny, light SF, puzzle-solving adventure about teleporting to places around the world to win a contest.

-Depending on how fast she reads, if you haven't tried her on the Animorphs series yet, I'd give it a go. Animorphs is an adventure SF/horror series about a group of kids who are given the power to shapeshift into animals by a dying alien. It can get a bit heavy at times, and some of the referential humour is a bit dated.... buuuut there's also an alien who's obsessed with cinnamon buns and an entire book about an alien toilet.

- Dial-A-Ghost by Eva Ibbotson. Also The Beasts of Clawstone Castle, Island of the Aunts, and (if she likes love stories) Which Witch.

- The Girl Who Owned A City. You might want to read this one before giving it to your kid- post-pandemic, it definitely Hits Different. And also the author Has Politics. Survival SF, all adults in the world die in a plague and kids have to build the world again.

- Maybe nonfiction about wilderness survival could hold her attention when fiction couldn't? Specifically how-to stuff, the kind of thing you'd read as a Scout.

Hey book-loving/librarian tumblr, help me out with some recommendations for my kid? Kid is 9yo, going into 4th grade, but can read at a higher reading level. She really enjoys graphic novels, especially the ones by Raina Telgemeier, the Babysitter's Club series, and Dog Man. She also loves the I Survived series, and has enjoyed Diary of a Wimpy Kid.

I'm trying to find something a little longer for her to read, to encourage her to make the jump from "book I can read in one sitting" to "book I can read over the course of a week." Thus far any book we've tried like that she decides is boring after she's read it for a little while, and will set it down to reread one of her other books.

So, the criteria basically are that it's a book that's long enough to take multiple sittings to read, and it's either funny or action-packed or both (she likes humor, natural disaster survival drama, mysteries, possibly ghost stories but only if scooby-doo levels of scary). It can be at a higher than 4th grade reading level, but the plot maturity level still should be appropriate for a 9yo. She still has trouble understanding some of the social drama in babysitter's club, so anything YA or targeted at teens is likely to be too mature for her (idk if libraries are uniform on this but I'm looking for something that would be in the J Fiction section in our local one).

Thanks in advance!

[oldtoothgun]

books that made me feel cool when i was a kid: the graveyard book, artemis fowl, i coriander, the beasts of clawstone castle, a series of unfortunate events

[xueyangapologist]

@mgtz i haven’t read her books in yeeeaaaaaars but i remember star of kazan being a favourite, as well as beasts of clawstone castle. i’m on a mission to reread all her books again lol and so far my favourite’s been the morning gift

[i-saw-the-white-stag]

Big inspirations for this project

Not all of these have individual posts about them, only the ones that I felt played the biggest part in informing my project.

Artists

- Hayao Miyazaki  - (My Post) Creates stunning pieces of art and animation. His work has impacted me since a very young age.

- Auriea Harvey & Michaël Samyn - Tale of Tales games company, make AMAZING beautiful interactive art pieces. I love them a lot.

- Mr. Finch - (My post) (Website) Sculptor/craftsperson, makes animals.

- Circo Gringo - Make amazing papier mache masks, creepy.

- Kit Williams - A Painter who created a country-wide treasure hunt for a golden hare that he put underground.

- Kate Clark - (my post) (her website) Creates somewhat terrifying taxidermy creations with human faces.

- Brian & Wendy Froud - (my post) (their website) Brian is an incredible concept artist, creating designs for Labyrinth and The Dark Crystal, among others. His wife, Wendy, creates ethereally beautiful sculptures in a similar style.

-  Ari Gibson and Jason Pamment - (my post)  Independent animators

- Amanita Design - (my post) (their Website) a Flash games design company.

- Tony DiTerlizzi - A wonderful illustrator, known particularly for The Spiderwick Chronicles.

- Chris Riddel - Another illustrator, known for working mostly with author Paul Stewart on 3 book series.

- My Family (post)

Music

- KATE BUSH - SHE IS SO AMAZING I LOVE HER. She has been a huge figure in my life since I was very very young. Her music has been so influential in every way to me. I actually probably cannot fully express my love her and her work. Particular songs include: Delius (Song Of Summer), Night of The Swallow, Cloudbusting, The Morning Fog, Waking The Witch, among many others.

- Bat For Lashes - Heavily inspired by Kate Bush, she weaves absolutely amazing songs that have again, a lot of narrative. Particular songs: Wilderness, Moon and Moon, Travelling Woman, The Bat’s Mouth, Trophy.

- Jesca Hoop - Somewhat Pagan feel to her work, again, an artist I would listen to as a child, and have very vivid imaginations linked to her songs. Particular songs: Seed of Wonder, Dreams in the Hollow, The Kingdom, Born To, Enemy.

- Joanna Newsom - I’ll repeat myself, HEAVILY NARRATIVE BASED. Her work is certainly quirky but I love it so much. Particular songs: Have One On Me, The Book of Right On, 81, Sprout and The Bean and Peach, Plum, Pear.

- Gotye - His work has a lot of emotion in it, and many of his music videos are animated which I really enjoy.

HERE IS MY MUSIC POST ABOUT THE MUSIC I USED IN MY ANIMATION

Books

- The Secret Garden

- The Graveyard Book

- Coraline

- Where The Wild Things Are

- The Secret Of Platform 13       <

- The Beasts of Clawstone Castle < All By Eva Ibbitson

- The Star of Kazan                 <

Films

- Labyrinth (1986)

- The Dark Crystal (1982)

- My Neighbour Totoro (1988)

- Spirited Away (2003)

- El Labirinto Del Fauno (2006)

- The Secret Garden (1994)

- Willow (1988)

- Legend (1985)

- The Storyteller (1988)

- The Princess Bride (1987)

- The Neverending Story (1984)

- The Craft (1996)

Games

- The Endless Forest - (Website) (my post) Quite obviously a huge inspiration, I got the idea for the deer from this game, but I have (HOPEFULLY) developed it enough that it is quite individual. I am considering developing it more or maybe changing the animal that it is to a crow or bird of some kind?

- The Path - Website

- Bientôt l'Été - Website

- PROTEUS - Website

- Samorost 1, 2 and 3 - Website (my post)

- Machinarium - Website

- Dear Esther - Website

- Firewatch - Website

- Yume Nikki - Website has been deleted

- Ib - Website

- Inside - Website

[queermarzipan]

Murder Mystery:

The Sherlock Holmes books. I'm serious they are VERY good there's a reason they're known as the murder mystery

Murder Most Unladylike series because we all love it when the kids are better at solving the mystery than the adults

Fantasy:

The Lord of the Rings books. Again, they are the fantasy series for a reason.

The Wizards of Once series

The Harvest Tide Project (sequel: Under Fragile Stone)

Rose series & sequel Lily series

His Dark Materials trilogy & equel The Book of Dust unfinished trilogy where the 2nd book ends on a cliffhanger UGH

Green Knowe series (about a house with Lots of History called Green Knowe that the granny tells the boy about) (The first few books are much better than the rest)

The Beasts of Clawstone Castle

Children of Blood and Bone & sequel Children of Virtue and Vengeance

Classics:

The Secret Garden

The Three Investigators series (kids vs Mysteries that are Not Necessarily Murder)

The Famous Five, The Secret Seven, The Five Find-Outers (all in the same vein of The Kids Figure Shit Out Instead Of The Adults)

YA (I think):

Swallows and Amazons series

I know you didn't ask for it but Comedy:

Jeeves and Wooster series

The Lumber Room (short story)

hello bylers! im sorry this post has nothing to do with byler but i need help from fellow bookworms.

im trying to steer away from soc med as my only form of entertainment and realizing ive been looking at my phone too much, so i decided to start reading again. if you guys have any book recommendations id really appreciate it!

specific genres im looking for; can include all or just one or multiple; doesnt matter

-young adult genre preferable

-fantasy

-enemies to lovers trope

-romance (good chemistry and the right amount of slowburn)

-queer rep (but not required)

-murder mystery

-classics are fine!

thank you!!

[nushoesocks]

The Beasts of Clawstone Castle by Eva Ibbotson.

I just finished re-reading this and it brought back so many memories of me reading this as a kid. This book is honestly, brilliant. Yes, it is a middle grade book. But it can still be brilliant!

[bakerstreet-and-beyond]

The Beasts Of Clawstone Castle - Read By David Tennant ~ Chapter 1

[onbrightestdays]

I need to remember to download the audio book for "The Beasts of Clawstone Castle."

My sister put "The Red Necklace" on my iPod...So I think I need this one, too.

Oh David Tennant... Oh Tom Hiddleston.

Oh those men... 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5N_dvIHN7Ls

[theunseelielibrary]

Book of the day: The Beasts of Clawstone Castle by Eva Ibbotson