Title: Thunderstruck
Author: Ali Sparkes
Series: – –
Genre: Children’s Paranormal Fiction
Age Range: 9+
Available: Now
What if your new best friend was a ghost?
Getting struck by lightning whilst huddling under a tree isn’t exactly the way Alisha and Theo would have chosen to get out of sports day . . .
Surviving the strike makes them see life differently. It also makes them notice Doug and Lizzie. Struck by lightning under that same tree on the common in 1975, the two teenagers have been hanging out there ever since.
Doug and Lizzie are funny, clever, brave – and quite happy about making friends with a pair of ten-year-olds. OK, fair point, they are dead, and Doug’s trousers are worryingly flared. But you can’t have everything.
But something sinister is going on at school – although only Theo and Alisha seem to be able to see it. What can it mean when ragged faceless entities keep staring in through the windows?
Not all ghosts are friendly like Doug and Lizzie . . . but are these phantoms really the harbingers of doom for all the kids at Beechwood Junior?
A fun and fast-paced ghostly mystery with lightning strikes, floating phantoms, and four fantastic friends just trying to get on with their everyday lives . . . or deaths . . .
From the prize-winning author of Frozen in Time, the Shapeshifter series, and many more!
Source: Review copy from Oxford University Press via Amazon Vine
This is another great read from Ali Sparkes, featuring friendship woes, a lightning strike and ghosts, not to mention the end of term school disco. Alisha and Theo are two normal ten year olds, but their lives are about to turn extraordinary with the help of a lightning struck tree and two long-dead teenagers.
Alisha is a brainy girl who hates sports and struggles to make friends. She is constantly worried about what the cool girls think of her and wishes she could be popular. Theo could not be more different; he’s new to the area, hyper and doesn’t care what anyone thinks. Yet after the both survive the strike, they each begin to change – and not just because of the cool scars they have on their feet.
The ghosts, Doug and Lizzie, are fun in many ways, with their 70s clothes and pop culture references, but there’s a serious side to all the ghostly goings on and it’s more than just friendship that forms between the four as local events take a shadowy turn.
Fun throughout with an occasional creepy turn, I found this book an easy, entertaining read. Perfect for boys or girls, it should appeal to any young reader who likes ghosts or a hint of mystery, although those who love a good scare won’t get one here. Still, if you like likeable characters and a bit of history mixing in with everyday life, then you should enjoy this.
Thunderstruck is Out Now.
Visit Ali Sparkes for more details.
