The Haunted Castle: An Interactive Adventure Book

Young readers are in for the fright of their lives as they help Jodie and Johnny search for their Uncle Barnaby in the monster-filled halls of Grizzlemyst Castle, but only one symbol path leads to Barnaby, the others to ghouls, drudges, mutants, and other scary creatures.

Grade 4-7?Hartas follows his Apartment Book (DK, 1995) with another oversized, visually frenetic browser's delight. At their mysterious Uncle Barnaby's invitation, two young people enter tumbledown Grizzlemyst Castle and encounter a host of ghosts, ghouls, zombies, giant spiders, monsters, aliens, demons, pirates, and other uglies as they make their way through a maze of chambers and passageways, seen in twisting cross sections. Upon arriving at the "Control Center," Barnaby eagerly asks them how they liked his new theme park. Aside from a few paragraphs of background and some scanty dialogue in the margins, the tale is told visually; viewers have the option of "reading" straight through, or embarking on a looping, choose-your-next-move quest that offers a chance to revisit former scenes and catch missed details. Like Alastair Graham's Full Moon Soup (Dial, 1991), though without all the parallel plot lines, this is a wild-and-woolly adventure with pea- to palm-sized cartoon ghastlies at every turn.?John Peters, New York Public Library
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