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| Publisher's Hardcover ©2016 | -- |
| Paperback ©2017 | -- |
When the Odd Street School's clock-tower bell rings off-schedule one night, Agatha Jane Parrot and her chums suspect a mischievous ghost may be the cause.Agatha, a "very charming and lovely girl with crazy hair and awesome freckles," lives at 5 Odd St., surrounded by her neighboring best friends, Ivy, Bianca, Ellie, and Martha. In Hargis' comic black-and-white illustrations, Ivy and Bianca appear somewhat dark-skinned; the other girls, including Agatha, look to be white. One "dark and stormy night," the school clock-tower bell rings 27 times, disturbing Agatha and her friends. After days of the bell tolling "TOO MANY DONGs," Ellie suggests there might be a ghost in the tower, triggering the spread of ghost fever throughout the school. The subsequent inexplicable closing of a classroom window and appearance of a glowing face in the clock tower prompt the principal to organize a "GHOST WATCH!" in the school auditorium, where Agatha and her pals tell ghost stories and hilariously resolve the ghost mystery. Addressing readers with chatty directness, punctuated with many exclamations and exclamation points that substitute for nuance, Agatha proves an unflappable heroine.Despite the flimsy plot and marginal character development, Agatha's silly antics and enthusiastic delivery should engage readers transitioning to chapter books. (Fiction. 7-10)
Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)Originally published in the U.K. in 2014 and newly illustrated by Hargis, this series kickoff introduces Agatha Parrot, who has a personality as exuberant as her fuzzy nest of hair. Along with her closest friends, Agatha attempts to figure out why the bell atop their school is clanging too many times. Nervous Ellie is certain that a ghost is responsible-and then one is spotted. The jittery, Ed Koren-esque energy of Hargis-s black-and-white artwork dovetails nicely with Agatha-s chatty, irreverent narration (of the school-s strict vice principal, -She-s got glasses like TV screens, and she wears hairy clothes, and she thinks everything in the world is unsafe-), as well as the lightly spooky ghost talk, pranking, and other shenanigans that populate the story. Ages 7-10. Illustrator-s agent: Jennifer Rofé, Andrea Brown Literary. (July)
ALA Booklist (Tue Mar 01 00:00:00 CST 2016)The mystery at the heart of this British import involves a ghost who may or may not be haunting the school at the end of the street d who may or may not even be a ghost. Agatha Jane Parrot, extremely fond of ALL CAPS, leads an investigation into the cause of the school clock tower's broken bell. Her classmates embrace the ghost as the catchall culprit for scholastic mischief and high jinks, while only halfheartedly accepting its existence, but seeing, it turns out, is believing. The truth is eventually proven to involve a box of disgusting cereal, the janitor, and the school turtle, and is sufficiently silly enough to amuse readers. Agatha's narration is peppered with exclamations and sound effects, akin to those in Jonathan London's Froggy books. The illustrations, created for the U.S. edition, are high-energy black-and-white caricatures, adding to the slapstick tone of the story. The text has been Americanized, but no translation was needed for the humor, which should appeal to fans of Goofballs and Ivy and Bean.
Kirkus Reviews
Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)
ALA Booklist (Tue Mar 01 00:00:00 CST 2016)
Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books
Midnight Chimes
It was a DARK AND STORMY NIGHT on Odd Street.
Woo woo woo went the wind. Whoosh whoosh whoosh went the rain on the windows.
Up in the tiny back bedroom of house number 5, a very charming and lovely girl* with crazy hair and awesome freckles was trying to get to sleep.
*(That's me, if you hadn't guessed.)
Actually, I wasn't trying very hard to get to sleep, because I LOVE stormy nights, but I could hardly hear any of it because of all the other noises in our house.
To start with, I had my little sister, Tilly, sleeping on the bottom bunk underneath me, going Snore snore snore. As well as that, Dad was sitting downstairs watching the TV--blah-dee blah blah--the washing machine was going rum-shloppa rum-shloppa, and Mom was on the phone to her friend Alice going Yabber yabber yabber oh, really? Yabber yabber I told you so yabber yabber HA HA HA serves him right! Yabber yabber.
I still managed to get to sleep, because the only noise that ever kept me awake was when James used to practice with his soccer ball against his bedroom wall. BUDDUNK BUDDUNK BUDDUNK CRASH! Luckily Mom told him that if he ever did it again, she'd burn his soccer shoes and make him take piano lessons, so that was the end of that, THANK GOODNESS.
So a little wind and rain was never going to keep me awake for long. Off I went to sleepy-peeps, but then what DID wake me up was when it got all quiet. The wind and rain had stopped, Mom and Dad had gone to bed, and Tilly had rolled over and stopped making noises. All of a sudden I was wide awake again, staring at the ceiling. Everything was deadly silent, and that's when I find it really spooky! You know the feeling: all you can do is lie there listening for tiny sounds, like a skeleton tapping on the window or a snake hissing under the bed. EEEEK!
I was just getting to sleep again when suddenly . . .
DONG!
It was the bell in the school clock.
DONG!
It was the bell again.
DONG!
That's the trouble with clocks. You can't help . . .
DONG!
. . . but count how many times the . . .
DONG!
. . . bell chimes. And another thing . . .
DONG!
. . . our old bell doesn't always chime at the same speed. Just when you think it's finished, it chimes again . . .
. . . but sometimes it doesn't. So anyway, I had counted six DONGs, which meant it was probably six o'--
DONG! DONG!
. . . eight o'clock . . .
DONG!
. . . and this book would get very boring if we wrote all the DONGs out, but altogether I counted twenty-seven of them. If every DONG counted for one hour going past, then by my calculations, the clock had DONGed right around until it was three o'clock the next afternoon. That meant it was time to go home from school and I'd missed the spelling test we were going to have. WAHOO!
Good old clock. No wonder I went straight back to sleep with a smile on my face. (Although I couldn't see the smile, of course, because I was asleep.) (And it was dark.) (And it was my own face and I didn't have a mirror, so I couldn't have seen it anyway.) (This is getting silly--ha ha!) (Sausage pie.) (Just thought I'd put that in for no reason!) (I bet the printers take it out.) (The meanies.)
Excerpted from Agatha Parrot and the Odd Street School Ghost by Kjartan Poskitt
All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.
Meet Agatha Parrot, the irresistible star--and narrator--of the first in a series of very funny illustrated novels! A mysterious bell tolls at night and a glowing face is seen in a distant window--is Odd Street School haunted? Agatha and her gang of friends are determined to help their teachers find out. Add in a turtle named Tony, a strangely smelly snack food, and the pranks of one Gwendoline Tutt, and things at Odd Street School are about to get even odder than usual. Fans of Judy Moody and Clementine will relish the energy and exuberance of Agatha Parrot--creator of clever plans, ghost catcher, and loyal friend!