Goth Girl and the Wuthering Fright by Chris Riddell

Goth Girl bk 3. Macmillan, 2015. ISBN 9781447277897
(Age: 9+) Highly recommended. Humour. Lord Goth is holding a Literary Dog Show at Ghastly-Gorm Hall and literary contestants are bringing their dogs along, hoping to win. There is Plain Austen with Hampshire Hound, Homily Dickinson and her Yankee Poodle and Georgie Eliot and Flossie, as well as other literary figures, including the judges Countess Pippi Shortstocking and Hands Christmas Andersen. Ada and her friends from the Attic Club as well as the Vicarage sisters (Charlotte, Emily and Anne are all in attendance. But something is going on at Ghastly-Gorm Hall; there are chewed shoes and howls in the night. Can Ada and her friends solve the mystery?
This is a fantastic book. I loved the first, Goth Girl and the ghost of a mouse and this is even better. It has the same gorgeous appearance, black hardback cover decorated with gold metallic skulls and foliage and a lovely picture of Ada and the literary dogs on the front and Ada and a cheeky monkey on the back. The illustrations inside are brilliant, with each literary figure coming to life and Lord Goth looking particularly saturnine and handsome in his Regency garb. ;
There are so many hilarious allusions to literary works that older readers and adults will really relish, but at the same time there is enough plotting about the Dog Show and the mysterious howls in the night to keep younger readers enthralled. The misadventures that; occurred when the train designed by Charles Cabbage carrying the elaborate dinner to the guests came off the tracks is; Even a flick through the book, looking at the pictures is totally engrossing.
This is such a feel-good book, one that will be enjoyed by readers of all ages and certainly one to treasure.
Pat Pledger