Pumpkin's Downfall

This book contains two unrelated stories. In 'Pumpkin's Downfall', Pumpkin is a bully who teases Sara, an unconventional nature-loving girl who, it transpires, has magical powers which she uses to defeat the bully who has mistreated her cat and presented her with a dead bird. The story is told by a 'friend' of the bully as though the events took place many years before, giving it an extra sense of mystery as to what exactly happened to Pumpkin. Mark, the central character in 'The Monkey Puppet', only talks through his puppet since his mother died and he was forced to live with his gold-digging stepfather and aunt in the imposing Morton Hall. When he starts at a new school he is naturally a bit of an outsider, but is soon befriended by Daniel, the story teller. These superior, understated, scary stories, with satisfying endings are not cluttered with illustrations, letting the atmospheric text do the work.