Title: ‘The Ghost Locket’
Author: Allison Rushby
Cover and internal design: Rovina Cai 
Publisher: Walker Books
Age Range: middle primary, upper primary, middle grade
Themes: mystery, ghosts, haunted house, London

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The latest novel by acclaimed author Allison Rushby, ‘The Ghost Locket’ and is as spooky, atmospheric and captivating as her other middle grade novels – which I can I only read during daylight hours as I am a complete wimp!

To celebrate the launch of ‘The Ghost Locket’ we asked some young people in our Your Kid’s Next Read Facebook group to share their thoughts on this title. Reviews by young people are my favourite and Edie’s review below is just beautiful – and Edie? I’m glad you didn’t find it too spooky, but I think I might be a bit like your little sister as I certainly found it spooky!

This review of ‘The Ghost Locket’ is by Edie – age 8 years old.

Eleven-year-old Lolli must return to London and break a promise she made to herself — to never again enter the house in Spitalfields, an historic building managed by her family. There, Lolli must face up to what she saw in the house several years ago and make things right for two ghosts, one friendly and one decidedly not, and open her heart to people in both the living and twilight worlds.

This is about a girl named Lolli who reluctantly enters a spooky house in Spitalfields. Inside she meets two spirits – Clara who is a nice spirit and Madame LeNoir who is not so nice. When she spends time in the house Lolli realises the spirits want something from her.

She discovers that when Clara was alive, she bound herself to an object in the house. I won’t say what that is because that will spoil the story for you. But Clara does find half her soul is not bound to it, so she can finally enter the twilight world. That’s a really happy part of the story I liked.

My favourite character was Lolli. She has great character traits like persistence and courage.  I also liked Clara because she needed Lolli’s help. It was like they were friends in some ways even though she was a spirit.

The story is quite mysterious. There are clues throughout the story that make you want to solve the mystery. When Lolli was trying to find what object Clara was bound to, the other spirit was hypnotising her with the locket. That was when I realised what object Clara was bound to.

My favourite part was when Lolli achieved her goals and the spirits could enter over to the twilight zone. Actually, I loved the whole book

The story is a little spooky in parts, but it added to the mystery. I didn’t find it scary but my little sister might. This book would be loved by readers who like mysteries with a spooky twist.