The Unfortunate Archibald Marble
£8.99
Ancient and secretive, Marble Manor isn’t where Stanley Crankshaw would have chosen to spend his summer holidays. It’s not the hidden rooms or the mysterious things lurking in jars that bother him most. It’s not even the strange smells and watchful eyes that follow him around. It’s the fear of what really happened to the house’s owner, Mr Archibald Marble. And if, as Stanley soon suspects, there is a terrible darkness at the heart of Marble Manor, will the house share enough of its secrets to help him fight back?
“I loved every second of it! It was scary and exciting at the same time, and impossible to predict what was going to happen next. I didn’t want it to end.” –Erin Murphy. age 10
Suzanne Bhargava –
The Unfortunate Archibald Marble takes on the classic good vs evil tale, and mixes in all the best parts of scary stories: spooky old mansion, secret rooms, noises in the walls, family graveyards, books in ancient languages, and wicked villains. Elizabeth Waight steadily adds layers of mystery and creepiness, occasionally punctuated with light humour. It’s a tasty little magical mystery to be enjoyed in the classroom or on your own.
I shared this book with a group of 9-10 year olds, and they spent 20 minutes just poring over the cover and character illustrations, making predictions about the story and the characters. They’re so excited about this book! And it’s rich with opportunities for classroom use: atmospheric imagery of the mansion, the characters, the potions and other enchanted things could spark children’s creativity whether through art or creative writing. Well placed clues throughout the story make an excellent jumping off point for children to act as text detectives to come up with their own theories and back them up with evidence. Or it could exist happily as read-aloud for the end of the school day – I can imagine entire classes of children loudly protesting at the end of chapter 23 when the teacher or librarian wickedly says, “And that seems like a good place to stop for today!”
A creepy tale, sure to make you shudder and shriek!
Suzanne Bhargava
Librarian at Southbank International School
CILIP Youth Libraries Group
Nikki Blazer –
With the exception of poor Archibald, nothing about this book was unfortunate! I was thoroughly invested in the characters, whose actions and motives kept me guessing right to the last chapter. Haunting descriptions and creepy characters will appeal to thrill seekers with a thirst for adventure. I will never look at old houses in the same way again!
Michelle Gujer –
The children of Cove Junior School were exceptionally lucky to share some time with Elizabeth Waight on Thursday 5th November. Elizabeth read them some extract from her book and they are eager to know what happens to the characters they met. As teachers we were incredibly proud of the questions that had for Elisabeth as an author and we are sure that this experience is definitely going to improved their writing stamina. Thank you for giving up your time to inspire the next generations of authors and we hope to send you dome of the writing we produce. The Year 5 Team at Cove Junior School