Outside in World | Browse Books

Use our Book Finder to search for books by Title (or part of the title), Author, ISBN, Age Range, Keyword, or Continent/Country. Then simply click the magnifying glass to start your search.

If a title starts with 'The', leave this out as this is added to the end of the title in brackets. funny pictures funny images funny photos really funny pictures

‘We need the literature of other countries to expand our
horizons and stimulate our ideas. Without it, we are not only
diminished, we are starved’
(The Times, Magnus Linklater 29/06/05)

Please email us to sign up to our Newsletter

Ghoulia: Making New Friends Can Be Scary by Barbara Cantini

Title: Ghoulia: Making New Friends Can Be Scary

Author: Barbara Cantini

Translator: Anna Golding

Illustrator:

Publisher: Amulet Books (USA)

Date Published: 2018

Format: Hardback

Genre: Horror

Book Category: Fiction

Age Range: 6-8

Original Title: First published in Italian as Mortina, Mondadori, Italy, 2017

Country of Origin: Italy

Ghoulia: Making New Friends Can Be Scary

by Barbara Cantini
Age Range: 6-8

Ghoulia is no ordinary child, her skin is deathly pale, a greenish-grey colour and her eyes are as big and round as Ping-Pong balls with bright purple shadows underneath. She can also pull off parts of her body whenever she wants as if they were jigsaw puzzle pieces. Does it sound gruesome? Well, Ghoula is a zombie! She lives in Crumbling Manor with her Auntie Departed and her best friend is the albino greyhound named Tragedy. She loves her dog and her unusual house but she wants more than anything else to make friends with other children in the village, but her Auntie Departed does not allow it.

On Halloween night Ghoulia decides to sneak out of Crumbling Manor dressed up as a monster so that she can join in the celebrations with the other children who are going door to door playing ‘trick or treat’. But will the children be able to accept Ghoulia or be scared of her?

Ghoulia by Italian author and illustrator Barbara Cantini is the perfect read for Halloween and any other time of the year. A story that brilliantly promotes diversity, this is a book about friendship but also about being scared of not being accepted for who you are. The vivacious illustrations full of humour, colour and detail will endear readers to Ghoulia and her quest to find friendship.

This is the first book in the series. There are three other titles: Ghoulia and the Mysterious Visitor, Ghoulia and the Ghost with no Name, and Ghoulia and the Doomed Manor. These stories are excellent for children who are just developing their reading skills as the chapters are short and each page is wonderfully illustrated in bright, vivid colours. A bonus is that the book also includes activities at the end such as ‘guessing games’, ideas of dressing up as Ghoulia, a recipe for Ghoulia’s purple punch and ideas for making a ‘mud mix’!

Anna Golding’s translation from the original Italian brings the story alive to an English-speaking audience. The original title in Italian is Mortina, which comes from the word ‘morte’ meaning ‘dead’ with the diminutive ending in ‘ina’ which literally translated into English would be ‘little dead’.

Barbara Cantini lives in the countryside in Tuscany with her husband, their two daughters, three cats, and one slightly daft hamster.

Edgardo Zaghini