• Age: 8 to 13
• Grade: 3 to 8
• Reading age: 10 to 13

Terror stalks the halls of St. Wolcott School . . .

When Daphne's sixth-grade teacher, Miss Vindez, plummets from the belfry of St. Wolcott School, Daphne and her friends Nick and Peach are plunged into a mystery that includes a long-ago fire that left behind twelve dead schoolchildren, tiny ghosts with nowhere to go, and an ancient evil just dying to break through into modern-day Moose Jaw.

Miss Vindez survives her fall, but things just aren't the same-she's spouting gibberish, and both Principal Peterka and the school janitor are definitely not themselves at all any more.

Determined to get to the bottom of what's going on, Daphne, Nick, and Peach dig up the troubled history of Grudstone, the school that used to stand where St. Wolcott is now. They uncover evidence of a crime so terrible it can hardly be believed. Worse, the terrifying perpetrator of that crime isn't done yet-he has more horrible plans in mind. And all that stands in his way are three Moose Jaw school kids.

The first volume in ARTHUR SLADE’s Hunchback Assignments series won the prestigious TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award, and the second volume, The Dark Deeps, was a finalist for the Canadian Library Association Book of the Year for Children Award and the CLA Young Adult Book Award. Slade is also the author of Dust, a national bestseller and the winner of the 2001 Governor General’s Award for Children’s Literature, the Mr. Christie’s Book Award and the Saskatchewan Book Award for Children’s Literature. His other books include Tribes, Megiddo’s Shadow, Jolted, Monsterology, Villainology and the Canadian Chills series. He lives in Saskatoon. Visit him online at arthurslade.com.

Arthur Slade's profile page

"Daphne is engaging as the narrator. Her voice comes across like that of a detective from a 1950s TV series, with a semi-ironic patter suggesting cool sophistication. The novel is considerably enriched by the setting, which incorporates (Moose Jaw)'s history during the Prohibition years when Chicago bootleggers used its tunnel system. In the movement between belfry and tunnels, there is also an interesting symbolic structure to the novel, a secular vision of a multi-layered purgatory. With its quick pace and imaginative details, this book is a promising inauguration to Slade's series." - ?Quill & Quire

?"Slade, an award-winning author, offers a comical yet spooky tale featuring ghosts and gangsters that is likely to be a hit in the classroom or around the campfire.Return of the Grudstone Ghosts is the first book in the Canadian Chills series, a collection of suspense/thriller novels geared to preteen readers. Recommended."? - Carol-Ann Hoyte, Canadian Book Review Annual?