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It's day 19! We hope all you NaNoWriMo-ers are still going strong, but if you're in need of an extra boost of motivation, The Halloweeds author Veronica Cossanteli is here to share her top tips!  (more…)

Here at Chicken House we love a good spooky read – something that you can read by candlelight (from a candle in a pumpkin, no less), curled up in an armchair on October 31^st. So sit back, grab a copy of one of our fave spooky novels and prepare to feel all the chills …    (more…)

Dan promised he’d look after his siblings, but he hadn’t bargained on his scientist parents dying on a jungle research trip.

The children decamp to crumbling Daundelyon Hall where horrible Aunt Grusilla reigns supreme, tending her mysterious graveyard garden. But why are Aunt Grusilla and her servants missing a finger? What are the hungry ‘Cabbages’ in the greenhouse? As Dan struggles to solve the mystery he encounters one final question: what’s the price of everlasting life?

An atmospheric, scary and funny middle-grade mystery about a boy who discovers an intriguing family secret.

Veronica grew up in Hampshire and Hong Kong with an assortment of animals, including an imaginary pet dinosaur who slept on her bed. She works in a primary school in Southampton, where she lives with three cats, two snakes, one guinea pig and a large number of lizards.

Her debut novel The Extincts is a wonderfully funny and charming adventure with more than a hint of Dahl. Her second book will publish in 2016.

George loves helping out at Wormestall Farm, hidden in the woods, even though it's full of extinctly scary creatures, like the dodo in the dog bed and the dinosaurs in the duck pond.

When Mortifer, the giant basilisk, goes missing, it's up to George to find him before wicked taxidermist Diamond Pye can add him and the others to her stuffed animal collection ...