I recently read “The Midnight Carnival” by Erica Mc Gann. It is a very detailed book about six teenage girls, all of whom study the art of witchcraft. The girls’ names were Grace, Jenny, Delilah, Adie, Una and Rachel. The story is mainly about the girls going to this new carnival in town and not knowing what they were getting themselves into. The carnival was very creepy. At the carnival the rides were all rusty and rickety. Something strange was going on there.
It turned out that an evil sorceress, Murdrina, gave the carnival a straw doll. The doll looked normal until you went near her; then it looked like a bunch of wriggling worms. The only way the carnival could pass on the doll’s curse, was if someone took the doll willingly. Justine, the acrobat whom the girls had befriended, tricked the girls into taking the doll…
Catastrophic things happened after that. Adie’s mother became possessed. The house also got cursed by the doll. The girls eventually defeated Murdrina with help from Ms Lemon, their magic teacher and finally they discovered what the curse was and how to break it.
My favourite part of the book was probably at the end when Mrs Quinlan, another of their Witchcraft teachers, was scaring the children trick or treating at Hallowe’en. I thought this was very funny. My least favourite part was probably the preparation for the battle with Murdrina. I felt the author put in a bit too much detail in that part.
I’d rate the book a 7 out of 10. It was an amazing book and very easy to visualise because of the precise detail. I think it would be suitable for children from ten years up.
By Ciarán, 6th Class, St. Colman’s BNS, Kanturk, Co. Cork
