Beasts of Clawstone Castle [Audiobook] [Audio Cassette]

Eva Ibbotson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 6, 2005

Can two children foil an outrageous criminal plot with the help of some of the funniest and maddest ghosts ever invented? Clawstone Castle is ancient and famous, but its elderly owners have no money. In its great park live a legendary herd of wild white cattle that have roamed there since the days of the Druids, and now their future is threatened. Rollo and Madlyn come to stay with their uncle and aunt and, with the help of a mysterious recluse in the castle library, they collect an impressive team of phantoms who agree to help them turn Clawstone into a tourist attraction. There's a bloodstained bride, an aristocrat whose chest is permanently gnawed by a rat, a girl who was sawn in half in a circus, a pair of feet without a body, and more. Paying visitors soon pour through the gates. But then a terrible fate befalls the cattle, and the ghosts and the children find themselves facing some very sinister enemies.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 5-8–Victims of busy parents, Madlyn, 11, and Rollo, 9, go to stay with an eccentric cast of relatives at Clawstone Castle. Along with Great-Aunt Emily, her brother Great-Uncle George, and no-longer-living Cousin Howard, the real attraction is the legendary and noble Wild White Cattle herd. The children join the family's endeavors to support the animals by turning the place into a museum, but when the bovines are cow-napped, each family member plays a part in their return, along with Ibbotson's usual cadre of banshees and ghosts, as well as a pair of Scottish feet. Everything readers like about this author is present in good amounts. From the first chapter, they will make an emotional connection with Madlyn and Rollo and with the impoverished, yet creative castle denizens. While a ghost with a rat munching on its heart may not leave a pleasant feeling in one's stomach, it cannot be denied that it is memorable, even more so when Ibbotson convinces readers to pity the rat. She deftly brings in such contemporary issues as land development, animal rights, and the environment without creating an obvious message. The story's quest pattern (find the cows!) makes the plot easy to follow and well structured, accompanied by humorous and disgusting details aplenty. Hawkes's whimsical, full-page line drawings are scattered throughout. More of a page-turner than some of Ibbotson's recent stories, this novel will find a following among readers of Suzanne Collins's Gregor the Overlander (Scholastic, 2003) or Angie Sage's Septimus Heap series (HarperCollins).–Caitlin Augusta, The Darien Library, CT
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Eleven-year-old Madlyn and her younger brother, Rollo, are sent to stay with their great-aunt and -uncle Clawstone at crumbling Clawstone Castle, only to be embroiled in the castle's financial troubles; the castle must attract more paying visitors to maintain its legendary herd of Wild White cattle. To compete with a nearby attraction, the castle needs some chills and thrills, so the Clawstones select some vulgar, terrifying ghosts and set up such a frightening show that tourists scream, faint, and retch--only to return with their friends. Through the machinations of some unknown persons, however, the Clawstones lose the cattle, leaving the children (and the ghosts) with a mystery to solve. Plot embellishments are sometimes distracting, and the convoluted story comes together in a series of coincidences. Ibbotson's charismatic ghosts are great, however------as human as they are horrific--and there's plenty of quirky humor in this energetic, diverting read, loaded with charm. Krista Hutley
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Audio Cassette
• Publisher: Macmillan Audio Books (May 6, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1405051515
• ISBN-13: 978-1405051514
• Product Dimensions: 5.3 x 4.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,389,157 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars New book by Ibbotson, December 13, 2005

By 

microjoe - See all my reviews
(TOP 100 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Beasts of Clawstone Castle (Hardcover)

This book was published in England in May 2005 and will release in USA in 2006. So I bought the British copy as I could not wait for another marvelous story from Eva to send me into stitches of laughter.

In the story a brother and sister, Madlyn and Rollo, are sent to stay with their kindly Uncle at his "Castle Clawstone" set in the Scottish Highlands. On arrival they find out the dreamy sounding castle is falling apart. The castle is under a huge debt and no funds are available for repair. There are friendly ghosts living in the castle, as well as some rare wild white cattle living on the property and they are at risk if the castle isn't saved. And who is the mysterious being hiding in the library? The siblings have auditions with ghosts to find the best ghosts to scare visitors to complete their plan to turn the castle into a haunted tourist attraction. As usual; Ibbotson's ghosts are nutty as they can be including the Bloodstained Bride ,a pair of hairy Scottish feet without a body, a girl cut in half in a magic act, and others. Madlyn turns out to be a natural financial genius and they start making money. But a neighbor has very evil plans for the cattle, and it will take every effort by the siblings and their new alllies to fight back. I highly reccommend!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Truly wonderful writing, and totally satisfying audio book!, April 15, 2011

By 

J. Schwarz "Informed Woman" (Philadelphia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Beasts of Clawstone Castle (Audio CD)

Eva Ibbotson was an incredible writer, often laugh out loud funny, always amazinfly inventive. I am really sorry that unless someone finds unpublished stories among her archives, we will have no more new books from her silenced pen since she died in 2010. On the other hand, THIS book is a treasure trove for all ages. You don't have to be a middle school child to enjoy her books. Now that I am retired, I am on a quest to find all of her books that I missed earlier, and rereading (or,m in this case, relistening) to ones I enjoyed earlier. The woman knew how to tell a story, how to keep us on the edge of our seats and how to take us the readers on a most satisfying journey. Most of all, Ms. Innotson knew how to wrap it all up in excellent style at the end with the bad guys getting what was coming to them, and the characters you worried about so much ending in sometimes surprising happiness that they didn't even know to hope for.
I will say that I listened to this on my portable CD player in a darkened room, recovering from an accident, and I had to speed past a couple of honestly too-scary short sections. Maybe it was the meds I was on, and maybe in reading it, it would not have had such effect on me. Jenny Sterlin, the reader who performed all the parts, was terrific, all the voices very different and very right for each character and the particular emotion they felt in different scenes. Loved this book!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Audio book of The Beasts of Clawstone Castle, March 1, 2011

By 

Tiffany Murphy - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Beasts of Clawstone Castle (Audio CD)

This is a wonderful story. I got it so that my fifth graders could listen to it, but I've kept it in my car. David Tennant's voice is a dream to listen to, which is the reason I decided to purchase it in the first place. I was not disappointed.
Several hours of an enchanted voice and a good story. You can't go wrong with that combination.