Return to Groosham Grange: The Unholy Grail [Hardcover]

Anthony Horowitz (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 20, 2009 | Age Level: 10 and up | Grade Level: 5 and up

Someone is trying to destroy David Eliot?s school. A year ago, he?d have given anything to see the end of Groosham Grange and its ghastly, monstrous teachers. Now, he?s on track to win the Unholy Grail, a cup of magical power rewarded to the star pupil. But a series of suspicious mishaps has the space between David and the new boy, Vincent King, narrowing at an alarming rate. It seems that someone?or some thing?is trying to stop David from winning?and, worse, threatening Groosham Grange itself!

Blockbuster bestselling author Anthony Horowitz will keep readers up at night with this ghoulishly gratifying sequel to Groosham Grange.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 5–7—David Eliot is starting his second year at Groosham Grange. After he spent the first year fighting to get out of the school, he has now accepted his place there and is actually excelling. He has his sights set on obtaining the school's highest prize, the Unholy Grail, and he is very close to walking away with it. The only person standing in his way is the new star student. Vincent King is too good to be true, and David suspects him to be sneaky and untrustworthy. The headmasters (two heads on one body, due to an experiment gone wrong) have the boys engage in various competitions to test their overall magical powers. Due to multiple situations in which David finds himself in trouble, he is convinced that Vincent is not playing by the rules. There are lively, comical descriptions of the different classes offered at Groosham Grange and its quirky professors. Overall, this book will appeal to Horowitz fans who are looking for an adventure story with some horror undertones.—Mairead McInnes, Oakdale-Bohemia Middle School, NY END

Review

"[T]his book will appeal to Horowitz fans who are looking for an adventure story with some horror undertones." --School Library Journal

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 10 and up
  
• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Philomel (August 20, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0399250638
• ISBN-13: 978-0399250637
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.9 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,362,787 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Anthony Horowitz's life might have been copied from the pages of Charles Dickens or the Brothers Grimm. Born in 1956 in Stanmore, Middlesex, to a family of wealth and status, Anthony was raised by nannies, surrounded by servants and chauffeurs. His father, a wealthy businessman, was, says Mr. Horowitz, "a fixer for Harold Wilson." What that means exactly is unclear -- "My father was a very secretive man," he says-- so an aura of suspicion and mystery surrounds both the word and the man. As unlikely as it might seem, Anthony's father, threatened with bankruptcy, withdrew all of his money from Swiss bank accounts in Zurich and deposited it in another account under a false name and then promptly died. His mother searched unsuccessfully for years in attempt to find the money, but it was never found. That too shaped Anthony's view of things. Today he says, "I think the only thing to do with money is spend it." His mother, whom he adored, eccentrically gave him a human skull for his 13th birthday. His grandmother, another Dickensian character, was mean-spirited and malevolent, a destructive force in his life. She was, he says, "a truly evil person", his first and worst arch villain. "My sister and I danced on her grave when she died," he now recalls.
A miserably unhappy and overweight child, Anthony had nowhere to turn for solace. "Family meals," he recalls, "had calories running into the thousands&. I was an astoundingly large, round child&." At the age of eight he was sent off to boarding school, a standard practice of the times and class in which he was raised. While being away from home came as an enormous relief, the school itself, Orley Farm, was a grand guignol horror with a headmaster who flogged the boys till they bled. "Once the headmaster told me to stand up in assembly and in front of the whole school said, 'This boy is so stupid he will not be coming to Christmas games tomorrow.' I have never totally recovered." To relieve his misery and that of the other boys, he not unsurprisingly made up tales of astounding revenge and retribution.


Anthony Horowitz is perhaps the busiest writer in England. He has been writing since the age of eight, and professionally since the age of twenty. He writes in a comfortable shed in his garden for up to ten hours per day. In addition to the highly successful Alex Rider books, he has also written episodes of several popular TV crime series, including Poirot, Murder in Mind, Midsomer Murders and Murder Most Horrid. He has written a television series Foyle's War, which recently aired in the United States, and he has written the libretto of a Broadway musical adapted from Dr. Seuss's book, The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T. His film script The Gathering has just finished production. And&oh yes&there are more Alex Rider novels in the works. Anthony has also written the Diamond Brothers series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars This is the Exact Same Book as The Unholy Grail, October 1, 2007

By 

James N Simpson (Gold Coast, QLD Australia) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Return to Groosham Grange (Paperback)

I work at various branches of Gold Coast City Council Libraries and many people request titles of books not realising they've read them before. Before Harry went to Hogwarts, David went to Groosham Grange! With the resurgence of this genre through J.K Rowling's Harry Potter series many people have been trying to obtain and reread the sensational Groosham Grange novels which they read as a kid. Many people are ecstatic when they see what they believe to be a new third title in the series called Return to Groosham Grange and immediately want to order it. The problem is a lot also are ordering it at the same time they are ordering The Unholy Grail and being disappointed when they find out this and that book are exactly the same story. The Unholy Grail was the original title of this sequel to Groosham Grange and for some reason publishers have relaunched it with the title Return to Groosham Grange. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt that they're doing this to try to attract the attention of buyers who have only read the first novel and did not know there was a sequel and not to simply mislead consumers.

Anyway if you haven't already done so make sure you purchase the original and read it before opening the first page of this one. This book does give away what happened in the first, the first is a lot more enjoyable when you don't know who's still going to be at Groosham for the sequel. So if you haven't read that it would probably be a good idea not to continue reading this review as although I obviously wouldn't give away anything major from the plot of this book just outlining what this novel is about does give away the ending of the original adventure. For those readers I will just say buy the Groosham Grange books, they're sensational!

In The Unholy Grail/Return to Groosham Grange David has settled into Groosham Grange and has become the school's number one student. However a new boy named Vincent has come to the school and he's quickly stealing David's thunder, and Jill's admiration. David had the school's top prize The Unholy Grail all wrapped up until Vincent enrolled. Now the grail is up for grabs by either boy. David's dislike for Vincent is costing him dearly, Vincent seems to know what buttons to push to get David in trouble and punished through resulting in the loss of ranking points. Soon David is framed in The Heads Office for a crime he believes Vincent committed. David is also learning it is very important that he wins The Unholy Grail, as if he does not Groosham Grange will cease to exist all together. This adventure will also take David to the British Museum and the reader will get to meet Adolf Hitler and a heap of other wax dummys along the way.

So that they sell more copies publishers often change titles. Others novels include P.J Tracy's Want to Play, which is the same book as Monkeerench. Bill Fitzhugh's McJesus, which is the same novel as both Cross Dressing or Cross + Dress. Bush Falls is exactly the same novel as Jonathan Tropper's The Book of Joe.

Buy the Unholy Grail/Return to Groosham Grange under either title, I'd get the one that's cheapest!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars This Book Has Been Rereleased With the New Title - Return to Groosham Grange, October 1, 2007

By 

James N Simpson (Gold Coast, QLD Australia) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Unholy Grail (Paperback)

I work at various branches of Gold Coast City Council Libraries and many people request titles of books not realising they've read them before. Before Harry went to Hogwarts, David went to Groosham Grange! Many people have been trying to obtain and reread the sensational Groosham Grange novels which they read as a kid. Many are ecstatic to discover what they believe to be a new third novel in this series called Return to Groosham Grange and immediately want to order it. The problem is it is the exact same titile as The Unholy Grail. The Unholy Grail was the original title of this sequel to Groosham Grange and for some reason publishers have relaunched it with the title Return to Groosham Grange. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt that they're doing this to try to attract the attention of buyers who have only read the first novel and did not know there was a sequel and not to simply mislead consumers.

Anyway if you haven't already done so make sure you purchase the original and read it before opening the first page of this one. This book does give away what happened in the first, the first is a lot more enjoyable when you don't know who's still going to be at Groosham for the sequel. So if you haven't read that it would probably be a good idea not to continue reading this review as although I obviously wouldn't give away anything major from the plot of this book just outlining what this novel is about does give away the ending of the original adventure. For those readers I will just say buy the Groosham Grange books, they're sensational!

In The Unholy Grail/Return to Groosham Grange David has settled into Groosham Grange and has become the school's number one student. However a new boy named Vincent has come to the school and he's quickly stealing David's thunder, and Jill's admiration. David had the school's top prize The Unholy Grail all wrapped up until Vincent enrolled. Now the grail is up for grabs by either boy. David's dislike for Vincent is costing him dearly, Vincent seems to know what buttons to push to get David in trouble and punished through resulting in the loss of ranking points. Soon David is framed in The Heads Office for a crime he believes Vincent committed. David is also learning it is very important that he wins The Unholy Grail, as if he does not Groosham Grange will cease to exist all together. This adventure will also take David to the British Museum and the reader will get to meet Adolf Hitler and a heap of other wax dummys along the way.

So that they sell more copies publishers often change titles. Others novels include P.J Tracy's Want to Play, which is the same book as Monkeerench. Bill Fitzhugh's McJesus, which is the same novel as both Cross Dressing or Cross + Dress. Bush Falls is exactly the same novel as Jonathan Tropper's The Book of Joe.

Buy the Unholy Grail/Return to Groosham Grange under either title, I'd get the one that's cheapest!

4.0 out of 5 stars Very Funny Sequel to Groosham Grange, September 26, 2011

By 

Sir Furboy (Aberystwyth, UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Return to Groosham Grange: The Unholy Grail (Paperback)

Anthony Horowitz is an accomplished and versatile writer who writes perfect books for older children and the young adult age group.

Return to Groosham Grange is typical of his work, if a little bit more off beat than usual. This hilarious adventure is the sequel to Groosham Grange, and follows David - now enjoying his life as a student at the extremely unorthodox school, and battling to win the school's highest (and only) honour, presented to the most outstanding student - the Unholy Grail.

But all is not well, as the school has been infiltrated by someone who wants to destroy it.

Children aged about 8 or 9+ will love this story. At times it is so wacky that it might be a bit too much for teenage readers, but it is still good fun, with a fast and enjoyable plot.

My one reservation - and the reason I will not be lending it out - is that it basically inverts ideas of good and evil. Witches and vampires and werewolves are not exactly evil, but the Christians certainly intend it.

That is not to say I think children should not read this book. In some senses it is a perfect book to challenge our ideas of what is good and what evil means. But I think it is a book that perhaps requires a bit of discussion to round it off, as it is aimed at an age that is used to more didactic learning, and it would be a shame if the actual message that sinks home is that Witches are good and Christians are evil.