Fantastic Four Glow in the Dark Sticker Book Book

Vampire Brat was an entertaining and witty read. The story centres around Araminta Spook (who could be described as a brat herself) and the inhabitants of her home, Spook House. When Pusskins the cat vanishes, a search party is deployed to locate her. Always the rebel, Araminta decides not to waste time looking for the cat but instead goes on her own adventure and stumbles upon a werewolf in the basement. Soon afterwards, some frightening family members arrive for a visit. One of them is Vampire Max who shortly becomes an object of Araminta's scorn and fascination. Determined to capture both the werewolf and dangerous little Max, she sets off on a mission with her unwilling friend Wanda.

It is apparent throughout the story that Araminta is quite self-centred and does not seem to consider the opinion or feelings of others. This book could therefore be useful in helping children understand aspects of friendship when considering Wanda's position in her friendship with Araminta. I do think the story could have been a more suspenseful at times but the suspense that did occur presented a good opportunity to invite children to use their imagination and predict the next sequence of events. I think the frequency of illustration was adequate for the age range and I even found myself enjoying them. This book is best suited to 6-10 year olds and possibly best for independent reading as I have a feeling that girls may be more interested in this book than boys.