Best-selling Goth Girl is back for an action-packed new adventure in this stunningly produced volume by former Children’s Laureate Chris Riddell which has the additional delight of a mini-book, Fable of a Faun, tucked into it. Lord Goth is turning Ghastly-Gorm Hall into the venue for Gothstock, a sensational music festival that will match his home. Naturally, Ada Goth is thrilled at the thought but will it all go to plan? In both words and pictures Chris Riddell creates an amazing cast of characters and the most original escapades in which they are all entangled.
There are musical goings-on at Ghastly-Gorm Hall and a spooky mystery for Ada Goth to solve in Goth Girl and the Sinister Symphony, the fourth book in the Costa Children's Book Award winning Goth Girl series by Chris Riddell, Children's Laureate 2015-2017. Lord Goth is throwing a music festival at Ghastly-Gorm Hall, with performances from the finest composers in the land. Ada can't wait, but it's quite distracting when her grandmother is trying to find her father a fashionable new wife, there's a faun living in her wardrobe and Maltravers is up to his old tricks. Ada must make sure everything goes to plan, and luckily help is at hand from a very interesting house guest . . .
Chris Riddell is a marvel - his exquisite line drawings are extraordinarily delicate and idiosyncratic. Goth Girl and the Sinister Symphony like others involving his heroine Ada Goth, features a series of merciless puns, in this case on the life and works of Lord Byron (Ada's dad writes about Don Jumpy, an amorous mouse). There's something here for the knowing adult reader as well as the child. Genius. The Evening Standard
The illustrations are just exceptional and, along with the footnotes and overall design, they just add to a stunning product. And although this can be read as a standalone book, anyone reading Goth Girl for the first time is likely to quickly seek out the rest of the series. A treat for adults and children alike! Readingzone
Full of clever satire, stunning illustrations and a pun-filled plot, this fourth Goth Girl book is a real treat. WRD Magazine
Chris blend of amazing illustrations, darkly gothic humour and good old fashioned sense of adventure result in a book as exciting and fresh as the first BookTrust
a real treat The Week Junior
seeded with elegantly illustrated, punning allusions to everything from canonical literature (Jane Ear) to pop heroines (Tailor Extremely Swift). Handsomely turned out as ever, this feels instantly welcoming and accessible. Guardian
Riddell's outstanding black-and-white illustrations have a wonderfully nostalgic feel and bring to life this funny and yet often moving tale. . . This is reading heaven for all young Goths. Daily Mail
Author
About Chris Riddell
Children's Laureate 2015-2017
Chris Riddell, the 2015-2017 UK Children's Laureate, is an accomplished artist and the political cartoonist for the Observer. His books have won a number of major prizes, including the 2001, 2004 and 2016 CILIP Kate Greenaway Medals. Goth Girl and the Ghost of a Mouse won the Costa Children's Book Award 2013. His includes the bestselling Ottoline books, The Emperor of Absurdia, and, with Paul Stewart, the Muddle Earth books, the Scavenger series and the Blobheads series.
Chris has been honoured with an OBE in recognition of his illustration and charity work. Chris lives in Brighton with his family.
Chris Riddell on John Tenniel : "Before I knew a thing about him, John Tenniel was a hero of mine, or rather, I should say, his white rabbit was. As a child I copied Tenniel’s illustrations from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland obsessively, particularly his drawing of the White Rabbit in waistcoat and frock coat, umbrella tucked under one arm and a pocket watch in paw, a look of suppressed panic in his eye. I loved analysing the shading, intricate lines of cross-hatching, the folds of the sleeve, the tilt of the head, that wide-eyed rabbit stare. Tenniel was one of the reasons I became an illustrator."
