Francis Sharp In The Grip Of the Uncanny vol 1 back

There's an avalanche of kids' books solicited these days, but the vast majority are vapid and bland. They're dull, and that is a cardinal sin because kids don't do dull. But I loved the cartooning here, and the cover is a flourish of fire-like briar while the interior art boasts some rustic evening skies with so much space up above.

Young Francis is an artist with a vivid imagination fuelled by his favourite radio plays like the sinister Occultist. He acts them out, all derring-do, even when he should be watching his father's herd of cows for fear they escape and eat the neighbour's crops. They escape. And eat the neighbour's crops. Now the family, already suffering from a cashflow crisis, will have to pay compensation so they set out for Westfield to sell off treasured family heirlooms, and it's all Francis' fault. He's left at home with strict instructions for chores around the farm but almost immediately his friend Harry arrives and its time for some more re-enactment, this time with the aid of his grandfather's pocket watch as The Eye Of Mithridates which Francis stole back from the truck.

That in itself will land Francis in trouble, but when he spies a shadowy creature - half-hare, half-fox in the woods surrounding the pastures - he abandons his friend to follow it further and further into the darkness until he's accosted by a shrouded spectre with an old oil lantern and it becomes swiftly clear that he ain't in Kansas any longer.

What follows is one of those Addams Family scenarios in which the furry goblin folk in the nearby market town (it sells mostly tubers!) find Francis just as weird as the terrified boy finds Valleyghast, but when he seeks sanctuary in a book shop he's befriended by its reluctant librarian and his unflappable friend who offer to help him retrace his steps. Unfortunately home is no longer where Francis left it...