The Ghost of Crow Cavern by John Wedlake and Norman Mounter

I have received a free e-copy of the book The Ghost of Crow Cavern by John Wedlake and Norman Mounter for son2 to review.

Here is the book blurb.

A wave of delight and anticipation sweeps through a small community of red squirrels as they behold a vast fleet of boats carrying their distant cousins towards them. They will no doubt bring incredible wealth, wisdom and joy to the humble squirrels of Nutshaven. However, the dream soon becomes a nightmare. Their distant cousins soon turn out to be enormous and brutish bullies of an ever-expanding Grey Empire. Shadowtail – the brilliant but intensely evil Grey leader – announces that their lives are about to radically change: Your colony is now ours, and we shall endeavour to use you and your resources to enrichen the imperial spoils of conquest and world domination. With their entire way of life now under threat, will the wisdom of old Normsk, the wits of young Cheswick and the might of Brutenuts the Brave be enough to counter such a dark and dominant force?

This is what son2 had to say about the book.

I liked the Start, However, as it went on it got a bit boring, However, the End was alright.
I liked the concept of it Starring Squirrels. 🐿🐿🐿🐿🐿🐿🐿🐿🐿🐿🐿🐿🐿🐿🐿

I also read this book and was quite surprised how dark the storyline is for a children’s book. Amazon indicates it to be aimed at children age 6-10, but no way would I read this to a 6 year old. I would suggest this is much more suited to children age 10-13. Even the blurb hints at how ruthless the grey squirrels are. And the cute cover red squirrel looks quite scared indeed. However son2 seemed oblivious to the dark undertones.

Red squirrels used to be the only squirrels here in the UK up until the late 1800s. Grey squirrels were originally native to North America. I myself have never seen a wild red squirrel, although probably see grey squirrels in my garden most days. Take this theme and make it darker, then you have the measure of this tale.

The Ghost of Crow Cavern is available on Amazon, currently priced at £3.78 in paperback and is also available in kindle and hardback formats. A rather dark storyline for children. Son2 rates this chapter book 3star. He is usually an avid reader but this didn’t really hit the spot for him.

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Disclosure.  This post is a review of an e-book I was sent for free.  All opinions are mine and my son’s own.