Freddie the frightened and the wondrous Ms Wardrobe by Pamela Shrapnel

This is a very old book (1988) with a fabulous title and terrific illustrations by Terry Denton.

Freddie has a huge number of goblins, gremlins, zombies, and things that go bump in the night to contend with and his mum and dad are absolutely no help as they spend the critical time each evening from 7.30pm watching a favourite television soapie and oblivious to Freddie and his fears.

Up til now poor Freddie has had to battle these horrors all alone but as luck would have it the Wondorous Ms Wardrobe arrives and immediately helps to sort out these problems. Ms Wardrobe is Freddie’s cousin Penelope and she has bought her special kit of monster fighting tools (actually it is a fishing tackle box with Penelope’s name in silver across the lid) which include a sugar sachet, a whistle, a gold glitter glue pen, a magnifying glass, penknife, chewing gum and several different sized band aids.

Penelope systematically attacks the Cardigan Zombie, the Troll in the Hall and finally the dreaded Googyman who lurks in the garden tapping the window each evening trying to get into Freddie’s room.

This book is a little like One Night At Lottie’s House by Max Dann which is an all time favourite read-a-loud of mine. Penelope is a lot like Lottie, a special girl with heaps of daring, common sense and most importantly someone in whom you can have great confidence.

I bought this book to re-read and was not disappointed. Children in Junior grades who like books about monsters will really devour this little chapter book.