Halloween Writing Challenge from Eva Frantz

By Callum Elsom | Activities, Author

💀 This is Halloween, everybody make a scene... for we have a challenge for you! 💀

Eva Frantz is a Finnish radio and TV presenter and author. She was already an award-winning writer of crime novels for grown-ups when she wrote The Mystery of Raspberry Hill, her first book for children, which won the prestigious Runeberg Junior Prize in Finland. Although set in Finland, this book was actually inspired by a visit to Hampton Court Palace in London, which is said to be haunted by many ghosts.

🎃👻🕷️ About The Mystery of Raspberry Hill

"The grown-ups all think she’s going to die soon-she can see it in their eyes. Still, when poor twelve-year-old Stina is sent to remote Raspberry Hill Sanatorium she can’t believe her luck. She gets to ride in a real motor car to the hospital, which looks like a magnificent castle hidden deep in the forest.

But as Stina explores the long, echoey corridors of her eerie new home, she begins to suspect that the building is concealing a dark secret. How did the old East Wing burn down? Why doesn’t her mother reply to any of her letters? And what are the nurses all so afraid of?

Stina is determined to solve the mystery of Raspberry Hil­l-but as she edges closer to the truth, she finds herself in terrible danger…"

It's time to put your creative thinking cap on and get writing all things spooky! Have a read of Eva's story starter below and come up with the rest of the story.  

 🎃👻🕷️ Eva Frantz Story Starter:

We had barely lived in our new home for a week when I realised that someone already lived there. Somebody who kept moving around my stuff when I wasn’t in my room. Somebody who made the floorboards creak when I was at home by myself. Once I even felt somebody’s breath in my hair when I stood at the top of the stairs. Mom didn’t believe me, of course. But then one evening in November last year something even more strange happened. 

Things to think about 🧠

Who are you?

Who or what in the house keeps bothering you?

What does the house look/smell and feel like?

Who else is in the house with you?

How will you end this gripping story? We can’t wait to find out!

Eva Frantz is the author of The Mystery of Raspberry Hill published 13 October 2022.