Hotel Strange 4: The Ghosts In The Clouds
Age 7+
Comic Strip Fiction / Graphic Novels
Everything at Hotel Strange is just a little different. Young readers will delight in following the adventures of a group of eccentric characters.
Beloved Hotel Strange resident Mr. Snarf has been a bad ghost. He hasn’t scared people. He’s even made friends! Now some grumpy ghosts are taking him away from Hotel Strange. The hotel’s other residents set off to rescue him! They take to the clouds in a hot air balloon, searching for the Kingdom of Ghosts. Once they arrive, the ghosts put the Hotel Strange friends on trial—and we learn that some rules are important, but too many can be downright silly.
Creators
Katherine Ferrier is a French graphic novel author and illustrator. She illustrated and co-wrote the graphic novel series Hôtel Étrange (Hotel Strange) with her husband, Florian Ferrier. The first book in the series, The Winter Spring (2010), was nominated by the International Comic Festival of Angoulême in 2011. Katherine and Florian Ferrier were featured speakers at the 2013 Utopiales International Festival of Science Fiction in Nantes, France.
Florian Ferrier is a French producer of animated television programs. He co-wrote the graphic novel series Hôtel Étrange (Hotel Strange) with his wife, Katherine Ferrier. The first book in the series, The Winter Spring (2010), was nominated by the International Comic Festival of Angoulême in 2011. Florian and Katherine Ferrier were featured speakers at the 2013 Utopiales International Festival of Science Fiction in Nantes, France.
Reviews
It’s off to the rescue when the Hotel Strange’s ghostly concierge is arrested for not scaring people. Hardly are the dust bunnies and other residents of the Hotel Strange (‘It’s a little weird, but it’s never boring’) beginning to settle in for the winter than a pair of ghostly police officers whisk Mr. Snarf away. Setting off in pursuit, Marietta and Celestin—both light-skinned human children—along with Mr. Leclair, a dapper rat, and shaggy purple troublemaker Kiki are sucked up through a tornado to the cloudy Land of Ghosts. There, the law of the, er, land is ‘It is forbidden.’ But all is quickly and happily resolved, as Kiki moons a horrified crowd to get the rescuers thrown into jail with Mr. Snarf, and charges are dismissed once Mr. Leclair unsticks a page in the Rulebook of Ghosts to reveal Rule Rainbow: ‘It is forbidden to forbid.’ Aside from the children, everyone in Ferrier’s neatly arranged sequential panels is an animal or some sort of (unscary) monster in human garb. A mouthwatering recipe for caramels at the end is but one reason young readers will want to check in to this series.”
Kirkus Reviews
