It all began during a stormy coach ride, when Touch, an orphan boy, was traveling to meet his evil great-uncle, Judge Wigglesforth. That's when Touch first sees The Great Chaffalo, a magician's ghost...
What Leon Garfield does for Victorian England, Newbery Medalist Fleischman ( The Whipping Boy ) does for the Red Raven Inn in Cricklewood, N.H.--population 217, "216 Fine Folks & 1 Infernal Grouch." The grouch is wicked Judge Wigglesforth who, having cheated his nephew Touch out of his rightful inheritance, threatens to send him to an orphan's home. "With a bit of straw and a touch of midnight," Touch is befriended by the ghost of a magician, the Great Chaffalo. By the story's end, Wigglesforth gets his comeuppance, Touch wins the beautiful Sally and the Red Raven Inn has been saved. From the opening stormy coach ride to the Keystone Kops chase at the end, Fleischman's story crackles with action, eccentric characters and what the blacksmith calls "mysticiation." Sis's black-and-white drawings, appropriately mysterious and quirky, perfectly match this deftly told tale of innocence and villainy. Ages 8-up.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From School Library Journal
It's "raining bullfrogs" when readers first meet the skinny and bareheaded orphan boy Touch with his hair "as curly as wood shavings." Touch is en route--by horse-drawn coach--to Cricklewood, New Hampshire, where he will meet his great-uncle and only surviving relative, Judge Henry Wigglesforth. The boy's traveling companions are an honest blacksmith, a mysterious thief, and a shadowy figure on the coach's roof. " 'Merciful powers!' " the blacksmith exclaims, " 'It's The Great Chaffalo!' " It seems that since the magician became a ghost, he has developed the disconcerting habit of turning up in odd and unexpected places. How he becomes Touch's ally against the conniving Judge Wigglesforth readers will delight in discovering for themselves. The process is pure pleasure. Fleischman--who has always had a fondness for magicians--has himself become a master magician with words, producing dazzling and seemingly effortless rhectorical effects from his writer's sleeve. How he does it is his secret, but it surely has something to do with inspired plotting, masterful timing, and a wonderful ear for comic language, lively dialogue, and the best similes and metaphors this side of Leon Garfield. The illustrations by the talented Sis perfectly capture the spirit of the text while complementing its substance. The book is part ghost story, part tall tale, part picaresque, and totally enjoyable, for it is that old enchanter Sid Fleischman at his magical best. --Michael Cart, Beverly Hills Public Library
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.