Stella Steller in 'The Mystery of the Haunted House": Part 1

By SIMON GRANT, Illustrator KATE WELLS

Stella Steller liked weird things and wild places. Stella lived at the top of a rambly old house by the sea with her dad. She was quick and clever and mostly very brave.

But the most remarkable thing about Stella was that she knew the languages of all sorts of far-flung things like seahorses and wolf spiders and wandering albatrosses.

This meant that Stella could talk to almost anything, and that she had a lot of strange and wonderful adventures.

One morning Stella was crouched down like a fishing cat at Crumblepock Reef, which was a knobbly outcrop in Breaksea Bay full of dark rock pools and unusual sea creatures.

She was talking to an octopus called Tim, who was usually very good at telling Stella about all the things that had been happening on the reef.

Publisher: Breaksea Productions, $14.95

Age group: 5-9 years