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Solomon Macaroni and the Vampire Vacation
by Ashleigh Barton
Published by UQP (University of Queensland Press)
ISBN 9780702266300
Solomon Macaroni is going off on another adventure. Readers of this series will most likely anticipate that it is going to be another fun filled time with this vegetarian vampire. Not any vegetarian vampire, although I doubt readers will know many, but he is also a good, friendly one.
In Vampire Vacation with his his six mischievous cousins, they are all going somewhere exciting. To Paris accompanied by Uncle Dracula.
But something isn't quite right and they wonder what is wrong with Uncle Dracula. He doesn't seem to be quite himself. Naturally they are looking forward to eating fine Parisian food, seeing all the wonderfully fabulous fashion and superb ar that his city has to offer.
Soon enough they go to the Louvre Museum to see the Mona Lisa and that is when they get an idea that they hope will cheer up Uncle Dracula.Only this time, this adventure is petty naughty, actually it is the naughtiest one they have pulled off so far.
But before this easy to read free flowing story written in the third person, takes the readers on this adventure, they will find out why Solomon lives with his Uncle Dracula in Transylvania and, sleeps in a coffin He is there for a rather long time while his parents are on a very long cruise, but there is much more to this than meets the eye.
The story later continues in Paris and Solomon and his cousins enlist the help of a rather friendly hotel manager who helps them plan the ridiculous idea to steal the Mona Lisa - yes the real one. As described in the story, the family are a bunch of numbskulls but he can still make them happy.
However, things go awry and definitely not according to the plan as they encounter absolute mayhem, with music-hating skeletons and grudge holding gargoyles roaming the streets.
Like the other books in the series, it is exciting, fun and a gripping read that will have middle grade readers turning those pages especially as each chapter hooks into the next to find out what happens next. Can they prevent evil reigning over Paris forever?
We liked that the story uses language to grow vocabulary and includes how to solve problems, it is humorous, includes family while woven into a story about magic and vampires.
The author
Ashleigh Barton is a bestselling children's author from Sydney, Australia. After completing a law degree, Ashleigh decided she preferred books and spent the next six years working in publishing where she ran marketing and publicity campaigns for internationally renowned authors and illustrators. Now she writes books of her own. Her picture book What Do You Call Your Grandma? has been shortlisted in the 2022 CBCA Book of the Year Awards.
