Stella Montgomery Investigates: Review Wakestone Hall by Judith Rossell

Stella Montgomery Investigates: Review Wakestone Hall by Judith Rossell

Wakestone Hall is the eagerly awaited third book and conclusion to the Stella Montgomery series by bestselling author and illustrator Judith Rossell.

Orphan Stella has been shuffled around from the dreary Majestic Hotel to overgrown Wormwood Mire and now has ended up at the grim boarding school Wakestone Hall.

The Aunts who look after Stella have sent her to Wakestone Hall, a very strict boarding school that they attended, where young girls are to be seen and not heard. The life mission of the head mistress, Miss Garnet, is to make sure that any spirited or individual behaviour is eradicated and so far, she has succeeded with most students, aside from Stella’s mother who was expelled in disgrace.

Stella and her two friends Agapanthus and Ottilie are finding Wakestone Hall less than appealing but there is little they can do; Stella’s aunts wouldn’t listen to any complaints that she may have nor would Agapanthus’ Grandmother and Ottlie’s mother has mysteriously disappeared.

While Stella is busy trying to keep out of trouble and the clutches of Miss Garnet, she would also love to find out why her mother was expelled but when she starts having strange dreams she begins to worry that there is more to Wakestone than some unpleasant teachers and rules and none of it is good.

When Ottilie is suddenly pulled out of school by a mysterious uncle she has never met or mentioned, Stella and Agapanthus are concerned and when Stella finds a note left behind by her friend that pleads for help, she knows that they must do everything they can to find her.

This mission takes them on a mysterious journey through underground passages to the sinister behind the scenes of the fairground, and across the paths of some questionable characters like the Gabbro Brothers, along with some wonderfully kind characters such as Mr Cornelius and Joe who help Stella on her mission – a mission that reveals more about her gifts and her origins.

The first two books in the Stella Montgomery series, Withering-by-Sea and Wormwood Mire are multi award winning and the book itself is a stunning hard back with beautiful illustrations throughout – also by the author, Judith Rossell. 9+ readers who favour mysterious adventure with a bit of fantasy, those who enjoyed A Series of Unfortunate Events, and existing fans of the Stella Montgomery series will love Wakestone Hall.

Purchase a copy of Wakestone Hall | Read an extract | Read more from author Judith Rossell

Judith Rossell is the multi-award-winning, Australian author-illustrator of the bestselling Stella Montgomery series (Withering-by-SeaWormwood MireA Garden of Lilies and Wakestone Hall). Before beginning her career in children’s books, Judith worked as a government scientist (not a mad scientist, a normal kind of scientist) and also for a cotton-spinning company (that made threads for T-shirts and denim jeans and mops and teabag strings). Judith has written thirteen books and illustrated more than eighty, and her work has been published in the US, UK and has been translated into more than twenty languages. Judith lives in Melbourne, Australia with a cat the size of a walrus.

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    Judith Rossell
    About the author

    Judith Rossell

    Judith Rossell is a full-time Melbourne-based illustrator. Her titles include the Children's Book Council of Australia's 1999 shortlisted title How to Guzzle Your Garden (by Jackie French), the popular Blackbread the Pirate (by Garth Nix), The Lost Treasure of the Green Iguana and I Spy With Inspector Stilton.

    Books by Judith Rossell

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