100,000+ Books, Games & Puzzles in-stock 🇳🇿

Overnight NZ-wide delivery on in-stock orders 🚀

The Ghost of Thomas Kempe

Brief Description
'A mischievous boy hero and an equally amusing ghoul,’ Guardian An iconic ghost story for children from Penelope Lively, one of the modern greats of British fiction. Just because you can't see them doesn't mean they aren't there… James is fed up. His family has moved... Read More
Format: Paperback / softback
$1999
AVAILABLE WITH SUPPLIER Ships from our Auckland warehouse within 4-6 weeks

Found a better price? Request a price match

'A mischievous boy hero and an equally amusing ghoul,’ Guardian

An iconic ghost story for children from Penelope Lively, one of the modern greats of British fiction.

The spinetingling classic middle grade ghost story, with a new look for 2025

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

'A mischievous boy hero and an equally amusing ghoul,’ Guardian

An iconic ghost story for children from Penelope Lively, one of the modern greats of British fiction.

Just because you can't see them doesn't mean they aren't there…

James is fed up. His family has moved to a new cottage – with grounds that are great for excavations, and trees that are perfect for climbing – and stuff is happening. Stuff that is normally the kind of thing he does. But it's not him who's writing strange things on shopping lists and fences. It's not him who smashes bottles and pours tea in the Vicar's lap. It's a ghost – honestly. Thomas Kempe, the 17th-century apothecary, has returned and he wants James to be his apprentice. No one else believes in ghosts. It's up to James to get rid of him. Or he'll have no pocket money or pudding ever again.

The Ghost of Thomas Kempe is a timeless thriller, with a ghostly mystery and all the fun and mischief of being nine years old. Perfect for fans of Eva Ibbotson, Tom’s Midnight Garden and Helen Cresswell’s Moondial.

Series: HarperCollins Children’s Classics

View all
  • My Naughty Little Sister
    Dorothy Edwards’ playful stories and Shirley Hughes’ beautiful illustrations have charmed generations of children and adults alike for nearly 75 years. My naughty little sister is stubborn and greedy and full of mischief. She tries to cut off the cat’s tail and eats all the trifle at Harry’s party! How much bother can one little sister be? Dorothy Edwards’ classic...
    Paperback
    $1999
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Bill's New Frock
    A classic children’s story from one of our best-loved authors, former Children’s Laureate Anne Fine. This edition is illustrated throughout by Mark Beech and features special bonus material. Bill's New Frock tells the tale of Bill Simpson, who wakes up to find he's a girl—and his mother insists he wear a frilly pink dress to school. How on earth is...
    Paperback
    $1999
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Coram Boy
    The Whitbread 2000 Book of the Year is a haunting and captivating work of historical fiction for children. The Coram man takes babies and money from desperate mothers, promising to deliver them safely to a Foundling Hospital in London. Instead, he murders them and buries them by the roadside, to the helpless horror of his mentally ill son, Mish. Mish...
    Paperback
    $2299
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Number the Stars
    In Nazi-occupied Denmark, ten-year-old Annemarie Johansen is called upon for a selfless act of bravery to help save her best friend from a terrible fate. Winner of the Newbery Medal. “They plan to arrest all the Danish Jews. They plan to take them away. And we have been told that they may come tonight.” It is 1943 and life in...
    Paperback
    $1800
    Elsewhere:
    $1999
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • The Box of Delights
    A timeless classic adventure illustrated by former Children’s Laureate Quentin Blake. A magical old man has asked Kay to protect the Box of Delights, a box with which he can travel through time. But Kay is in danger: Abner Brown will stop at nothing to get his hands on it. The police don't believe Kay, so when his family and...
    Paperback
    $1999
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • The Diamond of Drury Lane
    Julia Golding’s award-winning adventure series is perfect for fans of Katherine Woodfine, Robin Stevens, and J.T. Williams. This HarperCollins Children’s Classics edition features special bonus material. Winner of the Waterstones Children's Book Prize and shortlisted for the Costa Children's Book Award. 'I am Cat Royal – Orphan, Adventurer, Actress… Reader, you are set to embark on an adventure about one...
    Paperback
    $2299
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • The Midnight Folk
    ‘Two of the greatest children’s books ever written’ – The Times on Box of Delights and The Midnight Folk. ‘You ought to know about the treasure, Kay … for until it is restored or traced, no man of our name ought to rest.’ Determined to recover the long-lost family treasure, Kay finds himself in a race against the evil Abner...
    Paperback
    $2299
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Bombs on Aunt Dainty
    Partly autobiographical, this is the second title in Judith Kerr’s internationally acclaimed trilogy of books following the life of Anna through war-torn Germany, to London during the Blitz and her return to Berlin to discover the past. It is hard enough being a teenager in London during the Blitz, finding yourself in love and wondering every night whether you will...
    Paperback
    $1999
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • The Ghost of Thomas Kempe
    'A mischievous boy hero and an equally amusing ghoul,’ Guardian An iconic ghost story for children from Penelope Lively, one of the modern greats of British fiction. Just because you can't see them doesn't mean they aren't there… James is fed up. His family has moved to a new cottage – with grounds that are great for excavations, and trees...
    Paperback
    $1999
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • The Sword in the Stone
    The extraordinary story of a boy called Wart – ignored by everyone except his tutor, Merlyn – who goes on to become King Arthur. Come, sword, said the Wart. He took hold of the handles with both hands and strained against the stone… but nothing moved… When the wizard Merlyn comes to tutor Sir Ector’s sons, Kay and the Wart,...
    Paperback
    $1999
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Here Comes Thursday
    The tale of a lost mouse who finds a new home Thursday the Mouse fell from a balloon, having just escaped from the Home for Waif-Mice and Stray-Mice. The Peck family of church mice adopt him and give him his name – Thursday – because the day he arrived was a Thursday to remember. Thursday joins the Pecks in their...
    Paperback
    $1999
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Harriet the Spy
    First published by HarperCollinsUS in 1964, this classic children’s novel has sold over 4 million copies and was awarded the New York Times Outstanding Book Award. Sixth-grader Harriet attends school on New York's Upper East Side along with her two best pals, Sport and Janie. After school every day, she takes her notebook and proceeds through her spy route. Harriet...
    Paperback
    $1999
    In Stock
    Ships today

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9780008772819

Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 11 September 2025

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Farshore

Audience: Children

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 16.0mm

Width: 129.0mm

Height: 198.0mm

Weight: 180g

Pages: 256

About the Author

Penelope Lively spent her early childhood in Egypt before coming to England aged twelve. She is an award-winning writer for adults and children, with prizes including the Booker, Whitbread and Carnegie to her name. We are delighted to be publishing A STITCH IN TIME on the Essential Modern Classics list.

Also by Penelope Lively

View all
  • A Stitch in Time
    Maria is always getting lost in the secret world of her imagination… A ghostly mystery and winner of the Whitbread Award, A Stitch in Time is republished in the Collins Modern Classics range. Maria likes to be alone with her thoughts. She talks to animals and objects, and generally prefers them to people. But whilst on holiday she begins to...
    Paperback
    $1699
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Life in the Garden
    Life in the Garden is a memoir of the author's life in gardens and an exploration of gardens in literature. Penelope Lively has always been a keen gardener. This book is partly a memoir of her own life in gardens—the large garden at home in Cairo where she spent most of her childhood, her grandmother's garden in a sloping Somerset...
    Paperback
    $2600
    Elsewhere:
    $2800
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Moon Tiger
    First time in Modern Classics Claudia Hampton, a beautiful, famous writer, lies dying in hospital. But, as the nurses tend to her with quiet condescension, she is plotting her greatest work—a history of the world ... and in the process, my own. Gradually she re-creates the rich mosaic of her life and times, conjuring up those she has known. There...
    Paperback
    $2800
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Moon Tiger
    A stylish reissue of the Booker Prize-winning, Golden Booker Prize-shortlisted classic—now with a new introduction by Elif Shafak. Claudia Hampton—beautiful, famous, independent, dying. But she remains defiant to the last, telling her nurses that she will write a 'history of the world... and in the process, my own'. And it is her story from a childhood just after the First...
    Paperback
    $2400
    Elsewhere:
    $2600
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Ammonites and Leaping Fish
    Now with a new chapter, On Being Ninety—a memoir of ageing, memory, and time, written by one of the twentieth century's greatest writers at the age of eighty. 'The twentieth century shook the world—it sobers me to have been one of those to see it through.' In this powerful and compelling 'view from old age', Penelope Lively, at eighty, reports...
    Paperback
    $2400
    Elsewhere:
    $2600
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • A Stitch in Time
    Pre-order
    A Stitch in Time
    A rediscovered children's classic, winner of the 1976 Whitbread Award, from the Booker Prize and Carnegie Medal-winning author of Moon Tiger and The Ghost of Thomas Kempe. Maria likes to be alone with her thoughts. She talks to animals and objects, and generally prefers them to people. But whilst on holiday she begins to hear things that aren’t there –...
    Paperback
    $1999
    Pre-order
    Out 1 Sep 2026
  • The Photograph
    A gorgeous novel by the Booker-winning author, now a Penguin Essential. Searching through a little-used cupboard at home, Glyn Peters chances upon a photograph he has never seen before. Taken in high summer, many years earlier, it shows his wife, Kath, holding hands with another man. Glyn's work as a historian should have inured him to unexpected findings and reversals,...
    Paperback
    Sold Out
  • Metamorphosis
    An exquisite selection of the best short stories from one of our best-loved writers. Wry, compassionate, and glittering with wit, Penelope Lively's stories get beneath the everyday to the beating heart of human experience. In intimate stories of growing up and growing old, chance encounters and life-long relationships, Lively explores with keen insight the ways that individuals can become tangled...
    Paperback
    Sold Out
  • The Purple Swamp Hen and Other Stories
    A new collection of short stories from the Man Booker Prize-winning writer. A dream house that is hiding something sinister; two women having lunch who share a husband; an old woman doing her weekly supermarket shop with a secret past that no one could guess; a couple who don't know each other at all even after fifteen years together; and,...
    Paperback
    Sold Out
  • The Road To Lichfield
    The Road to Lichfield, the Booker Prize shortlisted first novel by Penelope Lively, is now available for the first time as a Penguin Essential. Ann Linton leaves her family in Berkshire and sets up camp in her father's house when he is taken into a nursing home in distant Lichfield. As she shares his last weeks, she meets David Fielding,...
    Paperback
    Sold Out

More from Children's Books

View all
  • New Release
    Royalslinger
    K Pop Demon Hunters fans will love this! Graci Kim is back with the second book in her exciting and fantastical Slinger series where dragons and phoenixes roam the skies of Seoul; meals magically appear based on your mood; and dreams literally come to life. Praise for Dreamslinger: “A mind-blowingly original fantasy adventure—Graci Kim has done it again!”—Rick Riordan, New York Times #1...
    Paperback
    $1999
    Elsewhere:
    $2400
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • New Release
    Detective Beans and the Map of Mystery
    Enjoy this new DETECTIVE BEANS adventure in the bestselling and award-winning graphic novel series by Li Chen! Your favourite kitten detective is back with a new mystery to solve . . . and treasure to find! When Captain Scuttlebeard gives Beans a treasure map, Beans is determined to find the prize at the end. The clues take him all over...
    By Li Chen
    Paperback
    $1900
    Elsewhere:
    $2200
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Mei Mei the Bunny
    New Release
    Mei Mei the Bunny
    Mei Mei the Bunny is Laufey's picture book debut about a bunny learning to believe in herself through music. Experience a heartwarming tale of self-belief in this enchanting picture book by GRAMMY Award-winning musician Laufey. Meet Mei Mei, a little bunny with a big dream—to spread joy through her music! As her debut recital at the H'Opera House draws near,...
    By Laufey
    Hardback
    $3199
    Elsewhere:
    $3800
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • New Release
    Hunted: Wolf Girl 15
    Just when Wolf Girl is finally reunited with her father, he is torn away from her once more, and Gwen vows to stop at nothing to track him down. But danger is closing in: a giant snow leopard and a mysterious hooded figure are hot on their trail. As Gwen and the pack race through deep caverns to snowy peaks,...
    By Anh Do
    Paperback
    $1699
    Elsewhere:
    $1899
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • New Release
    What If You Could
    From the former prime minister of New Zealand comes a guide for teens on chasing your dreams and embracing the unexpected qualities that truly make a person strong. When Jacinda Ardern became prime minister of New Zealand, she was one of the youngest people in the world leading a country. Many people thought she would never succeed — herself included....
    Paperback
    $2599
    Elsewhere:
    $3000
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • New Release
    Lonasei and the Mystery of Origin Grove
    Eleven-year-old Lonasei is lonely — she wishes her older sister Eva Grace wasn't so mean, and that her mum Aria didn't have to work so much. But when Aria inherits her childhood home, Lonasei discovers she can enter her late Aunt Malia's paintings and experience the memories within. Through them, she discovers that her mother had another sister, Agnes, who went...
    Paperback
    $2199
    Elsewhere:
    $2799
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • New Release
    The Case of the Viral Video: Violet and the Velvets 3
    Violet and the Velvets can hardly believe they've come so far in the BandChamps competition with only hard work, a smidge of talent, and a whole lot of thinking outside the box. This time, they get to record their new song in a proper recording studio and star in their very own music video! But Violet is letting her perfectionism...
    Paperback
    $1600
    Elsewhere:
    $1899
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Dawn Raid: The Apology
    This sequel to Dawn Raid follows Sofia Savea’s family, 50 years later, as Sofia's grandson becomes involved in the quest for a government apology. INVERCARGILL, 2020 Wow, I thought I knew a bit about the dawn raids, but this is HUGE. It happened to my OWN family and I never knew! I had no idea that Granfia and her family...
    Paperback
    $1800
    Elsewhere:
    $2099
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Big Bang Bread
    New Release
    Big Bang Bread
    In this time-travel storybook and cookbook with a cosmic twist, take a journey through time and space to discover the secrets of baking! Did you know that bread is made from stardust? Board the rocket and blast off on an adventure through time and space to discover the secrets of a home-baked loaf! Big Bang Bread is a kids' time-travel...
    Paperback
    $1800
    Elsewhere:
    $2100
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • B is for Bird
    From award-winning artist, Lily Emo, comes a beautiful celebration of birds. Paired with a fun rhyming story, gorgeous illustrations, and fold-out pages, this book is set to be a favourite for everyone and the perfect gift. Make your way through the alphabet with this stunning book featuring a cast of familiar birds. From albatross to fantails, gannets to quail, and...
    Hardback
    $1999
    Elsewhere:
    $2499
    (1)
    Backorder
    Ships mid August
  • Signed Copy
    New Release
    The Curse of the Carnivorous Cactuses
    (Sam: Nothing could be as bad as being covered in icky purple blobs ... wait, what does carnivorous mean again?) The gang is determined to defeat Glam-Evil and her nasty curses so that they can save their park and get back for Shackleton and Amelia's very first sleepover. But Glam-Evil has a few new tricks up her ultravillainous sleeve ......
    Paperback
    $1400
    Elsewhere:
    $1499
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Bluey: Rain
    On Sale
    17% off
    New Release
    Bluey: Rain
    It's raining! Bluey is trying to dam the water in the front yard, but does she need Mum's help? Join Bluey as she plays in the water when a heavy summer rain thunders over the Heeler home. Can Mum stop Bluey from dirtying the house? Featuring: A nearly wordless picture book with visual storytelling that mimics the dialogue-free episode. A...
    By Bluey
    Hardback
    $1500
    Elsewhere:
    $2100
    In Stock
    Ships today

Why buy from us?

Book Hero is not a chain store or big box retailer. We're an independent 100% NZ-owned business on a mission to help more Kiwis rediscover a love of books and reading!

Service & Delivery

Service & Delivery

Our warehouse in Auckland holds over 100,000 books, toys, board games and puzzles in-stock so you're not waiting for your order to arrive from overseas.

Auckland Bookstore

Auckland Bookstore

We're primarily an online store, but for your convenience you can pick up your order for free from our bookstore, which is right next door to our warehouse in Hobsonville.

Our Gifting Service

Our Gifting Service

Books make wonderful thoughtful gifts and we're here to help with gift-wrapping and cards. We can even send your gift directly to your loved one.