Foal in the Fog

Animal Ark Hauntings #5

by Ben M. Baglio

A spooky spin-off of the best-selling Animal Ark series, this new Hauntings title will have animal-lovers shivering in fear and delight.

Mandy and her best friend James are used to dealing with animals in distress. But ghostly animals in distress are a different matter...

One day, while out riding, Mandy gets separated from her cousin and lost in the fog. She comes across a lone foal who mysteriously disappears back into the mist. Mandy meets a local girl who is haunted by the death of her own foal, Curiosity. When she learns that Curiosity lost his life in the fog, Mandy begins to wonder -- was Curiosity the mysterious foal she saw? If it is Curiosity, can Mandy discover why he came back?

Genres: Animals, Horses, Childrens, Middle Grade, Fiction, Mystery, Paranormal

144 pages, Paperback

First published December 6, 2001

About the author

Ben M. Baglio created the brief for two series of children's books - Dolphin Diaries and Animal Ark. Dolphin Diaries features a girl and her family from Florida, who travel around the world as marine biologists and study dolphins. Animal Ark features two children who work together to help animals and solve animal-related mysteries. The books were written by commissioned writers in the UK under Baglio's instruction using the pseudonym Lucy Daniels. Each ghostwriter is named with a 'Special Thanks' on the copyright page.

Using his real name he also wrote the book series The Pet Finders Club, featuring a group of three children who search for peoples lost pets.

Reviews

[Jenny Clark · Rating 3 out of 5]

As with the others, love the animals and Mandy, just not a fan of the ghost part in an Animal Arc.

[Rena Sherwood · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is a review of the American Scholastic edition, with the fake author name of Ben Baglio. It was originally published in the UK by Hodder under the fake author name of Lucy Daniels. The real author's name was Ingrid Maitland. The illustrations, which were far better than the story, were done by Anne Baum.

This was the last of the Animal Ark Hauntings series, which lasted a mere nine books. This spin-off from the fabulously successful Animal Ark series was an incredibly bad idea. Animal Ark and it's other spin-off series were based in reality. As Sherlock Holmes said, "No ghosts need apply."

And yet animal ghosts appear, anyway, most of which were horses or ponies. Quite frankly, it made more sense for Mandy and James to have discovered extraterrestrials with pets in Welford than to have ghosts in the series. Perhaps the publishers saw the success of series like Goosebumps and rubbed their greedy little hands together.

This wasn't the worst in the Animal Ark Hauntings series, but it was damn close. This was just pathetic and immediately forgettable. All it did was show that Ingrid Maitland saw Poltergeist and Ghost.

Well, goody for you, Ingrid.

There were some attempts at actual animal care in here for ponies, puppies and sheep, but it's all just a sad mess. Sad, because this could've been a decent Animal Ark book without the ghost foal. Quite frankly, the ghost foal wasn't necessary for the plot. Just the memory of the foal would've been enough.

[Jessica Slavensky · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very cute book. I read this with my daughter every night before bedtime. We LOVE reading the Animal Ark series & decided to give the “hauntings” books a try. This is the first one we’ve read so far, and was very pleased. It’s not scary at all, but is very cute & in my opinion, it teaches kids how good friends should treat each other & how you should always be helpful. Definitely recommend this for young readers (my daughter is 7)

[Brooke · Rating 5 out of 5]

for me I loved the book.some parts it the book were like "what is going to happen?" it is about a girl named mandy and she goes to her dads aunts.then she mets a girl the is hanted by her foals death. mandy helps the girl get over her fer.but they want to know why the ded foal keeps on coming back. the girls mom and dad do not belive that her ded foal is back

[Emmaline · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think any book that scared me as much as this one did as a kid definitely deserves five stars. I couldn't sleep for nine days and still remember it all these years later!!

[Piper Johnson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Weird but satisfying.

[April · Rating 5 out of 5]

This has to be one of my favorite Animal Ark books. The mystery of Curiosity coming back to help a foal in danger and also show her old owner that she's finally at peace.

[Isabella · Rating 4 out of 5]

Actual Rating: 4.5 Stars

[Dharia Scarab · Rating 3 out of 5]

My love of reading started when i was young, and it gives me immense pleasure to provide books to Spread the Word Nevada, an organization that passes them on to children in the community. They are a terrific organization supporting an important cause. If your local I encourage you to check them out. For those living further a field, look in your own community, their may already be a similar program in place. And if not, you can always help start one.

http://spreadthewordnevada.org/

Myself, I go out on the weekends and
shop thrift store and bulk book lots to rescue books and donate them. Sometimes I'll find a book I remember reading when I was young and will read it again before passing it on.

I don't rate these books using my normal scale, instead I give most of them three stars. This isn't a Criticism of the book, simply my way of rating them as good for children.

[Twyla · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favourite part was when the foal was happy because the other alive foal was happy in a new home with a new owner. The worst part was when the alive foal was almost drowning in the bog that night. My favourite character was Mandy because she helped the foals old owner discover the foal wanted to help her, not hurt her. There was no worst character. Auryn 11 years old, 2015

[Sammy]

I was completely obsessed with this series of books when I was a child and my aim was to read every single book. They are a really good children's series.

I especially liked the haunting series.

[Cws]

JAR4-Bag

[Meagan · Rating 5 out of 5]

spooky book

[Jessie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mandy sees a mysterious foal.

[Shayma · Rating 5 out of 5]

this one creeped me out but it was sad but i loved it

[Liz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Spooky as a kid, I sincerely had a bad fear of fog and a vivid imagination.

[Mylah · Rating 5 out of 5]

This one was one of my favorites, along side with Dog in the Dungeon. I don't read these anymore, but if I had to read any of them twice, I'd pick this one.

[Mallory Tabler · Rating 5 out of 5]

this is an exelent mystery and i think i now love the hauntings more than the regular