96 pages • 3 hours read
Jonathan StroudThe Screaming Staircase
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2013A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Introduction
The Screaming Staircase
- Genre: Fiction; young adult supernatural thriller
- Originally Published: 2013
- Reading Level/Interest: Lexile 720L; grades 7-12
- Structure/Length: 5 parts, 26 chapters; approx. 381 pages; approx. 10 hours, 10 minutes on audio
- Protagonist/Central Conflict: Ghosts and spirits are popping up all over London, and only young people have the psychic abilities to see and fight them. Fifteen-year-old Lucy Carlyle teams up with Anthony Lockwood, the leader of Lockwood & Co., a ghost-hunting agency that runs without adult supervision, to investigate Combe Carey Hall, one of the most haunted houses in England. Can they survive the legendary Screaming Staircase?
- Potential Sensitivity Issues: Child abuse; domestic abuse; on-page suicide/attempted suicide; blood and gore; parental death; drowning; torture; body shaming
Jonathan Stroud, Author
- Bio: Born in 1970; British writer of fantasy fiction; attended Wheatfields Junior School and St. Albans Boys’ School; says his love of reading comes from being chronically ill from ages 7-9; studied English literature at University of York; worked as an editor for Walker Books before turning to write full time; best known for the best-selling Bartimaeus Trilogy; his series Lockwood & Co. has been adapted into a Netflix television series
- Other Works: The Amulet of Samarkand (2003); The Golem’s Eye (2004); The Whispering Skull (2015); The Hollow Boy (2015); The Outlaws Scarlett and Browne (2021); The Notorious Scarlett and Browne (2022)
- Awards: Cybils Award for Speculative Fiction (2013); We Read Prize (2014); Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalist (2014); Edgar Award for Best Juvenile Book nominee (2014); Silver Inky Award shortlist (2014); Carnegie Medal for Literature nominee (2014); Hampshire Book Award (2014, 2015)
