38. Charlie Bone and the Hidden King by Jenny Nimmo

This, the 5th book in the series, starts out with an "unnatural" snow storm and all the animals in London leaving in a mass exodus because of something evil. Later Charlie meets 2 new endowed girls and the father of the current evil headmaster of Bloors while trying to find out where the animals went. Again I really liked this book. This time Charlie's nice grandmother is frozen alive (though not killed) and her mother is taken over by an enchanter. Usually these two are Charlie's stalwart supporters, so he, his uncle, and all of his friends must find out what is going on and fix it. Charlie also continues his search for his father. These books are always unexpected and interesting and pretty quick reads. I would definitely recommend it.