Don't Fade Away! Ghoulia and the Ghost with No Name by Barbara Cantini

It was a lovely snowy evening at Crumbling Manor. Ghoulia was a little weary from her snowball battles with her village friends, but inside the candle-lit mansion all thoughts were turning toward the up-coming "Dead-But-Not-Departed" New Year's Eve party.

But up in her tower, Ghoulia was feeling a little spooked. She had the creepy feeling that someone was watching her.

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She heard noises on the roof. Just a split second before he vanished, Ghoulia spotted a boy sitting on a patch of snow. He was glowing, too!

And in the morning there are mysterious, ashy tracks around Uncle Misfortunes fireplace. And in the early evening, there was a tap on the window that almost made her drop the book she was reading. And when Ghoulia and her dog Tragedy peered out, they saw a faded ghost boy floating outside!

"Let me in!" he commanded. "I don't have anywhere else to go!"

"What's your name?" asked Ghoulia.

"I can't remember!" moaned the little ghost.

Ghoulia knew that was a perilous state to be in for a ghost. Without a name and with no one to remember him, he was beginning to fade away. Unless he could find his name to remember, he would finally disappear. Kind Ghoulia knew she had to help. She decided to consult the most knowledgeable ghost she knew--Grandfather Coffin, who explained about Oblivion--the place where ghosts go when no one, not even themselves, still remembers their names.

Now Ghoulia knew what she had to do, but... HOW? Ghoulia visited the Crumbling Manor's extensive library. She made a photo of the little ghost, and used it to identify the little ghost's clothing as in the style of about 1810. Then Ghoulia asked for help from Auntie Departed, who told her that the local church kept records of all births, weddings, and deaths, but warned her that she dared not enter the church. Dreadful, unknown things might happen, she suggested. Ghoulia, with her fingers well crossed, promised that she would not.

But the gutsy Ghoulia was not one to let an old auntie's tales get in her way when someone needed her help, in Barbara Cantini's Ghoulia and the Ghost with No Name (Book 3) (Amulet Books, 2020), and with the help of the official Church Registry there was a newly re-discovered name, Nicholas, added to the guest list for the Dead-But-Not-Departed party at Crumbling Manor.

Beginning chapter book readers will find this third book in the Ghoulia series a spine-tingly spoof, a tongue-in-cheek ghost and ghoul story, illustrated in, er, lively color cartooning by the author. The author also appends more spooky fun, "Nicholas's Memory Games." For the first book in this early readers' series, see my review here.

Dare to be Brave! Gustavo the Shy Ghost by Flavia Z. Drago

Gustavo was a ghost who enjoyed doing the normal things that paranormal beings do--passing through walls, making objects flying and glowing in the dark.

But there was nothing he loved more than playing the violin.

Gustavo had a crush on a pretty monster named Alma, and he longed to join all the others in their games, but the little ghost was too shy even to allow himself to be seen. He was even afraid to order a cone at the Eye Scream shop.

And the worst part of it?

Making friends was terrifying.

Gustavo knew he had to be brave. Then he had an idea. He composed a letter.

"Dear Monsters,

I would like to invite you to my violin concert on the next full of the moon at the cemetery.

I would be thrilled to see you there.

Gustavo

On the assigned night Gustavo arrives at the cementery. There is no one there. There is only one thing he can do. Gustavo picks up his violin and begins to play.

Will Gustavo find the courage actually to "appear" to his would-be friends? Flavia Z. Drago's Gustavo, the Shy Ghost (Candlewick Press, 2020) offers young children a shared story of shyness and the gift of acceptance from those who would be friends, all while they giggle over the comic "paranormals" being themselves in the story, illustrated in  Drago's jolly style. Says School Library Journal, "Gentle storytelling and vibrant mixed-media illustrations make for an enjoyable seasonal story."

Differences! The Little Ghost Who Was a Quilt by Riel Nason

ONCE THERE WAS A LITTLE GHOST WHO WAS A QUILT.

His mom and dad were wispy white, like all his friends, who easily whirled and flew with ease around him. He was heavy and not a fast or strong flyer. His parents pointed out that one of their ancestors was a checkered tablecloth and that his grandmother was an elegant lace tablecloth, but that did not help.

THE LITTLE GHOST DIDN'T LIKE BEING DIFFERENT.

BUT THERE WAS ONE DAY IN THE YEAR THAT ALWAYS CHEERED HIM UP--HALLOWEEN!

It was great! The children a came out as soon as it was dark, dressed as ghosts. Everyone made ghost decorations to hang in the trees, and all his friends loved to hang around unnoticed in the trees to watch everything that happened. The little ghost who was a quilt was sad that he couldn't do that, but he always tried to find some place, like a clothesline, to hang around, too. This year he managed to fold himself over a porch rail so that he could see what the kids were doing when they rang the doorbells.

All was well until a woman dressed as a witch and a little girl in a tutu came up on the porch. The little girl complained of being cold, so as they left her mother picked up the little ghost who was a quilt and wrapped him around her and took them back to their house, where the little girl sorted her candy and wiped her chocolatey hands all over him. But he felt strangely cozy, when, after the little girl fell asleep, her mother folded him gently, admiring his colors. Then he was alone and he slipped up the chimney and flew back home.

THE LITTLE GHOST'S FRIENDS RUSHED TO HEAR EVERY DETAIL OF HIS ADVENTURE.

THEY FLEW SLOWLY WITH HIM ALL THE WAY HOME.

It had all happened because he was different sort of ghost. And now what a Halloween tale he has to tell, in Reil Nason's The Little Ghost Who Was a Quilt (Tundra Books, 2020). Author Nason's ghost story about being a bit different from peers has a lovely theme told unself-consciously in perfect harmony with the illustrations by Byron Eggenschwaler, in which the author makes good use of the focus on the little ghost quilt, its pleasing blue and white pattern standing out against the darker muted shades, which sets up the differences that readers see on each page.

Publishers Weekly calls this gentle Halloween story "... a pleasant, slightly eerie world where the ghosts’ cobwebbed haunted house and a contemporary neighborhood fit comfortably together."

What's A Spook To Do? The Little Ghost Who Lost Her Boo! by Elaine Bickell

A LITTLE GHOST WENT OUT IN THE NIGHT,
AND FLEW UP TO SOMEONE TO GIVE THEM A FRIGHT.
SHE GOT IN POSITION, ARMS UP, ALL PREPARED.
"WAIT FOR IT, LADY! YOU'RE GOING TO BE SCARED!"

But the little spook's BOO seemed to be...nowhere!
What's a ghost with no BOO to do?
But this is a spunky little spook who sets off to look for her BOO! Off through the dark forest she flew, and then she heard a scary WHOOO! WHOOO!
But Mrs. Owl's hoot will never do.
Pigeon offers to loan her COO! and Rooster says she can borrow his COCKLE-DOODLE-DOO. The dark is fading with the dawn's early light, and Cow in her pasture even suggests her MOO! Little ghost thanks her, but it's just not HER BOO!,
There's no one left to help but YOU, the READER!

YES, YOU! CAN YOU HELP LITTLE GHOST FIND HER BOO?

In a scary season book just made for reading aloud, Elaine Bickell's The Little Ghost Who Lost Her Boo! (Philomel Books) has all the right stuff--a Halloween setting, animal sounds, rhyming couplets, and reader participation! With skillfully charming drawings by Raymond McGrath, this one is just right for little ones from nursery school to beginning readers.
Share this one with the classic of scary sounds story, The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything. (See review here)

Lost in Time: Trapped in Room 217 by Thomas Kingsley Troupe

Cold.

Despite a pretty heavy comforter on the bed, Jayla was cold.

The room was cold.

She sat up slightly and nearly shrieked at what she saw. There was a woman in the room. She was standing almost next to her. Waves of cold and terror washed over Jayla. Something inside her told her that she needed to watch this woman.

She's a ghost, Jayla thought. There's a ghost in our room.

Jayla could see right through her. Even so, she could make out her clothes, an old-time maid's uniform.

A sudden work assignment has come up for Jayla's and her younger brother Dion's father, and even though an extra two days off for spring break is great and the drive though snowy Colorado is beautiful, there is something troubling about the imposing old Stanley Hotel. Suddenly the remarks of a couple of the older guests, saying they were in for "an interesting night" makes sense.

After Jayla's midnight encounter with the ghost, the first thing she does is pull out her phone and search out information on the Stanley Hotel, which turned out to have a worldwide reputation for America's most haunted. She discovers that the ghost maid has even put her shoes by the door and tidied up their bathroom. With Dad working all day, she and Dion are stuck in the old hotel, and they decide to find out as much as possible about the resident ghost. They discover that there are other ghosts reported there. When they learn that they are too young for the "Ghost Tour," a employee takes them on a short version, and Jayla learns that Room 217 is indeed famous for its ghost, Elizabeth Wilson, and her nightly appearance, in which she always seems to be searching for something on the floor beside the bed.

If they are stuck in the hotel for at least a week, Jayla and Dion decide to spend their time figuring out what is keeping Elizabeth "stuck" in Room 217 every night.

Jayla and Dion are intrigued when she discovers that there seems to be some object beneath the carpet beside the bed, and when she finds a knife and makes a cut in the rug just large enough for her finger, she finds a locket with a photo of a woman underneath. Can this be what the ghostly Elizabeth is seeking?

Can Jayla free the ghost of Elizabeth from her nightly search?

Thomas Kingsey Troupe's series has the promising premise of young ghost hunter stories in some of America's notably haunted places, and for middle readers who prefer just a touch of scariness, his Trapped in Room 217 (Haunted States of America) (Jolly Fish Press, 2018, 2019) avoids terror and emphasizes rational and sensitive kids having their own "ghost busters" adventures in real-life famous spooky places. With black-and-white illustrations by artist Maggie Ivy on many pages, this title in the series makes for a bridge to the noted ghost stories of the master, Mary Downing Hahn, whose best-selling novels combine real empathy with ghostly encounters, include Wait Till Helen Comes: A Ghost Story, The Old Willis Place, The Girl in the Locked Room: A Ghost Story, and Took: A Ghost Story, and many more (see reviews here).

Of Troupe's short and simple ghost novels, School Library Journal says, "... young middle readers "will quickly flock to this high interest, accessible thriller."

Fright Night Sleuth! Trick or Treat? Who's That Hiding in the Dark by John Townsend

You'll never guess who I might be.
I live in a spooky old house...

Our narrator is a little cagey about what he is--although, for the sake of a rhyme, he says he's not...

... a mouse!

Yes, dear reader, you are going to have to go into that scary house, through that spooky door, through those thick and creepy cobwebs, and see who's hanging around inside, besides that big black spider.

Oh, you might spot a rat, but he's not running from a big black cat either. But who really resides in this spooky place? There's one more clue, but it's up to you.

My home is cold and damp and dark...

Wait... ! don't go down those stairs to the cellar... and whatever you do, don't open that...

There are the usual suspects for a haunted house behind every flap, in John Townsend's Who's That Hiding in the Dark? (Scribblers, 2018), a virtual walk-through of a visit to the neighborhood haunted house, and a good way to introduce the creepy candy customers who will present themselves at your own door on Halloween. Artist Fermin Solis provides the not-so-creepy comic versions of the usual Fright Time characters in this rhyming, just-in-time for the scary season toy-and-movable book.

Wanna Spook a Spook? How to Scare A Ghost by Jean Reagan

DO YOU WANT TO SCARE A GHOST?

It's like the old saw about making rabbit stew: first you have to catch the rabbit. And to spook a spook, the season in which you look is important!

THE EASIEST, SPOOKIEST TIME IS...HALLOWEEN!

Make your house and yard look appealing to ghosts. Conceal scarecrows (but not that well) in the backyard so the specters will feel at home. Park a few creepy Jack o' lanterns around the place. Crank up the speakers with some scary sounds. At school be sure to do some Halloween-y stuff, like bobbing for apples and putting out black-and-orange cupcakes. Ghosts are also attracted by the smell of glue and the sparkle of glitter in homemade decorations.

But be forewarned: it's not so easy to recognize a ghost at Halloween. There are lots of kids in sheets or store-bought costumes. But there's one sure way to tell. Invite the suspected spook home after school on the day your mom always vacuums the house.

Ghosts (and cats) are terrified of vacuum cleaners!

There are other sure ways to tell a ghost from a kid in costume.

Try the seesaw test: if the sure-enough spook sits down on the high side, it doesn't go down. Or, try the trampoline test:

YUP! NO BOUNCE!

But by the time the potential ghost is verified, he's more like a buddy who needs some trick-or-treating tips, one who'll give you all his stash, in Jean Reagan's latest in her popular How To series, How to Scare a Ghost (Alfred A. Knopf, 2018). Artist Lee Wildish again adds his comic sight gags to this Halloween How To manual, as when the friendly ghost, in a loaner robot costume, forgets himself and floats too high, scaring the bystanders when they see he has ...

AAGH! NO FEET!!!

This newest for youngsters by Reagan and Wildish is a lighthearted look at the scary season. Says Publishers Weekly,"... a playful Halloween story for readers not ready for scarier fare."

No Fear Here! Sam Wu Is NOT Afraid of Ghosts by Katie and Kevin Tsang

You are probably wondering why Ralph Philip Zinkerman the Third calls me Scaredy Cat Sam.

Listen carefully. I am only going to tell this story ONCE.

The Event that Must Never Be Spoken Of Again occurred on a field trip to the Space Museum where, emboldened by his Space Blasters shirt, Sam Wu climbs into the Astro Blaster mockup and sets off the blast-off simulation and is convinced that he meets up with the Space Ghost of his favorite TV show. Sirens screech, lights flash, and the Astro Blaster seems about to blow up. Suffice it to say, the worst thing that can happen on a field trip happens to Sam.

I looked down.

Rising above the laughter, comes Ralph's voice.

"Sam Wu peed his pants."

To overcome his reputation as Scaredy Cat Sam at school, he settles on becoming the owner of the scariest pet in the pet shop, a snake which he names Fang. Now what can Ralph Philip Zinkerman the Third say? Just wait till he sees Sam's deadly constrictor!

His best friends, Zoe and Bernard, are impressed. Immediately they wangle a visit to Sam's house to see the Super-Dangerous Predator, and while they are there, the power goes out, and when the lights come on and Sam takes his friends up to see his snake, his tank is open and--Fang is GONE! After an almost sleepless night wrapped in pickle juice-soaked aluminum foil to save him from being strangled by Fang, Sam is desperate. The next day he begs Zoe and Bernard to come back and help save him from the Super-Dangerous snake, which seems to be living--and screeching--inside his very walls! Has Fang joined forces with The Space Ghost? Is Sam Wu is doomed to be a scaredy cat after all?

Sam gets by with a little help from his friends, in Katie and Kevin Tsang's Sam Wu Is NOT Afraid of Ghosts! (Sterling Books, 2018). In an intriguing combination of early chapter book and graphic novel with Nathan Reed's wild and crazy illustrations, somewhat reminiscent of the Captain Underpants series, kids will agree that Sam Wu comes through, with his reputation as not-a-scaredy-pants intact--at least as far as space ghosts and snakes go. Sam is a sympathetic multicultural protagonist, enjoying the differences in his Chinese family's food, finding new friends, and making his way through the trials of elementary school bullies and his own fears. Readers will want to see how Sam fares with another fear in Sam Wu is NOT Afraid of Sharks!

Spooky Treat: Five Silly Ghosts illustrated by Hilli Kushnir

Oh, dear! Who's that on brooms--high up in the air?

"BOO! I DON'T CARE!"

Little ghosts drift through the darkening sky. A big yellow moon rises high, and the small spirits seem to be all in costume--one with eyepatch and pirate hat, one with a red clown nose, one as a princess with crown and scepter, one in a tall black witch's hat, and one masked as a cat.

Little witches zoom, astride a broom.

But what are these fearless little specters up to?

These little ghosties are not scared. They are prepared--each one with a bright bag, a cauldron, or a plastic pumpkin. What do they want?

Treats and some fun for everyone!

It's a proper jolly All Hallow's Eve with black cats and black bats. And when the wind goes whooooo! and blows out the candles' light, with a bit of a fright the five silly ghosts decide to call it a night!

The scary season is coming soon, and we can count on some version of this jolly rhyming counting song to make an appearance to prepare youngsters for the fun and frivolities of the Halloween holiday season. This same counting rhyme appears in many versions--with five little pumpkins, five little goblins, five little black cats, et al--the characters change, but the rhythmic folk song format remains pretty much the same, with a bit of counting skills for toddlers and a lot of fun for youngsters to sing together.

In this brand new board book version, artist Hilli Kushner gives us sparkly little ghosts out for a bit of trick-or-treating on diecut pages that picture what's come before and preview what's coming next as cues for emergent readers in Five Silly Ghosts (board book) (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2018), in a fun read-along that every little would-be spook should share in the spooky season.

Cartoon Classics: Disney Parks Present The Haunted Mansion by James Gilleard

HAPPY HAUNTS MATERIALIZE

AND BEGIN TO VOCALIZE,

GRIM, GRINNING GHOSTS

COME OUT TO SOCIALIZE.

And where better for the usual suspects on Halloween than in a haunted mansion with all the spooky trimmings--crypt doors that creak, coffins with scary hands opening the lids, a rising moon shining through the trees outside the cobwebbed window, and a mournful knell of a requiem bell. Well, what more would you want?

And if a tour of a the usual haunted house on the route of your trick-or-treat sortie is not planned, what is better than a spooky soiree in a house of horrors done up by classic Disney animation artists, set to the music of Disney stalwart Buddy Baker, with lyrics by Xavier Atensio, in the CD included in James Gilleard's vintage-styled Disney Parks Presents: The Haunted Mansion: Purchase Includes a CD with Song! (Disney Press, 2016). where a terrifying triumvirate await with your midnight fate.

BWA-HAAA-HAAA!

Unexpected Guests: Ghosts of Greenglass House by Kate Milford

"You want to see this, Milo!" Mr. Pine called. "A real Nagspeake Christmas tradition. We're about to get a visit from the Waits, to bring good luck for the coming year."

There was a jangling, and something else... was it music? The lights bobbed and dodged, and as the lights emerged from the woods, so did the people. There were seven, one of them with a ring around its head like a crown and a small forking branch hung with candles.

And then the final figure, a ghostly horse, shrouded in layers of white that caught the moon-and fire-glow like ice. Its head was a grinning skull with candles in the eye sockets and stag's antlers glowing gold. The head tossed and the jaw clacked open and shut as the creature walked along.

Milo Pine's school holidays have just begun and he has been hoping for a quiet family Christmas this year at Greenglass House, a very old inn on the rugged southern coast of England. This year there is only one guest, a vague young man named Emmett, seemingly obsessed with sketching the ancient stained-glass windows that give the inn its name--that is, until the place is invaded by two of last year's most unusual guests, two young women, Georgie and Clem, self-proclaimed thieves, who quietly admit that they need a place to lie low for a few days. Once the home of Doc Holystone, a legendary smuggler captain, Greenglass House is no stranger to secrets, and in short order, more unexpected guests show up for dubious reasons. Milo, who has looked forward to time alone with his parents, is both sad and annoyed.

And then the Waits appear, a motley collection of mummers from a local "asylum" called The Liberty, whose Advent visits are a tradition drawn from ancient times. Caroling is a minor activity for this band, and one of them, Rob, dressed as the "sweeper" gets busy with his duties of sweeping the chimney to bring good luck to Greenglass House in the new year. Rob, however, is a novice sweeper and the downstairs is soon filled with smoke and soot to be cleaned up, and the Pines find themselves suddenly hosting the weird Waits for the night as well.

Then Georgie and Clem confide that their "haul," historic navigational implements from the stash of the infamous smuggler Violet Cross, have been stolen from their rooms, implicitly by one of the guests, and then two of the women guests are battered by an unseen hand. Unwillingly, Milo finds himself drawn into this mystery, and to his delight, finds himself joined in his investigations by Meddy, the ghost of Doc Holystone's daughter, who has not materialized since the previous Christmas.

It's not your usual Christmas story. Greenglass House at Christmas is a place where no one is quite who or what they seem, a place for shape-shifting spirits, a place where the past and the present overlap and layer themselves in a frosty, misty setting that seems unmoored in time. On one level Milo and Meddy assume the identities and powers of Tengfei and Sirin, in a Dungeons and Dragons-like game, while the real Milo himself worries over his own dual identity as an Asian child adopted by pair of English innkeepers and Meddy is haunted by her inability to be reunited with the ghost of her father Doc Holystone. And still, the holy grail strangely sought by all of the mystery visitors is a legendary map of the Skedwrack River estuary, with its shifting shoals and channels, an actual yet metaphorical artifact somehow able to represent the myriad changes in navigable waters that their famous smugglers sought.

And those are only some of the mysteries found in Kate Milford's just published Ghosts of Greenglass House (Houghton Mifflin Clarion, 2017), the sequel to last year's Greenglass House, winner of the 2016 Edgar Award for mysteries. Some secrets are revealed in this second book, with its dense, convoluted plot that often floats somewhere in that realm of "a willing suspension of disbelief," making for an absorbing supernatural detective story, albeit one with a quite down-to-earth bit of sleuthing involving a traditional Advent food. Milo is a complex character, living in what he feels are two worlds in more ways than one, of Chinese heritage in a very English village, on the cusp of childhood and adult life, and aware of the ghosts from a past that are always an active force in the living present. For young readers who like to curl up over the holidays with a complex mystery novel that takes them into a very different world, this one is a must read.

Seven Crows For a Secret, Not To Be Told: One For Sorrow by Mary Downing Hahn

At the door to my room, Elsie stopped and stared."This is all yours? Oh, Annie, you are so lucky."

Elsie tried out the rocking chair Father had made for me. She even opened the doors to the tall wardrobe and flipped through my skirts and dress and blouses. Finally she sat down on my bed and gave a little bounce. "You are my best friend. What good times we'll have playing here." I tried to smile. Elsie picked up Edward Bear and squeezed his tummy to make him growl. "What makes that noise?" She poked Edward's belly harder. "We should cut him open and find out. He's just a stuffed animal. Old and ugly and smelly."

"Give him to me," I cried. "I've had him since I was a baby. I'd never hurt him.""

It is 1918, and shy, only child Annie has just started sixth grade in a new school in a new town and longs to be accepted by the circle of girls led by the bold, red-haired Rosie, but before their first recess, Elsie grabs her hand and telling her how mean the other girls are, forces her to play only with her. And after school, uninvited she follows Annie home. Annie's mother kindly invites her to stay for dinner, but Annie finds it impossible to like Elsie, overweight, with horribly crooked teeth, and seeming to hate everyone--the teacher, the other students, even her stepmother and father whom she claims beat her and lock her in her room. Annie tries to be polite, but there is something frightening about Elsie that makes her wish she would stay away.

Then Elsie is absent from school for several days, and Annie is accepted by Rosie and the others into their group. Rosie is daring and mischievous and invents wonderful ideas for after-school adventures. And when the Spanish flu strikes their town, and black wreaths appear on the doors of many houses, Rosie has the most audacious idea ever--that the girls join the mourners and follow them to help themselves to the refreshments for the wake. Annie is unwilling, but follows Rosie for fear of losing her friends, and Rosie thinks nothing of studying the obituaries in the newspaper to prepare to make conversation at the wakes.

Then, on one cold dark afternoon, the girls come upon Elsie, wearing a flu mask, all alone on a swing, and Rosie leads the girls in teasing her. They circle around her, singing,

I had a little bird,
And its name was Enza.
I opened up the window,
And in flew Enza.

Annie feels ashamed as Elsie cries and tries to escape from the circle, but led by Rosie, the girls chase her partway home.

Then several days later, crashing another wake, the girls get a shock.

"Come in and say goodbye to her," the woman at the door said.

All five of us arrived at the coffin at the same moment. We all gasped, even Rosie, and backed away. It was Elsie. Rosie's face was so pale every freckle stood out. "We just saw her a few days ago," she whispered.

Sobered by the thought that they somehow might have contributed to Elsie's death, the girls attend no more wakes. Annie has constant nightmares about Elsie, but with the end of the war, everyone's spirits begin to rise, and with school still canceled, the girls spend their days outside in snowball fights and sledding. Then, near twilight one night, Rosie dares them all to take their sleds to the big hill inside the cemetery. The paths are crooked and icy, and Annie crashes into a monument adorned with an angel. When she comes back to consciousness, she sees that it is Elsie's tombstone, and inside her aching head she hears Elsie's voice. And then Elsie appears as well.

Elsie floated above the snow. She wore the same pale blue silk dress she'd worn when I last saw her lying in her coffin.

"Why don't you say hello? Now that I'm dead, I mean to have the friend I wanted--you, Annie," she whispers.

Elsie haunts Annie's sleeping and waking moments and begins to possess her mind, making her say and do things she doesn't want to do until her "precarious state of mind" forces her parents to place Annie in a convalescent home, in Mary Downing Hahn's moving story, One for Sorrow: A Ghost Story (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2017). Inspired by her own mother's memories of the influenza song and many children's funeral wakes from her childhood days, Hahn places this story in the days of the Spanish flu epidemic, long-past time which sets the scene for a memorable ghost tale. But this one is no horror story, meant only to spark shivers and keep pages turning. Hahn's ability to blend evil and good in her stories is inimitable, here pitting the angry but pitiable spirit of Elsie against the essential goodness of Mrs. Jameson, a frail elderly patient at the home who, as she lies dying, promises to free Annie by leading Elsie's restless ghost to reunite with the spirit of her lost mother.

Buffered by the author's empathy for all her characters and her well-drawn apparitions, Hahn's novels leave her readers with a deepened understanding of human nature in which ghosts finally find peace, leaving the reader with an affirmation of life.

Hahn's other noted ghost tales include Wait Till Helen Comes: A Ghost Story, , a classic which was made into a feature-length movie, Time for Andrew: A Ghost Story,  The Old Willis Place, and Stepping on the Cracks, all great for middle readers on those long summer afternoons and dark and stormy summer nights.

Dong Nabbit!" Agatha Parrot and the Odd Street School Ghost by Kjartan Poskitt

The kids at the Odd Street School are all on edge. The bell in the school clock tower rang 27 times (by Agatha Parrot's count) during the night. And now an upper window in Miss Pingle's classroom is mysteriously open, and her class is getting cold.

Miss Pingle decides that the situation calls for action, even if she has to be Extremely Naughty! She puts a chair on top of a small table on top of a big table under the window and starts to scale the heights. The class is too absorbed in their teacher's daring ascent to notice the classroom door opening.

"Miss Pingle!" shrieked Miss Barking, the Vice Principle. "You're a teacher, NOT a monkey!" Miss Pingle climbed down. It was really embarrassing for her, so we all pretended to be doing our work.

"If you need to shut that window, use the ladder!" said Miss Barking.

"I'll go get it," said Miss Pingle. "You can't," said Miss Barking. "I've locked it up so people can't use it!" "But that's silly," said Miss Pingle.

Miss Barking took Miss Pingle out into the hall, and we could hear her scolding her for climbing on the furniture. Of course, as soon as they were gone, Ivy (who climbs like her namesake plant) was up the shelves under the window, leaping across to grab the pipe by the open window. By the time Miss Pingle came back, we were all in our seats being good children.

"Remember what I said," Miss Barking barked from the door. "That window will stay open until... EH?"

She saw that the window was shut. "How did that happen?"

We all looked up and GASPED and pretended it was a big surprise. "Maybe... maybe it was the GHOST," said Ellie. "WOOOO!" said everybody.

The Odd Street School bell rings strangely every night, and when the parents of Odd Street gather at midnight on the sidewalk to investigate, they see a scary greenish face in the tower. The friends on Odd Street--Agatha Parrot, the appropriately-named Ivy, Martha, and Bianca--stick together against mean girls Gwendoline Tutt and Olivia Livid, who call their friend "Scary Ellie, Knees Turned to Jelly," but when Olivia runs screaming from a green hand scuttling out of the janitor's closet, the whole school seems to be going ghost crazy.

It's just the sort of silly, semi-scary story that tickles young readers' funnybones, in Kjarten Poskitt's forthcoming Agatha Parrot and the Odd Street School Ghost (Houghton Mifflin Clarion, 2016). In the best tradition of Edward Sachar's wacky Wayside School Boxed Set: Wayside School Gets a Little Stranger, Wayside School is Falling Down, Sideway Stories from Wayside School or Dan Gutman's even-wackier long-running My Weird School series, My Weird School Daze 12-Book Box Set,: author Poskitt and talented illustrator Wes Hargis look to be all set for further Odd Street School books in the future. With a setting on a street with only odd-numbered houses, a school bell that rings spookily at midnight, characters who are truly characters themselves, a quirky narrator, Agatha Parrot, and a vocabulary tailored to readers just venturing into the early chapter novel genre, who knows what will happen next on Odd Street?

Final Arrangements: The Loch Ness Punster (43 Old Cemetery Road) by Kate Klise

It was something Seymour Hope had been wondering about for more than a year, ever since he first met Ignatius B. Grumply. He finally asked it in a note one summer day.

Dear Iggy,

Why are you always so grumpy?

                  ----Seymour

For a year Seymour Hope has lived happily with his unusual adoptive parents, Izzy B. Grumply, best-selling mystery writer, and his co-author, the ghostly Olive C. Spence Despite having been deceased since 1911, Olive is a lively, loving and adventurous spirit, but sometimes Iggy's deadly, dull-as-dirt persona gets on Seymour's nerves.

It all goes down when Iggy receives a warm letter from his Scottish psychiatrist great-uncle who invites him to visit his castle on Loch Ness to re-establish their relationship. He closes with a pun that makes Iggy groan.

"What do you call an old psychiatrist who's on his last breath? A sigh-chiatrist!"

Ignatius is dead set against a visit, on the grounds that Uncle Ian Grumply was a persistent practitioner of the pun, the lowliest form of humor. But when a telegram arrives announcing Uncle Ian's death and declaring Seymour his heir,  Olive C. Spence and Seymour call Iggy a neophobe, and proclaiming themselves neophiliacs, they pack their bags with Olive fondly recalling her enjoyable visit to Loch Ness at age 12,  and  prepare to leave Ghastly, IL, and fly to Scotland via Heir Air to check out the inheritance. Seymour gets a passport, Olive uses her death certificate as proof of citizenship, and soon they arrive at Seymour's charming, if crumbling, castle in Loch Ness.

But the two travelers soon discover that someone else has designs on the inherited property--the unprincipled real estate developer, Macon Deals, who yearns to convert the ruined remains of the castle and grounds into a gambling resort, Loch Vegas. Despite the opposition of the local believers in their venerable tourist attraction Nessie, led by restaurant owner Carrie N. Haggis, Macon Deals manages to convince the locals that his plan will bring fame and lucrative jobs to the area. All that stands in his way are young Seymour Hope and his invisible guardian, Olive C. Spence.

Meanwhile, back in Ghastly, IL, Grumply is being hounded by a desperate life insurance salesman, Garren Teed, who prepares a million-dollar policy for him, throwing in a two-for-one deal covering Olive C. Spence as well. Iggy is unimpressed with the deal at first,  but when he gets an overdue notice from the local librarian, M. Balm, reporting that the tortoise Seymour checked out under their summer pet-loan promotion has turned out to be the oldest on record and demands return or payment of a $10,000 fine, Iggy re-examines Garren Teed's policy and digs up a promising clause buried in the fine print:

This two-for-one policy shall cover Olive C. Spence and Ignatius B. Grumply. In the event of one or the other's death, the survivor shall present the authorized insurance agent a notarized copy of the the deceased's death certificate. In exchange, thew agent shall present to the surviving individual a check for $1,000,000, no questions asked.

Lamentably, author Kate Klise claims that she in laying to rest her lively series with her last testament, The Loch Ness Punster (43 Old Cemetery Road) (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2015). Told cleverly and completely in letters and newspaper articles and filled with pun-tastic characters such as the local proprietor of the Ghastly Pet Store owner Barry A. Lyve, wiretap expert Eve Strop, media mogul Mo Block Busters, aging movie diva Ivana Oscar, newspaper editor Cliff Hanger, Constable Mike Ondolences, and Ghastly, IL's regular residents, Fay Tality and Shirley U. Jest, this memorable series is sure to be mourned by precocious wordplay-loving middle readers.

Kate Klise closes this unique pun-packed and funny series with a reunion, a family fortune found, and a wedding. Still, I'm dead serious when I say it is melancholy event to see the author put to rest the notable 43 Cemetary Road books, in which the lowly pun is raised to monumental status. The usually intellectual Kirkus Reviews can't resist being a pun-dit about this one, saying "This is a story that will make you feel lochy to be alive in a world full of laughter, love, and legendary surprises."

To relive the experience of Kate Klise's earlier books, see my reviews here.