School for Ghost Girls

August 1, 2017

Gr 1-3-Best friends CJ, Tiny, and Maude are third graders at a boarding school for ghosts called Boo Academy, or Boo La La for short. The school year begins uneventfully, but it soon seems that their kindly new dorm mother, Ms. Finley, behaves more like a human than a ghost. This worries the girls-Boo La La students have been taught that if humans are able to prove that ghosts are real, the living will control (or eradicate) ghostkind. A field day competition provides the girls with a foolproof opportunity to figure out if Ms. Finley is a true ghost or not, and the story ends happily. The central three characters are distinguished by simple personality characteristics: CJ is shy, Tiny is athletic, and Maude enjoys leadership roles. A mean girl clique provides a familiar antagonist for readers and potential conflict for future books. VERDICT For fans of the "Monster High" toy franchise who aren't quite ready to read the tie-in books, this series offers an appealing (and not-that-scary) alternative.-Katherine Barr, Cameron Village Regional Library, Raleigh, NC

Copyright 2017 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 1, 2017
A trio of best friends fears that their new teacher at Boo Academy isn't a ghost but (oh, the horror) a human!Top student Maude (who appears to be black in the illustrations) and her best friends, basketball star Tiny (white and, yes, the tallest in their class) and shy CJ (whose skin appears to be a smidge darker than Tiny's) are excited to start third grade at Boo Academy, nicknamed Boo La La, a premier school for ghost girls. They have a new, white dorm mother this year, Ms. Finley, as the old one was caught violating a major ghost rule: "No direct contact with humans!" While they like her a lot, there are some things that are a little off--Ms. Finley doesn't have the strong sense of smell that a ghost should, and, strangely, she wears shoes. The girls suspect she might actually be a human and set out to test her against ghost rules to mixed results. Finally, they ask her directly and learn why a ghost might lack a sense of smell (she's got a terrible cold) and wear shoes (orthopedic shoes from overdoing it on ghostly athletics in her youth). Though the characters tend toward stock, the worldbuilding shows unexpected wit, especially in ghostly academics. A favorite saying of the principal's--"one ghost's strange is another ghost's normal"--recurs throughout. Light, not-at-all scary fun for kids who like their spooky trappings sans terror. (Paranormal adventure. 6-9)

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