A Festival of Ghosts

June 1, 2018

Gr 4-6-Rosa Diaz might have saved her town by unleashing ghosts in A Properly Unhaunted Place, but now she has to deal with poltergeists. As an appeasement specialist, Rosa has been in some challenging supernatural situations, but attending school may prove to be the trickiest yet. Luckily, her friend Jasper is around to help. At first, they investigate fairly mild cases such as chalkboards that won't erase. But things take a serious turn as children begin to lose their voices. Jasper's parents have always organized the Renaissance Festival in their town, and now it's threatened by ghosts and scarecrow armies that seem to be in an endless battle. This supernatural novel is filled with spooky elements, but always includes a bit of humor. Witty dialogue and interesting characters make this second installment an engaging pick, though readers should start with the first book. VERDICT Readers looking to continue with the adventures of Rosa and Jasper will be delighted with new supernatural dilemmas and dark twists. Purchase where the first book is popular.-Katie Llera, Bound Brook High School, NJ

Copyright 2018 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 15, 2018
Alexander takes readers back to a contemporary world where ghostly haunts are part of daily life and librarians are specialists in appeasing the restless dead in this sequel to A Properly Unhaunted Place (2017).Rosa Díaz reteams with pal Jasper Chevalier to tackle the appeasement needs of the local public school in a town still coming to grips with its newly haunted status. When students mysteriously begin to lose their voices, Rosa is determined to discover the root cause, though a needling feeling that her deceased father may be haunting her causes some ambivalence to and distraction from her quest. Meanwhile, Jasper tries to turn his new appeasement skills on the Renaissance Festival grounds, where ghosts of the distant past battle shadows of the present in a phantom turf war. While the first book in the series grappled with the consequences of grief avoidance, this addition turns outward, to the pain of remembering societal stories. Though not all history is pleasant, it all demands, quite forcefully, to be memorialized in some way in the town of Ingot. If mirrors are liminal spaces, perhaps this through-the-looking-glass world endeavors to shine its mirror on our contemporary struggles to honor and grieve the gray-hued past. Rosa is Latina, and Jasper is mixed-race (black/white).Loose ends and question marks will leave followers of the world eager for a third installment; readers new to the series should start with Book 1. (Paranormal adventure. 8-12)

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July 2, 2018
In National Book Award–winner Alexander’s follow-up to 2017’s A Properly Unhaunted Place, the newly haunted town of Ingot’s young “appeasement specialist,” Rosa Díaz, has her hands full. Something at Ingot Public School is stealing students’ voices, and it seems to be a particularly ornery ghost. Banishments can be disastrous, so she makes simple offerings to soothe the spirits, but she’d rather be studying among the stacks of the Ingot Public Library, where she lives in the basement with her mom, Athena. Rosa’s friend Jasper Chavalier and his parents are trying to restore the Renaissance festival that they run, but ghosts have taken over and are scaring away the handymen. When the mayor builds a copper wall to banish spirits, it goes terribly wrong; in the aftermath, Rosa, who worries that her father may be haunting them, learns the surprising truth about his death. Jasper effortlessly understands the living, perfectly balancing the pragmatic and capable Rosa, who feels a kinship with the dead. And Alexander’s message—that acceptance and empathy, not building walls, is the answer—will resonate. Ages 8–12.