Raymie Nightingale by Kate DiCamillo Booktalk

I want you to imagine three girls breaking into their teacher's house. One of the girls, Beverly, has taught herself lock-picking from a book. She is breaking in, and her best friends, Louisiana and Raymie, are right there with her. Why are they breaking into their teacher's house?

Their teacher is not a school teacher: she teaches baton twirling to girls entering beauty contests and other competitions. Two of them want to enter and win a local competition called the Little Miss Central Florida Tire 1975 competition. It's sort of a beauty/talent competition, and there is a big cash prize. You have to prove that you are talented and a good person. Breaking and entering is not a good way to prove that.

Let's get back to the girls. You've heard the expression "to be down on your luck"? What does it mean? [Take answer/s.] We have three girls down on their luck here. Raymie's dad just left her and her mom. Louisiana lost her beloved cat and doesn't have enough money to buy food. Beverly doesn't seem to have a dad around, plus she gets into fights with her mom. Beverly's mom forces Beverly to take baton twirling lessons, which she seems to hate. The lessons are where the three girls met one another.

But where is their baton teacher?

Raymie Nightingale by Kate DiCamillo. 2016: Candlewick Press. 263 p. Booktalk to intermediate grades, middle school. Great read-aloud.

Goodbye, Stranger by Rebecca Stead Booktalk

Bridge is a middle school girl who got hit by a car which she was younger and she almost died. That's her on the cover with a friend of hers. She's fine now, and she has two best friends whom she loves and trusts: Tab and Em. Tab is very headstrong and opinionated: she's a bit of a tomboy, and she loves history and politics. You'd never catch Tab putting on makeup or showing an interest in it. Emily is more traditionally "girly" and the boys notice her; she's good at sports and knows more of the "popular" kids. Emily also has a boyfriend but doesn't want to call it that.

When you look at the three girls' personalities, they're actually fairly different, but they get along well and support one another loyally. Yet something changes when someone - we don't know who - gets Em's boyfriend's phone and finds a personal photo of Emily. This person forwards the photo to someone who then forwards the photo, and so on and so on. It's not a naked photo, but it's not a photo that Emily wants "out there." You'll have to read the novel to see the description of the photo!

So who did this? Can we trust Em's boyfriend? And more importantly, will Em survive the mean words and harsh words headed her way? And will her two best friends understand what she is going through? Will they stand by her? And who is this mysterious stranger alluded to in the title, "Goodbye, Stranger?" Read and find out.

Goodbye, Stranger by Rebecca Stead. 304 pages. Wendy Lamb Books, 2015. Booktalk to middle school and high school. 

Book talk: Timmy Failure: Mistakes Were Made by Stephan Pastis

Timmy Failure runs his own detective agency, is flunking out of school, has a polar bear named Total, and rides his mom's Segway, which he's not ever, ever supposed to do. He's pretty good at keeping his mother in the dark, but the Segway - his Failuremobile - has been stolen, which means there will be pain and suffering on Timmy's part. A guy's gotta have wheels.

Come to think of it, there are two other females associated with pain and suffering: the first is Molly Moskins. She's in his class, and she smells like a tangerine. She's got a crush on Timmy, and he wants nothing to do with her. 

But she's nothing compared to the evil one. The evil one is so evil that Timmy doesn't even want you to see her picture. He blocks out her head with a black square. I'm not even going to say her real name. You can call her the evil one, or Weevil Bun. Take your pick. She runs her own detective agency, and she's so good at school that she actually tutors other kids. But you know what? Timmy has her detective log. The Holy Grail. Ahhh....revenge....

Timmy Failure: Mistakes Were Made by Stephan Pastis. 294 p. 2013: Candlewick. Booktalk to grades 3-7.

Book talk: A Game for Swallows by Zeina Abirachad

Most of you have been at home alone while you waited for your parents to return home, right? It’s a fairly typical teen experience. But what if you had no way of contacting your parents when they were gone? What if you worried they’d get hit by sniper fire when returning home? In this graphic novel, Zeina drew us a map of how tricky it was to avoid the sniper near their apartment. 

Avoiding the sniper in A Game for Swallows

And what if the block and the area you lived in got bombed so regularly that all your neighbors would come join you in the foyer of your apartment because it was considered the safest spot? Imagine living with all your neighbors in a tiny room for hours and hours and even days. It’s a hard way to live, but Zeina and her little brother have grown up with this. They live in Beirut, Lebanon, during a time of civil war, a civil war which dragged on from 1975-1990. They know of people who have disappeared and were never seen again. But there’s humor in this novel: her neighbors – virtually family since they live in close quarters – are protective, loving, and quirky. If your world shrank to one room, would you be able to laugh?

A Game for Swallows: To Die, To Leave, To Return by Zeina Abirached. Graphic novel. 188 p. Booktalk to middle school, high school.

Book talk: The Hypnotists by Gordon Korman

If 12-year-old Jackson Opus sat next to you in class, you'd think he was pretty average. He's okay at school - but not great, he's okay at basketball - but not great, he has a best friend and normal parents, and he has really cool eyes that change color sometimes. Hey, we all have quirks. But something weird has been going on with Jackson: he's been having these brief visions in which he sees himself from another person's eyes. Immediately after these brief visions, the person acts unexpectedly: the bus driver lets all hell break loose to speed (like a maniac) Jackson to Jackson's destination on time, and the basketball player on the opposing team misses shots that he never, ever would've missed normally. Sounds like mind control? It was! But Jackson wasn't doing it on purpose! He was just inwardly wishing for these people to do his bidding. It wasn't as if he was actively trying to control them. It's scary, but it sounds like fun, doesn't it? You could get your teacher to change your test grade, and you could get your parents to buy you that computer you've always wanted. But this novel is called The Hypnotists -- plural. Other hypnotists? You mean there are other people who can do this? So why is one of them particularly interested in Jackson? 

The Hypnotists by Gordon Korman. 232 p. Scholastic: 2013. Booktalk to intermediate grades (3rd-5th) and middle school.

Book talk: The Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan

If you’ve read any of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, you’ll know that the author, Rick Riordan, tells a great story.

In his new series, The Kane Chronicles, he once again sets us on a strange journey. The Red Pyramid features two new main characters, Carter and Sadie, who are brother and sister but who haven’t lived together for years. In fact, the last time they lived together, a birthday cake exploded at a party, and their parents decided they’d live apart - in separate countries. It’s a long story.

            Carter and Sadie have an odd, complicated family history of which they know very little when the story begins. Their father is a brilliant Egyptologist who moves around a lot and seems paranoid. At one point, their father seemed to attack the world famous Rosetta Stone, which really backfired, and released some ticked off Egyptian gods. Do not tick off an Egyptian god. They are extremely vengeful, whether they’re male, or female, or…animal.

Of course, now that their father is gone, Carter and Sadie have to fight back, and they gain some interesting allies along the way. One of their allies is a cat named Muffin [awww!] and a basketball-playing baboon named Khufu who only eats food ending in the letter O. Strange friends? Don’t get me started about their enemies, who are even weirder. The Red Pyramid is one strange and wonderful journey.

The Red Pyramid

Booktalk: The One and Only Ivan (Newbery Award winner, 2013)

Can you keep your eyes closed for part of this booktalk? Good. Close them now. I want you to pretend that you’re a gorilla. Your name is Ivan, and you don’t live in the wild and you don’t live in a zoo. You live in a cage in a mall that has a video arcade and some other encaged animals. Yes, a small, shabby mall. Picture it in your mind. Your cage has thick glass on three sides. From your cage, you can see part of the mall (pinball machines, cotton candy, parking lot with no trees). Humans can see into your cage. Inside your cage, there isn’t much. There’s a t.v. of all things, plus a little plastic pool with dirty water, plus a tire swing.

Now I want you to picture a little girl, named Julia, who is the janitor’s daughter. It doesn’t matter what she looks like, because she likes you. Just picture a young girl with a kind face. She brings you treats. Now I want you to picture an older elephant – that’s Stella, and she lives near you, and a little clever dog, Bob, who comes and goes as he pleases. These are your friends. You’re Ivan the gorilla, and this is your whole world. Keep your eyes closed! Think for a minute what it must feel like to be Ivan. Is it boring? Is it safe? Is it fun? Is it lonely?

You can open your eyes now. Ivan and his friends have spent some time trying to figure out what makes us humans tick, for reasons you’ll see when you read the book. But very few other creatures – human or not – understand what goes on in Ivan’s mind and heart.

The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate. 2012: HarperCollins. 305 pages. Booktalk to intermediate grades and middle school. Newbery Award winner, 2013.

Booktalk: Touch Blue (Virginia Readers' Choice, 2012-2013)

 

Can you imagine if your school was at risk of being shut down if more kids did not attend? Yeah, I knew you’d like that.

But Tess, age 11, goes to school in a one-room schoolhouse on a small island off the coast of Maine. There’s just a handful of other kids who attend her tiny school, because Tess’s island doesn’t have that many children. Tess’s mom is the teacher. And when you live on small island, school is one of the things that keeps you busy and entertained. The school is part of Tess’s life, along with the lobster boats, the ocean, the salt breeze, the sea birds, and the ferry.

Yet the state of Maine won’t fund her school and keep it open unless more kids attend. But where will Tess’s tiny island get more kids? No new families are moving to their island, but several families have a cool idea – adopt some foster children who need a good home.

So Tess’s family decides to adopt a 13-year-old redheaded boy named Aaron. Aaron has been moved from family to family, and it’s about time he gets a solid, loving family. Tess is really, really excited. She’s always wanted an older brother.

But when Tess takes Aaron around the island, he seems unimpressed. And when he sees their little one-room school, he actually says, “I can’t believe I had to quit my jazz band to come here.” He doesn’t seem to like the other islanders, and he rarely smiles. Tess has a problem. How do you get someone to love an island if he’s determined to hate it?

Touch Blue by Cynthia Lord. 186 p. New York: Scholastic, 2010. Virginia Readers’ Choice (Elementary/Intermediate) for 2012-2013. This title would also work well for middle schoolers.

Touch Blue

Booktalk: Inside Out & Back Again (2011 National Book Award for Young People's Literature winner)

The winner of the 2011 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature is Thanhha Lai’s Inside Out & Back Again. I’m going to interrupt my “Virginia Readers’ Choice” titles to booktalk it instead. I really liked it and it would work well for intermediate grades and middle school.

Ha is a young girl from Vietnam whose father is missing and whose family needs to flee their country in order to escape the wartime violence. She’s a normal girl who will miss the country she loves so much: the papaya trees, the food, her friends, the open market, and the beautiful flowers. Vietnam has been her only home for ten years, and now she and her mother and older brothers have to get on a crowded ship to sail to America on short notice, probably never to return.

Imagine leaving behind everything you ever owned. Ha’s brother loves his baby chick and tries to bring it along, even though he wasn’t supposed to.  You can’t keep a baby chick alive on a crowded ship. It’s just one more loss on top of the many others they’ve suffered.

Once they arrive in the U.S., everything is strange and confusing, like the man with the cowboy hat who takes them in but whose wife hates them and makes them stay in the basement. Ha’s family made it to America, but they don’t feel welcome here.

Ha is a smart girl, and she’s especially good at math, but the children at her school are mean to her. One boy in particular hates her and calls her “Pancake Face.” Believe it or not, there are times when Ha wishes she were back in war-torn Vietnam. No one was cruel to her there. But there are things – and people – who keep Ha going in Inside Out & Back Again.

Inside Out & Back Again by Thanhha Lai. 262 p. Harper: 2001. Booktalk to intermediate grades and to middle school.

Booktalk: The Strange Case of Origami Yoda; Darth Paper Strikes Back

I wrote a booktalk for Origami Yoda a while ago. It's a Virginia Readers' Choice for 2011-2012, and the link is here: http://booktalkthree.blogspot.com/2010/12/misfits-booktalk-2.html

The sequel, Darth Paper Strike Back, is just as good. Here's the booktalk:

Whenever there’s a force for good – Dwight and Origami Yoda – there’s also a force for evil. In this case, it’s Harvey. Seventh grade has barely started, and Harvey has already unleashed the power of the Dark Side, in the form of his own origami finger puppet: Darth Paper. Harvey’s made it his mission to bring Dwight down, and he’s quite obvious about it. His minion Darth Paper looks like Darth Vader, and even has own little pink lightsaber. In order to stop Harvey and to prevent Dwight from being sent to a school for really bad kids, Tommy and the others start a case file. But it may not be enough. Origami Yoda seems to be losing it. A popular girl named Jen (who believes in Origami Yoda) asked him for advice, and all Origami Yoda could tell her was, “Zero Hour comes. Prepare to meet your doom!” You could get kicked out of school for saying such things! Is Origami Yoda actually helping Harvey and Darth bring about his own downfall? Dwight’s friends are starting to wonder. Darth Paper Strikes Back: An Origami Yoda Book by Tom Angleberger.

Darth Paper Strikes Back: An Origami Yoda Book by Tom Angleberger. 159 p. 2011: Amulet Books. Booktalk to intermediate grades, middle school.

 

Booktalk: When the Whistle Blows (Virginia Readers' Choice)

If you live in a small rural town in West Virginia where many of the men work for or on the railroad, you get used to risk and danger. Trains are dangerous: it’s a simple fact. Jimmy, a young teenager, knows people who have been hit and killed by trains. Boilers can explode, killing the fireman and the engineer. But Jimmy’s dad, the railroad foreman, is more afraid about a new kind of technology. He says that the steam engines are all going to be replaced by diesels, and that a lot of men will lose their jobs. The diesel engines are faster, more powerful, and require fewer workers. Much of their small town, Rowlesburg, could be unemployed. And they are already poor enough.

But Jimmy’s really tough, both physically and emotionally. He survived a brutal football game in which a member of the opposing team intentionally tore up Jimmy’s already badly damaged knee. The kid was an animal. Jimmy’s worked in a shop where he had to go after criminals with a club. And it turns out that his dad is sick and getting sicker, threatening the security of Jimmy’s whole family. To survive in this type of town, you have no choice but to be tough. When the Whistle Blows by Fran Cannon Slayton.

When the Whistle Blows by Fran Cannon Slayton. 162 p. 2009: Philomel Books. Virginia Readers' Choice, 2011-2012, middle school. Booktalk to middle school, high school.

Booktalk: Ways to Live Forever (Virginia Readers' Choice)

How many times have you said, “When I grow up… ?” Probably lots of times. When I grow up. It’s a normal childhood phrase. Sam is 11 and doesn’t say it. He says, “if I grow up.” He has leukemia, and he’s been through chemotherapy several times. The leukemia also comes back, unfortunately. Pretty sad, huh? So you’re thinking, why would I want to read a sad book? There are a bunch of reasons, but the best one I can think of is that Sam is a really cool and brave person. He met his best friend, Felix, in the hospital, and they’d do crazy stuff like stealing a trolley and riding around in it, or asking their tutor to help them make things which explode. Sam is also a fact collector and an expert list maker. He really likes wolves, and he wants to break some silly world records. He’s a normal kid with a normal family who has to think about death and dying, because it could be around the corner for him. Just getting to know him was one of the coolest things about his story. Ways to Live Forever by Sally Nicholls.

Ways to Live Forever by Sally Nicholls. Arthur A. Levine Books, 2008. 212 p. Booktalk to middle school. Virginia Readers’ Choice 2011-2012 for middle school.

Booktalk: The Rock and the River (Virginia Readers' Choice)

It is really, really tough to be an African-American teenager in 1968. Sam’s father is a personal friend of Martin Luther King, Jr., and Sam is used to life as a Civil Rights Movement child. He’s marched in civil rights marches, listened to passionate speeches, and protested for equal treatment of blacks and whites. Sam’s older brother, Stick, has joined an organization called the Black Panthers, and Sam’s father is not happy about this. You know, it’s awful when people in your family are fighting about something. Ironically, Sam’s father and Sam’s brother are both firm believers in equal civil rights for blacks and whites, but they disagree on how this equality should be achieved. Guess who’s caught in the middle of this family dispute? Right, Sam. But what do you do when, like Sam, you repeatedly witness white police officers unfairly beating and charging blacks with crimes they didn’t commit? Do you side with your dad, who says deal with it nonviolently? Or do you side with your brother’s Black Panther friends, who say to fight back? In this case, the wrong choice could cost you your life. The Rock and the River by Kekla Magoon.

The Rock and the River by Kekla Magoon. 290 p. Aladdin: 2009. Booktalk to middle school, high school. Personal recommendation: while I enjoyed this book, it does have some traumatic scenes, especially the ending. I would not recommend this to middle schoolers whom I felt were not emotionally read for it.

Booktalk: Pop by Gordon Korman (Virginia Readers' Choice)

Marcus Jordan, high school football player, has a new football practice friend named Charlie. Here are five facts about Charlie.
1). Charlie appears to be an expert football player.
2). Even though he's in his 50s.
3). Charlie likes playing pranks on people: well, mostly one person
4). Charlie's son is the quarterback on Marcus' team
5). Charlie's family is extremely protective of him. Now, Charlie is a useful friend to have if you want to get really, really tough at tackling, being tackled, blocking, catching hard passes, and generally being a tough, indestructible football machine. But in other ways, Charlie is sort of like a kid: an innocent, forgetful one. What fact about Charlie is Marcus failing to see? Pop by Gordon Korman.

Pop by Gordon Korman. 260 p. Balzer and Bray, 2009. Booktalk to middle school, high school. Virginia Readers' Choice for middle school, 2011-2012.

Booktalk: Out of My Mind (Virginia Readers' Choice)

Melody has been forced to be silent her entire life. She's 11 years and in 5th grade, but she has never spoken a single word ever. She's got a condition called cerebral palsy, and this means she can't control her body, can't walk, and can't talk. Her brain is fine, though, and she's very smart. Melody is a cool, witty, and normal kid in so many ways. She laughs when she reads Garfield, loves animals, and craves McDonalds milkshakes.
   Finally, her parents agree to buy her a high-tech machine that "talks" for her as she types. It's incredibly expensive and complicated, but as she gets better at "talking" via the computer, her classmates and teachers realize how very smart she really is. For example, she knows all the U.S. presidents and vice presidents inside out. She has a massive vocabulary and a brilliant memory for facts.
   Melody is so smart and starts doing so well in her classes that she wins a place on her school's competitive academic travel team. The team is going to travel to Washington, D.C. for a big competition. Melody is studying so hard at home: she's spending hours and hours memorizing more facts, learning newer and harder subjects, and even inventing her own games so that she'll be able to compete better. For the competition, though, Melody will be out of her element, and travel is really hard on you when you have cerebral palsy. There's also the question of how well her team mates will treat her. Will Melody have both the academic skills and the social skills to endure this competition? Out of My Mind by Sharon Draper.

Out of My Mind by Sharon Draper. 295 p. New York: Atheneum Books, 2010. Booktalk to intermediate grades, middle school, lower high school. Virginia Readers' Choice for 2011-2012.

Booktalk: Bystander (Virginia Readers' Choice)

When a friend like Griffin turns on you, he really turns on you. Some of your stuff goes missing, you get beat up by his sidekick, and you’re worried he might plant a weapon in your locker. Scary, isn’t it? So why would a nice, low-key 7th grader like Eric even be friends with Griffin in the first place? To start with, Eric is new in town and needs a group. Plus, Griffin isn’t all bad: he’s got some good qualities -- he’s charming, sociable, intelligent, and a group leader. And he and Eric have something really important in common: their fathers. Let’s just say that both boys are not doing well in the father department, sadly, and both of them know it. But remember how I told you that Griffin can turn on a person? Eric is going to have to decide whether he will be a friend to Griffin, an enemy who doesn’t tolerate Griffin’s cruelties, or a casual “bystander” who does nothing. Bystander by James Preller.

Bystander by James Preller. 226 p. 2009: Feiwel and Friends. Virginia Readers’ Choice: 2011-2012. Booktalk to middle school and to high school.

Booktalk: The Leanin' Dog (Virginia Readers' Choice)

Desssa Dean has an unusual life. She lives in a cabin in the deep woods with her father, who must hunt or find all their food. Their neighbors are coyotes, birds, and squirrels. Her mother died, and Dessa Dean is pretty lonely. She also has daymares, which are sort of like nightmares, only she’s wide awake, and re-living the time in which her mom died. If anyone needs a friend, it’s Dessa Dean. It’s pretty normal for her to be completely by herself in the cabin while her dad goes hunting. There are no people nearby, either. If a bear comes along, Dessa Dean has got to fend for herself. But there’s a dog who shows up scratching at her door one day. It wants to make friends with her, but it’s too frightened to stay. She chases after the dog but can’t get him to come back. Dessa Dean can’t forget this dog, but she hatches a plan, which involves a delicious meat stew offered as bait. That looked like one hungry, lonely dog. The Leanin’ Dog by K. A. Nuzum.

The Leanin’ Dog by K. A. Nuzum. 250 p. Joanna Cotler Books, 2008. Booktalk to middle school. Virginia Readers’ Choice 2011-2012.

Booktalk: Chasing Lincoln's Killer (Virginia Readers' Choice)

If you’re going to murder someone as famous as a U.S. president, you need to PLAN and plan well. You need to plan how you’re going to murder the person, how you’re going to get away successfully from the crime scene, and how you’re going to stay hidden or safe for the rest of your life. So basically, your planning involves three parts, right? If any of those parts go wrong, you’re in big trouble.

John Wilkes Booth hated President Abraham Lincoln. He hated him with a passion. John Wilkes Booth believed in slavery, was a racist, and wanted to see President Lincoln dead. Booth was a really good-looking, self-confident actor who was quite skilled at getting people to do what he wanted them to do. Along with some other like-minded Confederates, Booth set up a plan to kill Lincoln while Lincoln was watching a play with his wife and some friends. Unfortunately, Booth was successful. The day he shot President Lincoln was one of the saddest days in American history.

Booth’s getaway plan had a lot of holes, but it also had a lot of successes and plain old good luck, both in the immediate getaway and in the manhunt that followed. For example, when Booth made his way onto the stage right after he murdered Lincoln, the actor on stage was just too stunned to grab Booth, even though he physically could have. The guard who should have stopped him from crossing a bridge to leave Washington, D.C. on horseback after dark actually did let him cross … even though he wasn’t supposed to! And in the thrilling, crazy national manhunt which followed, John Wilkes Booth did crazy, desparate things. He really had not planned for an extended campout under the stars with a badly broken leg, for one thing. And he really hadn’t anticipated the extent to which people would see him as an evil assassin to be hunted down, and not a hero to be lauded. Chasing Lincoln’s Killer by James L. Swanson.

Chasing Lincoln’s Killer by James L. Swanson. 194 p. Scholastic Press, 2009. Booktalk to middle school, high school. Virginia Readers’ Choice 2011-2012.

Booktalk: Mockingbird by Kathryn Erskine (Virginia Readers' Choice)

Why would a girl hate recess? Why would she need one-on-one lessons from a teacher on how to be a friend?  Why would she hide in an unfinished wooden chest? Let’s start with the first two questions. Caitlin has Asperger’s syndrome. She’s a smart girl and a gifted artist, but she needs more work than most of us on her people skills. She has to learn them and study them almost like you’d study a school subject. Caitlin has to work on which facial expressions on people match up with their corresponding emotions. Because she really doesn’t like making eye contact with people, she has to work hard on that, too. She doesn’t like loud noises, chaos, and people running around and shouting, and that’s recess in a nutshell. Recess freaks her out: she’d rather be alone, drawing.

But it’s so important that Caitlin learn how to make friends and how to be a friend. This connects us to the question of why she was hiding in an unfinished wooden chest. The chest reminds her of the closest friend she has ever had, the person who understood her the most and loved her dearly. Caitlin’s not done with that chest, and luckily, she’s not done with making friends or learning how to be a friend. Get inside the mind of a truly cool and unique girl. Mockingbird by Kathryn Erskine.

Mockingbird by Kathryn Erskine. 2010: Philomel Books. 235 p. Virginia Readers’ Choice 2011-2012. Booktalk to middle school.

Booktalk: All the Lovely Bad Ones [Virginia Readers' Choice]

If you’re a 13-year-old boy with a love of playing pranks on people, and you are visiting your grandmother’s old house for the summer, it’s fairly normal to think about freaking other people out by imitating ghostly noises in the night. Travis and his sister Corey love pranks: they’re natural pranksters. Their grandmother’s old house is actually an inn which takes guests, including some guests who are ghost-hunters. So obviously, we have a no-brainer here. Travis and Corey strategize: Corey will wear a white nightgown, ghostly makeup and walk around a grove of trees; the ghostly noises they make will spook the inn’s guests. It works beautifully. To keep up the illusion, Corey and Travis need to keep doing their nightly ghost pranks. But when Travis returns to the grove, he sees a dark shape near him, ducking out of sight. It’s not his sister. Turns out it’s a real ghost, and there are more than one. One of them, Miss Ada, is seriously evil and would love to bring Corey and Travis down with her. Sadly, Corey and Travis woke these ghosts from their slumber. Now who's been pranked? All the Lovely Bad Ones: A Ghost Story by Mary Downing Hahn.

All the Lovely Bad Ones: A Ghost Story by Mary Downing Hahn. 182 p. 2008: Clarion. Virginia Readers’ Choice for 2011-2012. Because this has some frightening/tragic content, I personally would booktalk it starting at 6^th and 7th grade and not younger.