School Spirit (Suddenly Supernatural) - Hardcover

A career children's book author, Elizabeth Cody Kimmel is best known as the author of the Lily B. books. To prepare to write this novel, she consulted with a renowned medium who advised her on what it was like growing up with the ability to see the dead.

Grade 4–7—For Kat, life in Medford, NY, is complicated. Her mom's a professional medium, communing with spirits. After Kat's 13th birthday, she starts seeing ghosts, too, and she fears being ostracized and perpetually friendless. She becomes friendly with Jac, a talented cellist who lugs around her instrument but hasn't played since an incident of intense stage fright, and together the reluctant medium and reluctant musician share their secrets, Kat's new dog, and a supernatural experience in the school library. The ghost of a flute-playing former student needs their help. This is middle-grade fiction meets Ghost Whisperer, combining a spectral plot with a stereotypical adolescent setting that kids will relate to—catty peers and dealing with the social hierarchy mapped out in lunch tables. The book isn't scary, but there is a creepy moment during a predawn school "break-in." The main characters are likable, and the mystery's clues are well paced. There is occasional unnatural-sounding dialogue and odd/old slang. Pop-cultural references abound. Unresolved conflicts remain but are interesting enough to merit reading further installments.—Danielle Serra, Cliffside Park Public Library, NJ
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