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Summary
Summary
National Book Award winner William Alexander conjures up a spooky adventure full of excitement in this entertaining sequel to A Properly Unhaunted Place .
Rosa Ramona Diaz, the ghost appeasing assistant librarian, has unleashed all the ghosts who were previously shut out of the small town of Ingot. Now ghosts are everywhere, and the town's living residents are either learning to cope or trying to do the one thing no one can successfully do--banish the ghosts.
At school, something supernatural is stealing kids' voices and leaving them speechless. And it's Rosa's job to solve the mystery and set things right. Meanwhile her best friend Jasper is dealing with what remains of the Renaissance Festival, where ghosts from Ingot's past are now battling it out with the ghosts of the Renaissance reenactors. And Rosa is experiencing a haunting of her own--could her father's ghost have followed her here?
Somehow Rosa and Jasper are going to have to find a way to bring Ingot back to normal--in a world where the living are now residing side-by-side with the dearly departed.
Author Notes
William Alexander won the National Book Award for his debut novel, Goblin Secrets , and won the Earphones Award for his narration of the audiobook. His other novels include A Festival of Ghosts , A Properly Unhaunted Place , Ghoulish Song , Nomad , and Ambassador . William studied theater and folklore at Oberlin College, English at the University of Vermont, and creative writing at the Clarion workshop. He teaches in the Vermont College of Fine Arts MFA program in Writing for Children and Young Adults. Like the protagonist of Nomad and Ambassador , William is the son of a Latino immigrant to the US. Visit him online at WillAlex.net and GoblinSecrets.com, and on Twitter via @WillieAlex.
Kelly Murphy is a New York Times bestselling author-illustrator and recipient of the E.B. White Award. She teaches illustration at her alma mater, the Rhode Island School of Design. Kelly currently lives in her native New England, surrounded by the flora and fauna featured in Together We Grow. Find out more at KelMurphy.com.
Reviews (5)
School Library Journal Review
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. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
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. (Aug.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Horn Book Review
Between settling ghosts at her haunted middle school and suspecting her own dead father might be haunting her, unofficial appeasement specialist Rosa (A Properly Unhaunted Place) has bigger worries than the bullying from other students. Meanwhile, her best friend Jasper investigates a haunting at the off-season Renaissance Festival grounds. A well-crafted plot reveals resonant themes and new depths of conflict in this worthy sequel. (c) Copyright 2019. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
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 Daz 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) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
There are some wonderful touches in Alexander's follow-up to A Properly Unhaunted Place (2017), and Rosa Díaz, an assistant librarian who appeases ghosts, is back with her sidekick-friend Jasper to solve a ghostly mystery. Ingot, the once-unhaunted town, is full of problems having to do with a mine, a tainted well, and a schoolteacher who looks a lot like Rosa's dead father. When Rosa and Jasper's classmates begin to lose the ability to speak after drinking from a school water fountain, the past and present collide. Meanwhile, the fairgrounds home to Jasper's parents' Renaissance festival have been taken over by warring spiritual factions representing different time periods of town history. Throw in secrets Rosa's mom is keeping and the plots thicken. Is that fatherly doppelgänger teacher actually something more sinister? Will Rosa and Jasper be able to puzzle out what connects all the ghostly action? Fans of the National Book Award-winning Alexander's intricately plotted adventures will definitely want to find out.--Cruze, Karen Copyright 2018 Booklist