A Properly Unhaunted Place by Kelly Murphy, William Alexander Published by Margaret K. McElderry Books on August 7, 2018
Pages: 208
Goodreads
From National Book Award–winning author William Alexander comes “a fun and fast-paced supernatural mystery with secret depths” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review).
Rosa Ramona Díaz has a very special talent. She comes from a family of librarians who specialize in ghost appeasement. So she can’t understand why her mother has moved them to Ingot, the world’s only unhaunted town. What are they supposed to do there, with no poltergeists to quiet and no specters to soothe? Frankly, Rosa doesn’t think anyone should want to live in a place where the biggest attraction is a woefully inaccurate Renaissance Festival.
But Jasper Chevalier has always lived in Ingot, working at the festival while his parents hold court. Jasper has never seen a ghost, and can’t imagine his unhaunted town any other way…until an angry apparition thunders into the fairgrounds and turns Ingot upside down. Jasper is astonished…and Rosa is delighted.
Mist is building in the hills, and something otherworldly is about to be unleashed. Rosa will need all her ghost appeasement tools—and a little help from Jasper—to try to rein in the angry ghosts in this hilariously spooky adventure.
What does a young reader read when they want to read a book about ghosts but not anything that is too terrifying? I found a perfectly proper book for kids who like to read about ghosts but prefer something not too haunting. “A Properly Unhaunted Place” by William Alexander would be the book that you are looking for.
Rosa finds herself in a town that is completely unhaunted. Not one creepy or ghastly thing about it. She misses her old life, her old ways, and can’t wait to leave. Her mother’s new job in a ghost-less town makes Rosa completely miserable.
Amid her brooding, Rosa meets Jasper, a local, on his way to the town’s annual medieval festival. This is a summer long party that the town holds in remembrance of its past. What the townspeople don’t realize is that they don’t remember the true past nor the ghosts that belonged to it.
As this forgetfulness curse on the town weakens, Rosa finds herself in charge of helping a town she does not care for. Simultaneously, Jasper is torn between hepling his town and leaving it the way it is, properly unhaunted, the way he likes it.
For readers ages 10 and up, this is an enjoyable read that isn’t too haunting or ghostly for our sensitive readers. A great read with Halloween approaching.
