Blossom Culp and the Sleep of Death

Blossom Culp has her hands full, keeping her friend Alexander out of the clutches of arch-rival Lottie, saving the job of the new suffragette school teacher and getting her Ancient Egypt grave robbery project done.  She’s not very happy when the ghost of an Egyptian princess appears to her and demands to be restored to her tomb.  It’s Illinois, after all, so getting to Egypt might be challenging.  But the ghost is a princess, who expects to be obeyed, so Blossom and Alexander figure out how to help her and save the day.

Author: Richard Peck
Ages: 9 – 12
Main character(s): girl
Part of a series: yes
Where: Rural Illinois
When: 1914

Note: hard-to-find

This is the fourth of four Blossom & Alexander books. The others are:

• The Ghost Belonged To Me (#1)
• Ghosts I Have Been (#2)
• The Dreadful Future of Blossom Culp (#3)

The Ghost Belonged To Me

Thirteen-year-old Alexander has girl problems, but not the kind you think.  His neighbor, Blossom Culp, asks to walk home with him after school so she can inform him that he has supernatural powers, and horribly, she’s right.  The ghost of a dead girl appears to him and warns him of an impending trolley wreck.  Then, when he saves the trolley riders and tells the truth about the ghost, his mother and sister are mad at him for getting in the newspaper and taking all the glory away from his sister’s big coming-out party.  Sheesh!  How’s a guy to get a little peace?

Author: Richard Peck
Ages: 9 – 12
Main character(s): boy
Part of a series: yes
Where: Rural Illinois
When: 1913

Note: hard-to-find

This is the first of four Blossom & Alexander books.  The others are:

• Ghosts I Have Been (#2)
• The Dreadful Future of Blossom Culp (#3)
• Blossom Culp and the Sleep of Death (#4)

The Children Of Green Knowe

Tolly’s great-grandmother is very old, but she and Tolly understand each other right away when he goes to visit her on a school holiday.  And as Tolly discovers more friendly family members in their castle home (ones who died 400 years before!), he is excited to learn that his Granny knows about them too.  And, interestingly, they have a Granny who, in an old family portrait, looks just like Tolly’s Granny.  Hmmm!

Author: L.M. Boston
Ages: 9 – 12
Main character(s):  Boy
Part of a series:  yes
Where: England
When: present day

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Dial-A-Ghost

Did you know that in England, you can hire ghosts through an agency to haunt your place of residence?  You have to watch out, though, because the agencies can sometimes make mistakes. In Dial-A-Ghost, an evil uncle hires a pair of horrible ghosts to scare his wealthy young nephew to death, but they’re accidentally send to a pleasant country ruin, and instead the boy is haunted by a kind family of ghosts from World War II.  That’s all find until the murderous ghosts figure out they’re in the wrong place and try to complete the job they were hired to do.

Author: Eva Ibbotson
Ages: 9 – 12
Main character(s):  Boy
Part of a series: no
Where: England
When: present day

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Doll Bones

Zack, Poppy and Alice are regular kids who enjoy playing an ongoing game of imagination featuring pirates, mermaids, treasure and more.  But they wonder if their imagination has gotten out of hand when Poppy explains that a (creepy!) antique porcelain doll in her mother’s house is the ghost of a dead girl who wants to be buried with her family in the next town.  The book includes a realistic view of the worries three teens might have when traveling without parental permission.  And secrets between the three make things worse, so the book doesn’t have fun magic of Charlie And The Chocolate Factory. Still, the spooky overtone of Doll Bones has its own appeal.

Author: Holly Black
Ages: 9 – 12
Main character(s):  Two girls and one boy
Part of a series: no

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