THE ONLY GHOST IN SCHOOL

A sudden move from spooky Scareville to the all-human town of Smithville leaves little Ghostie feeling like a real outsider in school.

Though Ghostie is happy in Scareville, “a very diverse town filled with ghosts, witches, vampires, skeletons, mummies, monsters, and werewolves,” he makes a brave effort to fit in at Smithville Elementary after his mom accepts a new job in a new locale as a “human relations agent,” charged with dispelling stereotypes about ghosts. Unfortunately, everyone else at school is a human, though depicted in the color illustrations on nearly every page of this early chapter book in an assortment of skin colors. Ghostie makes several “BOO” boos, such as bringing a bunch of terrifying spiders and eyeballs to a class birthday party. Worse yet, bullying classmate Kevin quickly saddles him with the humiliating moniker of “Grossie Ghostie.” Back home, not even Ghostie’s favorite dinner of frog nuggets and stench fries can pull him out of a “franken-funk.” Readers feeling Ghostie’s pain may be heartened when he bonds with another classmate who shares his interest in spiders and breaks the ice with everyone else by sharing a family photo album at show and tell, which prompts a flurry of interested questions, from “Can you get sunburned?” to “Do ghosts poop?” The takeaways are clear and sweetly leavened by the goofy, supernatural-themed wordplay; readers will have a ball.

Monstrous fun, spun around some serious messages.