The Ghost of Spruce Point

An eerie ghost story morphs into an anthem for cooperation amid climate change in Tandon’s (The Way I Say It) camaraderie-filled Maine mystery. “Particular and thorough” Parker Emerton, 12, loves his adoptive family’s secluded inn home, but with rising sea levels eroding coastal tourism, his parents fear having to give it up for jobs in Boston. Calling a secret tree house meeting with his cousins and best friend, Parker plots to save the beloved Home Away Inn, suggesting advertising and cooking classes, winning a fair prize for pumpkins... and breaking the curse of an ancient local shipwreck. After storms surge and unexplained green lights flash, the kids contact the ghostly young wanderer that haunts a crotchety neighbor’s yard, but when the figure reveals more questions than answers, the kids pit their ingenuity against the inn’s nebulous curse. Urgent present-tense narration and abundant sensory details initially establish a skin-crawling atmosphere, but a realistic, friendship-centric feel soon dominates the tightly paced narrative, and the young investigators’ idealistic tenacity results in a supernaturally tinged mystery with a summer camp vibe. All main characters cue as white. Ages 8–12. Agent: Emma Sector, Prospect Agency. (Aug)