Weekly book shelf, monthly edition: August

Calvin was all about the spooky books this month, which was interesting because prior to this he was so anti-spooky books that he wouldn't even let them reside on the shelves in his room. He's turning over a new leaf, I guess. The following are the standouts, per Calvin. The first three I'd consider pretty good reading, the Chillers series is definitely what we call "junk food" reading—temporarily delicious, but completely devoid of sustenance. 

Thirteen-year-old Thomas moves into a large old house with quite the reputation. Once a stop on the Underground Railroad, the legend held that two fugitive slaves and the man who was hiding them were killed there. With secret tunnels and possibly buried treasure, the house seems like a dream to Thomas, but is the house haunted? This book and its sequel, The Mystery of Drear House, are wonderful options for historical fiction from the Civil War era.

Twelve-year-old Kenny moves to Providence, Rhode Island, only to find that his attic bedroom is haunted by the ghost of a teenage slave named Caleb (see a pattern here?). As Kenny learns more from Caleb about his life and its end, Kenny is increasingly troubled by the wrongness of it. Beautiful and haunting while also inviting the reader to think about justice and racial equality.

Young Horace has a very logical mind and doesn't at all believe in ghosts. That is, until he is hired to photograph a gravesite and, in the process, discovers that his photographs seem to have supernatural powers. Caught in a money-making scheme dreamt up by his boss, Horace inadvertently releases a force from picture into the world. This is certainly not the best of Avi's writing, and the story is pretty dark in places, but it serves for a good, spooky, light read.

The Michigan Chillers series is a rather outrageous collection of monster stories, all set in the main tourist spots throughout Michigan. Light on the writing front, and even light in the setting description, I get the feeling these are fairly formulaic horror stories with just a few key setting details thrown in to give them a push in the market place. It seemed to me that in several instances the actual action of the story took place in places outside of the supposed setting (like underground caverns, or inside buildings), so that not too many specific details had to be used. The author is a Michigan native, though, and the books are certainly fun, light reads for a little late summer night spooking.