Ghosthunters and the Incredibly Revolting Ghost

by Cornelia Funke

Scholastic, 2006.

Intermediate. 135 pgs.

9-yr-old Tom is terrorized by both his big sister and the thought of having to go down into the cellar. One day, on a forced errand from his mother, Tom enters the cellar only to run straight into his worst fear: a ghost! Fortunately, with a little help from his grandmother's ghost-hunting BFF, this particular ghost quickly becomes Tom's friend. Together they take on a much worse phantom and manage to get free cookies for life out of it.

I don't read enough intermediate fiction, so I downloaded the audio version of this book from Overdrive. I instantly thought of the many times I've been asked by roadtripping parents about shorter audiobooks for younger audiences: The voice artist did a fun job of adding variety to the characters, and kids should appreciate a little bit of harmless spookiness while enjoying slime creating ghosts, an underdog protagonist, a zany grandma ghosthunter, and a terrorized cookie inventor.

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