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A Properly Unhaunted Place

Illustrated by Kelly Murphy

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About The Book

From National Book Award–winning author William Alexander comes “a fun and fast-paced supernatural mystery with secret depths” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review).

Rosa Ramona Díaz has a very special talent. She comes from a family of librarians who specialize in ghost appeasement. So she can’t understand why her mother has moved them to Ingot, the world’s only unhaunted town. What are they supposed to do there, with no poltergeists to quiet and no specters to soothe? Frankly, Rosa doesn’t think anyone should want to live in a place where the biggest attraction is a woefully inaccurate Renaissance Festival.

But Jasper Chevalier has always lived in Ingot, working at the festival while his parents hold court. Jasper has never seen a ghost, and can’t imagine his unhaunted town any other way…until an angry apparition thunders into the fairgrounds and turns Ingot upside down. Jasper is astonished…and Rosa is delighted.

Mist is building in the hills, and something otherworldly is about to be unleashed. Rosa will need all her ghost appeasement tools—and a little help from Jasper—to try to rein in the angry ghosts in this hilariously spooky adventure.

Excerpt

A Properly Unhaunted Place

About The Author

Photograph by Matthew Aronoff

William Alexander won the National Book Award for his debut novel, Goblin Secrets, and won the Earphones Award for his narration of the audiobook. His other novels include A Festival of GhostsA Properly Unhaunted PlaceGhoulish SongNomad, and Ambassador. William studied theater and folklore at Oberlin College, English at the University of Vermont, and creative writing at the Clarion workshop. He teaches in the Vermont College of Fine Arts MFA program in Writing for Children and Young Adults. Like the protagonist of Nomad and Ambassador, William is the son of a Latino immigrant to the US. Visit him online at WillAlex.net and GoblinSecrets.com, and on Twitter via @WillieAlex.

About The Illustrator

Photograph courtesy of the illustrator

Kelly Murphy is a New York Times bestselling author-illustrator and recipient of the E.B. White Award. She teaches illustration at her alma mater, the Rhode Island School of Design. Kelly currently lives in her native New England, surrounded by the flora and fauna featured in Together We Grow. Find out more at KelMurphy.com.

Product Details

  • Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books (August 7, 2018)
  • Length: 208 pages
  • ISBN13: 9781481469166
  • Grades: 3 - 7
  • Ages: 8 - 12
  • Lexile ® 640L The Lexile reading levels have been certified by the Lexile developer, MetaMetrics®

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Awards and Honors

  • Kansas NEA Reading Circle List Intermediate Title
  • Bank Street Best Children's Book of the Year Selection Title

Resources and Downloads

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More books from this illustrator: Kelly Murphy