Ghost Soldier
Elaine Mary Alphin

It's been three years since his mother walked out on him and his father, but 13-year-old Alexander still hopes for her return—and blames his father bitterly for her departure. So when his father packs the two of them up for a week long vacation in North Carolina to visit an attractive widow he met at a conference, Alexander moves into high resentment gear. As if he didn't have enough troubles, Alexander finds himself constantly accompanied by the ghost of a Confederate soldier who needs help finding out what became of his family after the war if he is ever to rest in peace.

Cold in Summer

Tracy Barrett

When Ariadne’s family moves to a small community in Tennessee, she sorely misses her best friend from home and barely attempts to make friends in her new school. She becomes intrigued, though, with an odd girl named May, who wears old-fashioned clothes, doesn’t attend school, and seems to appear almost magically when Ariadne is outdoors and feeling lonely or needy. After many clues, Ariadne deduces that May isn’t just a loner, but a ghost.

Tree Girl

T. A. Barron

Nine-year-old Rowanna lives in a cottage by the sea with Master Melwyn, an old fisherman who has raised her from infancy and warned her repeatedly to watch out for the vicious, bloodthirsty ghouls in the forest. Lured by High Willow, the great tree at the top of the forest, and a playful bear cub who befriends the lonely child, she begins to venture into the forbidden forest. There, Rowanna learns to look beyond her preconceptions and understand the magical reality of the forest and the secret of her parentage.

The Empty Mirror

James Lincoln Collier

Orphaned by the 1918 influenza epidemic, 13-year-old Nick has been raised by his uncle Jack, a New England bachelor shopkeeper. Nick’s reputation as a troublesome kid doesn’t help him when he’s wrongly accused of disrespect, and his puzzlement deepens when he discovers that he can no longer see his reflection in a mirror. More unfair accusations make it clear that someone who looks exactly like Nick is stirring up trouble. A gravestone for Jared Solters, a boy of Nick's age who died in the epidemic, provides the clue that causes the teen to investigate the epidemic and learn why Jared wants to inhabit his body and live out the remainder of his life.

The Great Sockathon

Michael Delaney

Best friends Sabrina, Megan, Connie, and Daisy are looking forward to a relaxing summer until Sabrina is contacted by the ghost of Eliza Baker, who died 70 years earlier after falling from a 275-year-old balm of Gilead tree located on the village green. When the girls learn that the diseased tree is scheduled for demolition, they decide to collect socks to raise money to purchase a tree brace.

The Great Ghost Rescue

Eva Ibbotson

Ghosts all over England are being driven out of their creepy habitats as castles are renovated for tourists, and not-so-scary Humphrey and his ghost family must flee their ancestral home. Attracted to a boys’ school by the particularly smelly socks of one of the students, they meet up with student activist Rick Henderson, who is intrigued by the ghosts’ plight and agrees to conduct them to Parliament to convince the Prime Minister to create a ghost sanctuary. Rick thinks success is at hand when Lord Bullhaven donates his deserted, seaside castle to the cause, but the sneaky Lord actually intends to trap all the ghosts and exorcise them.

The Poltergoose: A Jiggy McCue Story

Michael Lawrence

Jiggy McCue is being haunted. Something throws pillows across the room, pulls covers off the bed, and generally wreaks loud, hissing havoc all over the family's new house. His parents are blaming him for all the mess and his friends think he's gone nuts. Then, the flapping phantom follows Jiggy to school and attacks his homeroom–invisible wings strike left and right and an invisible beak pecks at exposed sensitive body parts. Once again, Jiggy has to take the rap, but by now, his friends are convinced that he is the victim of a poltergoose.

Operating Codes

Nick Manns

Upon moving into the Sentinel House, five-year-old Matty and fifteen-year-old Graham encounter ghosts from a nearby military compound, but real trouble begins when their father is arrested for posting information about a secret weapons system on the Internet.

Olivia Kidney

Ellen Potter

After losing a number of jobs due to his ineptitude, Olivia Kidney's father has landed yet another position as a superintendent in a New York City apartment building. That means that Olivia is, once again, the new kid. Losing her key one day, she meets the first of a number of the building's unusual residents, who turns out to be a ghost. Before the day is over, she has met two mean girls about her age, an old woman whose entire apartment is made of glass, and a budding psychic named Alice.

If you enjoy this title, make sure to check out Olivia's other adventures in Olivia Kidney and the Secret Beneath the City, and Olivia Kidney and the Exit Academy.

Lily's Ghosts

Laura Ruby

Lily, 13, and her mother have just moved to this shore community after her mother's breakup with her latest boyfriend. They take up residence in the old Victorian home owned by her mom's Uncle Wes, a relative with whom they have had little contact. Lily is so horrified by a portrait of her other great uncle, a pale, frightening-looking young man, that she hides it in the closet. Very soon, inexplicable things begin to happen: strange phone calls, objects changing location, jam in her shoes. Before long, Lily realizes that she is being haunted, and she resolves to solve a mystery from the past that involves her uncle's house and several of her relatives.

Vicky Angel

Jacqueline Wilson

Jade and Vicky are as close as sisters and have been friends since nursery school. However, while Vicky is outgoing and bubbly, Jade is quiet, and definitely the follower in the relationship. As the teens are leaving school one day, they have an argument. Vicky flounces off in a huff, crossing the street without looking. She is hit by a car and dies in the hospital. Remorseful, Jade returns to the spot where the accident happened. She encounters Vicky, now a ghost, who over the next several months takes to tormenting Jade, getting in the way of homework and new friendships.

The Bagpiper's Ghost

Jane Yolen

While in Scotland visiting relatives, 13 year-old twins Peter and Jennifer visit a graveyard hoping to see the ghost of Mary MacFadden, and Peter is possessed by the unhappy spirit of her twin brother, Andrew. Jennifer and her Gran, a white witch, know that they have only one day to get the spirit to leave Peter's body or it will take him over forever. In life, Andrew plotted to keep Mary from marrying Ewan McGregor, and Mary pined away to her grave.