DOUBLE O STEPHEN AND THE GHOSTLY REALM

Pirate-loving Stephen’s dreams are about to come true—in a ghostly way.

Despite his mother’s disapproval, 12-year-old Stephen Oh-O’Driscoll, who is of Korean and Irish descent, wants to be a pirate. With his bandanna and eye patch, he and best friend Brandon are ready for adventure, specifically becoming piventurates, a portmanteau term for pirate adventurers that Stephen coined himself. And one day, adventure comes, but not in the form of a pirate, or at least not really. Instead, it turns out Stephen is a baksu mudang, a Korean term for someone who can communicate with ghosts. Some of the ghosts he meets are friendly, some are scary—and one may or may not have been a pirate. Stephen’s mother thinks he should have nothing to do with these spirits, but Stephen doesn’t agree. Halmeoni, his late maternal grandmother (who is also a ghost), has been kidnapped, and to save her he will have to help the maybe-pirate ghost. But he isn’t really complaining: This is what the Piventurate’s Oath is all about! Stephen and friends new and old travel between the worlds of the living and dead, finding self-confidence and the truth about a few family secrets along the way, Full of swashbuckling and supernatural fun, this book touches but never dwells upon serious subjects for too long.

Light, appealing, nonstop adventure.