MAY BIRD AMONG THE STARS

Accompanied most of the way by a ragtag band of deceased sidekicks, ten-year-old May Bird and her hairless, redoubtable feline Somber Kitty continue a trek across the “Afterlife” begun in May Bird and the Ever After (2005)—and come out the other side at last. Pursued by the Wild Hunt and other minions of kingpin dark spirit Evil Bo Cleevil, the travelers make their way through a land of the dead that looks more than ever like California. They pause at a lotus-eater–style colony of wiped-out surfer dudes and other risk junkies, a huge forest protected by a mysterious sorceress of fearsome repute and, at last, a climactic disco party face-off in Cleevil’s own haunts under the Dead Sea. Frequent references to the previous episode keep this one from standing on its own, but the breathless mix of horror and hilarity (noogies and show tunes turn out to be more effective here against supernatural attack than any conventional weapons, for example) continues unabated. And as May Bird’s closing reunion with her loving mother in the land of the living leaves the “Ever After” still threatened, readers can look forward to at least one more return visit. (Fantasy. 11-13)