ALL THE LOVELY BAD ONES

Taking her title from a poem by James Whitcomb Riley, veteran author Hahn spins a deliciously spooky tale about restless spirits haunting the site of a former Vermont poor farm. Travis and his little sister Corey are confirmed “bad ones”—so bad, in fact, that their summer camp won’t let them come back, so they find themselves this summer at their grandmother’s rural inn. When they learn of its supposedly ghost-filled past, they decide to play a prank or two, but in the process they wake both the mischievous long-dead children and the malevolent woman who supervised the children of the farm. Soon the inn swarms with spiritualists hoping for a genuine sighting, much to the dismay of its skeptical proprietor. This clash of cultures allows Hahn to leaven the chills of the ghost story with generous dollops of humor, resulting in a tale that keeps the creepiness factor within reasonable bounds for the audience. Believable characters, both live and undead, and a classic resolution make this a highly satisfying introduction to the genre. (Fiction. 9-12)