THE HAUNTING OF WALKER POND

Campers work to appease an angry ghost and save their beloved summer camp in this stand-alone companion to The Ghost of Spruce Point (2022).

Thirteen-year-old Frankie fought hard to join the leader-in-training program at Camp Asticou with her best friend, Parker, even though her stepmom is trying to convince Frankie’s dad to spend their summers on Long Island, where she’s from, instead of Maine. Maine is where Frankie feels closest to her mom, who died when she was two. Unexplained occurrences abound at the camp, especially on Walker Pond, including “sudden currents. Rogue winds. Ocean-like wave swells.” Frankie experiences a “maybe first ghost sighting,” which she comes to believe was the legendary Bride of Rippowam, an early 17th-century woman named Eugenie DeVray who met a tragic end. Frankie becomes even surer when she finds an old diary and letters. Parker believes her, but the other LITs take more convincing. However, camp is important to each of them for their own reasons, so they work together—sometimes in risky ways—to appease the ghost and put things right. This is a well-paced, classic summer camp ghost story, with real stakes for Frankie as well as secondary characters. There’s some slight romance (a crush, a first kiss) among the largely white-presenting LITs, adding to the summer camp vibe.

Grab a s’more and settle in for a fun read.