THE HAUNTED PLAYGROUND

When the kids are away, the ghosts will play.

Narrator and king of ghosts Rex Magnificus, a skeletal creature with a white Prince Valiant hairstyle, hosts an annual private party for his fellow apparitions that begins at midnight after Halloween: “From every corner of the world, / to one small place they’re bound: / my haunted and mysterious, / fantastical playground.” On this special night, the ghosts don Halloween costumes that were abandoned at the playground and get a reprieve from the obligation to frighten people. But what’s this? A pajama-clad girl and boy (both tan-skinned with rubbery features) arrive, saying they live next door and that the party woke them up. Rex’s attempt to scare them off fails, and the kids join the cavorting ghosts. After Rex tries some carousing, he has a predictable Grinch-like epiphany: “Truth be told, these strange events / have turned out quite delightful.” Palacio, the author of, among other kids’ books, the middle-grade sensation Wonder (2012), serves up a few hiccupy rhymes, but most are snappy and well crafted. As for the story, it may not have needed all of Rex’s verbiage—he’s quite the windbag—although Helquist’s oils do capture the formidability that Palacio seems to be going for. The playground’s eye-snaring carnival colors are a dazzling counterpoint to the soft-lined, swirling, white ghost bodies.

Good-natured, spine-tingling fun.