BAYLOR'S GUIDE TO DREADFUL DREAMS

Middle school medium Baylor develops dreamwalking abilities—but not without complications.

An unfavorable online article about the white 13-year-old humorously recaps highlights of Baylor’s Guide to the Other Side (2016) in the voice of a fake-news–y type with a grudge. Baylor’s dead twin sister, Kristina, and the British ghost Col. Fleetwood decide Baylor needs a protective amulet; they use the already-powerful talisman stone from the first book. Wearing it, Baylor has strange, lucid dreams that aren’t actually his; he’s entering his loved ones’ dreams. But he also is reaching some strangers, which shouldn’t be possible: an olive-skinned Greek girl and a dark-skinned Haitian boy, lost together at sea and running out of time. By night Baylor works on how to locate these missing teens, and during the day he deals with other subplots. These include his younger brother’s isolation (the other second-graders are afraid of Baylor), his best friend’s insecurity (discovered in a dream Baylor really shouldn’t have peeked in at; his friend uses a dreamcatcher to prevent further snooping), the spiteful journalist, and even family drama just in time for Thanksgiving dinner. The emotional stakes of the plots closer to home pair well with the very real physical dangers faced by the shipwrecked teens and the race against the clock to save them. Further changes in Baylor’s powers indicate things are happening in the Beyond for another book.

A ghostly good time.