GHOSTS OF AUTUMN

A ragtag group fights to save a historically significant and decidedly haunted hotel in Gorder’s debut middle-grade novel.

Junior high school history teacher Ryan Kelly has long championed the Elk Grove Hotel; it’s a valuable piece of history, giving the California city of Elk Grove its name. But some residents of the city want it torn down to make room for a golf course. No one, it seems, wants the hotel gone more than Mayor Matt Fox. Decades ago, when they were 11 years old, he and Ryan snuck inside the hotel and encountered two ghosts who pleaded for the boys’ help to protect their home. The experience inspired Ryan to ensure no harm comes to the old building, but it completely unnerved young Matt. In the present day, Ryan’s students Amelia, Zoey, TJ, and Sophia explore the hotel. They surmise that Big Bob Thornton, a prospector killed at the hotel in the mid-19th century, had hidden gold nuggets there. The kids believe that if they can unearth these treasures, using clues Bob left behind for his fiancee, maybe they can save the hotel. The author’s prospective series launch is a short, diverting mystery with a well-developed, entertaining cast of junior high school students. The kids supply much of the family-friendly humor, from goofy insults (“ ‘I don’t recall anything scaring us,’ TJ lied. ‘Just your ugly face in my selfie!’ Sophia replied, holding her phone out to him”) to a couple of prank-loving pals with a misguided resolve to build a skate park instead of the golf course. Peterson’s black-and-white pen-and-ink illustrations sublimely depict the hotel and characters, some of whom, such as Elk Grove Hotel founder James Hall, Gorder based on actual people. The novel ends on a minor cliffhanger ready for a sequel to address.

An appealing ghost story with a high-spirited cast of characters.