THE LADY OF THE LIBRARY

What’s a ghost to do when her usual haunting ground is slated for demolition?

A ghostly apparition’s normal haunt, a multistory rural library, is currently closed and will be knocked down for reasons unknown. The spirit, who presents as White, is out of sorts until she makes an unlikely ally in a young girl who isn’t frightened of the ghost and wants to save the building. The girl, who has light tan skin and brown hair, works with the Lady to devise a series of plans that will draw attention to the library, including stacking up a winding line of books and then toppling them like dominoes, creating a spectacular slide from unused shelving, and holding ghost-story–telling sessions. Their work pays off, leaving everyone happy. Backmatter connects the story to the Willard Library in Evansville, Indiana, and while the book will most likely be haunting the shelves of Willard for many years to come, it most likely will gather dust elsewhere. The internal logic of the story will have astute readers scratching their heads: Can the girl see the ghost but no one else can? Why are the construction workers who are tasked with demolition terrified of the ghost while other people are not? It’s all related in rhyming couplets that strain for scansion. The illustrations do a lot of heavy lifting, giving the book heaps of visual appeal, but that may not be enough. (This book was reviewed digitally with 11-by-18-inch double-page spreads viewed at actual size.)

Shaky rhyme and illogic earn this ghost story a boo.