HART & SOULS

Middle school is not for the faint of heart—especially when it’s haunted.

Tommy “Stix” Hart is nervous about starting middle school. Already prone to panic attacks after a violent run-in with a bully in third grade, he’s doing his best to get his bearings when a strange encounter with an older boy sets off a chain of events guaranteeing a sixth grade year that will be anything but normal. It turns out that Stix can see ghosts, and Gilbert Greene Middle School is haunted—but luckily not by “the scary, melt-your-face-off kind of ghosts.” Just three deceased kids, Jesse, Summer, and Dante, with unfinished business who need help crossing over. After mustering a great deal of courage, Stix agrees to help, and one by one, they work to resolve the past while navigating the ins and outs of present-day middle school. Music is a refuge for keen drummer Stix, who loves the Foo Fighters’ Taylor Hawkins (“the best drummer who ever lived”) and has a supportive drum teacher, Mr. Garcia, who urges him to play “with his heart and soul.” The character development is light, but the story moves quickly and will hold kids’ attention. The work introduces newer genre readers to the “ghosts with unfinished business” trope and is a fun, quick-paced read that’s enhanced by Vázquez’s charming grayscale illustrations. Stix, Jesse, and Summer are white presenting; Dante is cued Latine, and there’s broad racial diversity in the supporting cast.

A fast-moving, good-hearted ghost story.