Spooky Sleuths #1: The Ghost Tree

Deen, Natasha

ISBN 10: 0593488881 ISBN 13: 9780593488881

Publisher: Random House Books for Young Readers, 2022

Synopsis

Is it science...or strange and ghostly?

Asim's new town is freaking him out! There are weird noises at night, eerie lights, and now an evil tree that is growing way faster than it should. he's sure there's something supernatural going on.
His friend Rokshar believes that everything can be explained by science. But even she's worried when the tree takes control of their teacher! It's starting to look like an evil spirit straight out of Guyanese folklore is to blame. Can Asim and his friends save their teacher--and the town--from the ghost tree?
 
Find out...if you dare! It's a new spooky series based on ghost stories from Guyana.

About this title

About the Author

Natasha Deen has written more than a dozen books for young readers. After spending her early childhood in Guyana, she moved to Calgary in Alberta, Canada, which she found terribly exciting until she met her first minus-forty-degree winter day, at which point she began to question the sanity of the grown-ups around her. She lives in Edmonton, and keeps warm with tea and cupcakes. Find out more at natashadeen.com and follow her on Twitter @natasha_deen.

Lissy Marlin is an award-winning illustrator from Dominican Republic with a simple mission: bring a little bit of magic to everyday life, one piece of art at a time! Her projects include the New York Times bestselling series The Magic Misfits by Neil Patick Harris.

Reviews

Gr 2-5-Asim loves everything spooky, thanks to his mom's tales of mythical creatures from her childhood in Guyana. Unlike his mom, the fourth grader believes those monsters are real, just like the ghosts in the cemetery he avoids on his way to school. When a class project inspecting local biomes takes his class to the graveyard (and to an evil tree with a ghastly face that oozes black goo), it opens up Lion's Gate's secrets about the strange happenings that surround its island residents. As the goo turns people into smelly, grumpy fiends who eat anything in sight-even bugs!-Asim's newfound crew (including science-minded Rokshar and foodie Max) must use their scientific wits and ghost smarts to defeat the tree and save their town. This is a delightfully creepy adventure with an enjoyable educational component. Readers will observe the sleuths using the scientific method to draw various conclusions about the tree and its effects while encountering advanced terms like hypothesis, temperate, and coniferous. Delightful gray scale illustrations accentuate key scenes, breathing life into Deen's characters and providing additional information about supernatural figures from diverse cultures. Notes from Asim's journal in the back matter lend an endearing dimension of authenticity, and an author's note includes more information about Dutchman tree lore. Asim is depicted with brown skin and hair; secondary characters have a range of skin tones. VERDICT An excellent series starter and contribution to the supernatural mystery genre, perfect for older chapter book readers easing into early middle grade. Highly recommended.-Ashleigh Williamsα(c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidia~ry of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Edition details

• Publisher: Random House Books for Young Readers
• Publication date: 2022
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0593488881
• ISBN 13: 9780593488881
• Binding: Library Binding
• Illustrator: Marlin Lissy
• Number of pages: 112