OLIVIA KIDNEY AND THE EXIT ACADEMY

Twelve-year-old, born-to-be-a-medium Olivia Kidney returns for another humorous, ghostly adventure. Her inept father has lost another job as an apartment house superintendent, but he’s been invited, so they think, to work in a new building. Ansel Plover, the owner, is surprised to see them, and Olivia is surprised to learn he’s the son of her old friend Madame Brenda. It turns out Ansel runs an Exit Academy, which teaches sleeping people how they’ll die (death can be quite shocking if you haven’t rehearsed). Madame Brenda enlists Olivia in a plan to help a fence-sitting soul choose between life and death, and Olivia’s father finally lands a job he can do. Old friends return and new ones are made in this superior sequel to Potter’s first outing. Olivia has some realistic scary moments when her father becomes ill and some surrealistic scary moments when a hungry spirit tries to take over her body. Olivia’s credible voice and family circumstances provide a solid anchor for this urban spook fantasy, and award-winner Reynolds’s black-and-white art is a perfect match. A good use of budget, especially where Olivia has fans. (Fiction. 9-14)