GHOST TOWN

Mysterious power outages lead a group of young investigators to the discovery that their small town is positively thronged with ghosts. But why?

Though feeling angry and mutinous at the imminent prospect of having to leave her familiar town and friends behind to move away and attend an exclusive science academy, 11-year-old Lily Cole is determined to make her last summer in Crater, New York, a memorable one. And so it turns out to be. Lily and her close-knit circle timidly venture into an old, abandoned mansion and unleash a veritable tide of spectral encounters and visions, revealing that something’s not only preventing all the town’s deceased residents (including animals) from passing on, but also threatening the living residents, too. In his cleanly drawn panels, Colossal depicts plenty of dramatic ectoplasmic wisps and whirls both menacing and benign. He also has his preteens, as they work toward a solution to the mystery, set up a ghost-removal service. Entertainingly animated by snarky squabbles and punctuated by moments of pop-eyed terror, the cast makes its way past tests of wit and courage to the revelation of a culprit more tragically obsessed than malign. Following a suspenseful climax, a tidy finish resolves both the ghost problem and Lily’s, too. Lily presents Black, and her group of friends is racially diverse.

Spooky fun woven around themes of growth and handling change.