Have You Met My Ghoulfriend?

August 30, 2004
This rather inane tale launches Stine's attractively priced paper-over-board Mostly Ghostly series, starring 11-year-old Nicky and his younger sister, Tara, who, walking home one evening, realize they have no memory of where they are coming from—or of anything else. ("Why did I suddenly have a hole in my brain?" wonders Nicky.) Arriving at their house, the two discover another family is living there, including 11-year-old Max, an aspiring magician. As the story unfolds through Nicky and Max's first-person narration, the siblings realize that they are ghosts who fade in and out randomly, and enlist Max's help to discover their parents' whereabouts. Meanwhile, Phears, an ominous ghost who appears in the guise of various animals, begins haunting Max and insisting he lead him to his new ghostly pals. In a brief appearance to Nicky and Tara, their former housekeeper (now also a ghost) cryptically warns them about Phears, saying that he "knows about your mom and dad" and that he "let all the ghosts out." The fact that only Max can see and hear the ghostly youngsters creates some humorous, sitcom-esque moments, and Stine injects the occasional creepy scene that will bring on scattered goosebumps. But readers may feel cheated that the author leaves the plot dangling, "to be continued" in the series' second volume, Have You Met My Ghoulfriend? (ISBN 0-385-74664-4)
, also due this month. Ages 7-10.

October 1, 2004
Gr 4-6 -Stine's newest series is sure to delight his fans. In Who Let the Ghosts Out? readers meet Nicky and Tara, who are trying to figure out why they are suddenly ghosts and what has happened to their parents. They live in the closet of a boy named Max, a would-be magician who is having parent, brother, and teacher troubles. The three team up to help one another try to solve their individual and collective problems and take on an evil spirit named Phears. In the second book, Phears returns and tries to force Max to help him capture the ghost siblings. Stine's forte has always been taking ordinary characters and placing them in weird situations, and these two stories are no exception. This time, however, there is more humor than in the author's previous books. The mood is much more lighthearted and the pacing is slower with fewer terrifying events.-Molly S. Kinney, Nova Southeastern University, Ft. Lauderdale, FL

Copyright 2004 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 1, 2005
Brainy Max meets brother-and-sister ghosts Nicky and Tara, who are looking for clues about their past. Alternately narrated by Max and Nicky (with one chapter jarringly related by an evil ghost in pursuit of the spectral siblings), these superficial tales feature tiresome cliffhangers and sitcomlike scenes of Max causing confusion as he speaks aloud to the invisible ghosts in public settings.

(Copyright 2005 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)