Title: Sammy Specter, Private Investigator, Public Terror (The Spirit Hauntings)
Author: Avery Spooks / Illustrator: Mariano Epelbaum
Genre: Children’s Books
Rating: 3 stars
Publication Date: August 1, 2023
Purchase: Amazon
Disclaimer: I received a review copy in exchange for an honest review.
Sammy Specter, Private Investigator, Public Terror is the first book in The Spirit Hauntings series. The story contains some wonderful and imaginative illustrations that bring the story to life.
As for the story itself, Sammy Specter is a ghost who longs to become a member of SPIRIT: the Society of Paranormal, Invesible and Restless Imps and Terrors. However, due to “science”, the living are believing in ghosts less and less. And even if they do believe, they’re not scared of phantoms anymore. So, SPIRIT has decided to open its doors to new members for the first time in centuries, but on one condition. In order to be able to join SPIRIT, you need to terrify the living.
Sammy starts on a quest to terrify a third-grader called Shayla Wilkerson. But as Shayla is a veritable tech wizard, he may have chosen the wrong girl to spook.
I liked the premise of the story, but the execution fell a little flat for me. I’m all for suspending disbelief and having Shayla be a tech wizard at her tender age, but it needs to be consistent. Sometimes she seemed to know everything there is to know, building her own pc at age four, writing apps, etc. and other times, she just seemed totally clueless. One moment, she seemed scared of Sammy, and the next moment, she couldn’t care less.
Despite that, I still liked the story and I’m pretty sure the intended audience will love it too. It’s definitely not too scary, and it contains a good message, especially for the tech-crazy generation of kids nowadays.
Title: Amelia, the Merballs and the Emerald Cannon
Evonne Blanchard was born and raised in England. She met her husband, an American whilst they were both volunteering at a children’s orphanage in Guatemala. The writer lives north of Boston, Massachusetts with her husband and their two daughters, Lydia and Gwendolyn. Other additions to the household include a crazy puppy called Bailey, a lovely cat called Arthur, and lots of fish!
Title: Sweet Tales
With an active imagination and a love of art, D.H. Gibbs has chosen to combine her talents by writing and illustrating. Creating fantastical tales for Children, New and Young Adults, her strongest desire is to share her stories with readers so they too can be a part of the new worlds she creates.
Title: Grandpa Bernie’s Bedtime Stories
I didn’t begin my career as an author by writing stories. First, I was a storyteller. Let me explain. Many years ago, when our children were very young, I would sit on their beds at bedtime and tell them a story. Instead of reading a story written by someone else, I preferred to make up my own story right on the spot. They were stories about animals who learned to fly, children who talked to birds, alligators who were friends with elephants, and even one about a horse that learned to jump like a kangaroo. Our children loved them. So I made up lot of stories. Then there was a long period of time when there was no one who wanted to listen to my stories because they had all grown up!
