Monsters in the Mist

Gr 5 Up–A deliciously spooky middle grade fantasy. Glennon is temporarily living with his uncle at Graving Lighthouse on Isle Philippeaux on Lake Superior with his mother and sister while his father is overseas on a teaching fellowship. His family is used to Glennon’s overactive imagination, but something is just not quite right on Isle Philippeaux. One night three men are saved from a shipwreck; one of them has strange eyes that remind Glennon of his nightmares. Glennon only needs to survive three more days on the island, and then he, his sister, and his mother will be on their way home. But when the ferry that should take them off the island is damaged, and they realize that everyone there is a ghost, even Glennon’s uncle, it becomes even more imperative that they escape. The question of who wrote the letter telling them to come in the first place, along with the discovery of zombie rats, makes for an exciting and desperate attempt to finally understand what is going on and how to get away. The island wants their lives, but in the end both living and dead stand together to defeat it. Underlying the story is the emotional abuse that Glennon’s family has suffered at the hands of his father, and how they will learn to overcome it. Fans of ghost stories such as Mary Downing Hahn’s All the Lovely Bad Ones will be intrigued by this suspenseful tale.