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Book Review of The Phantom Isles

The Phantom Isles
The Phantom Isles
Author: Stephen Alter
Genre: Children's Books
Book Type: Hardcover
GeniusJen avatar reviewed on + 5322 more book reviews


Reviewed by Carrie Spellman for TeensReadToo.com

Late one night Ming, Courtney, and Orion sneak into the town library to find a very curious book. The Compleat Necromancer contains a spell that can supposedly conjure the ghosts of the dead. The friends perform the spell and... nothing happens. Or so it seems.

The next day Alma, the librarian, notices books out of place. Stranger still is the face that looks out at her when she opens one of them. It seems to materialize on the page, and it appears to be looking right at her! And it's not the only face stuck in a book.

Slowly a mystery comes to the surface. It seems to center around a place called Ilhas dos Fantasmas, and a professor who went to live there for awhile a long time ago. If Ming, Courtney, Orion, and Alma can solve the mystery, they might be able to free the ghosts from their books. But, the clock is ticking, and the books might be in greater danger than any of them realize.

This is such a fun book, and such an original idea! I love that it tells the stories of the ghosts, as well as has their faces on the page. It makes the story so much more vivid. Plus it has a crazy teacher, who at first is almost funny then turns creepy. It's the fun kind of scary book that is a great story for anyone. It also seems like just the kind of book that parents could read to their kids.