I definitely had a great time with IT FOUND US by Lindsay Currie. It follows Hazel, a girl who embraces her inner sleuth from the beginning, trying to identify what they are calling "The Night Pooper." She just wants to help solve neighborhood crimes, okay?! But while this is being introduced, her brother, Den, decides to get a game of hide and seek together and lots of friends are invited. During this game, Den's best friend, Everett, is never found. So let's enlist Hazel to help!
If hide and seek WASN'T creepy enough as a kid... then they add this element of disappearing in a graveyard!? Sign me... not up. It was always so creepy for me just sitting around waiting to be found... I always got in trouble because I would want to hide in pairs.
We spend a lot of time investigating this graveyard and if there could be a ghost at the root of all this. A lot of it gave me serious vibes from the séance graveyard scene in the 90s movie, NOW AND THEN. Now, we just have to keep reading and find out if we have a true Dear Johnny situation on our hands or not. The rest of the book is totally like Ghost Whisperer for juniors. I had the absolute best time following Hazel and Den, watching them sneak around and try to avoid their parents catching them, investigating, keeping a journal of clues, etc.
There are also some historical elements at play here, but I won't go into them explicitly because it might venture into spoiler territory. But rest assured all can be explained in the Author's Note at the end. So it just made the story even better for me.
AND THIS COVER?! UM HELLO?? I absolutely recommend this for any lover of MG horror.