The Underground Ghosts: A Super Special

The Haunted Library #10

by Dori Hillestad Butler, Aurore Damant (Illustrations)

It's almost Halloween, and Kaz and Claire are off to Seattle to visit Claire's cousins. They explore the local library...and find a ghost living there! The ghost's family has been missing, so Kaz and Claire decide to investigate. When they discover ghostly activity in the city's subterranean passages, they put their detective skills to work. Kaz and Claire are on the case!"

Genres: Mystery, Ghosts, Fiction, Friendship, Childrens, Fantasy, Paranormal

192 pages, Paperback

Published August 15, 2017

About the author

Dori Hillestad Butler is an American author of more than 40 children's books, as well as magazine stories, plays and educational materials. Her first book, The Great Tooth Fairy Rip-Off, was published in 1997. She is known particularly for The Truth about Truman School, a 2008 young adult title focusing on the subject of cyber bullying, and for My Mom's Having a Baby (illustrated by Carol Thompson), which in 2011 appeared on the American Library Association's list of most commonly challenged books in the United States for its portrayal of conception and childbirth. Her 2010 mystery title, Buddy Files: Case of the Last Boy, won the 2011 Edgar Award for the best juvenile mystery published in 2010. Before becoming a children's author, Butler worked for three years as a page at a library.

Reviews

[Sarah - All The Book Blog Names Are Taken]

Eleanor says: I liked that we got to meet Claire’s cousin. In this book Claire and Kaz and Little John go to Seattle, which is where Claire lived before she and her family moved to Iowa. Claire got to stay with her cousin and her aunt.

Momma says: I’m so glad to be done with this series. Eleanor loves it because it’s about ghosts, and I’m so glad she enjoyed it. I hated it; all the ghost ‘terminology’ and garbage was super annoying. And Outside being capped, like it is it’s own place. And the ghosts ‘swim’ through the air. It was all so stupid. And ‘skizzy’ being how Kaz felt when passing through anything solid. The whole family was annoying, Kaz and Little John especially. And it doesn’t really make sense that the ghosts age. Kaz’s mom talks about being a child, which doesn’t make any sense because how to ghosts grow? And it didn’t make sense that Kaz didn’t know what stuff was, things that any person would’ve known, like a telephone or any of the other million things that Claire had to explain to him. Are we just supposed to believe that ghosts are not the dead? That they’re just other beings? The series would’ve been so much better without the terminology garbage and the ghosts functioning in a recognizable way.

[Jane Maple · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kaz and Little John join Claire on a trip to Seattle to visit her Aunt Beth and cousin Maddie. Claire tells cousin Maddie about her ghosts. There is suppose to be a Halloween party in the Seattle library but their are worries that a ghost will disrupt the party. Little Jon goes after two ghosts on the bus and almost gets separated from Claire and Maddie but they get to the library. They hear about a crying ghost in the library dumbwaiter. They meet a nice library named Andrea and a mean library who is not excited about the Halloween party called Lynette. Kaz glows in the children's area and meets a little girl with braids who is also named Claire. They split up and search the library but don't find the ghosts although they do get startled by some window washers. They go to Pike Place so Maddie can get flowers for her mom and they see a man selling fish and pretending as if the fish are alive. They go home, watch a movie where Claire falls asleep, Maddie asks if the ghosts are still there, the ghosts wail to say they are still there, Maddie says Claire is so luck to have a ghost friend. Little John offers to be Maddie's friend and Kaz says "Me too" which makes Little John mad since he wants a ghost friend of his own like Kaz has with Claire. When they go back to the library the next day the books have all been knocked off the shelves. Kaz and Little John find the crying ghost but he flees into the parking garage and then under the floor. Kaz tries to follow but it makes him too sick and he goes back. He sees the guy from Pikes Place (who was playing the joke with the fish) who is talking to the library security guard. Maddie, Claire and Kaz have to leave the library although Kaz hates leaving his brother behind. They go back the next day and still can't find Little Jon so they take the underground tour of Seattle, there Kaz meets a ghost in chains scaring tourists, three ghosts laughing at ghost hunters, and finally the crying ghost, Oliver, who agrees to tell Kaz where Little Jon is if Kaz will first reunite Oliver with his family. They find Oliver's family at a museum called MoPOP, and Oliver said that Little Jon said he wanted his own solid friend, which turns out to be Claire with the Braids who he glowed to at the beginning of the story. Claire and Kaz also find out that the ghosts had only objected to the Halloween party because they consider the library their area after dark, so they invite the ghosts to attend the party and the party goes well. (It helps that Lynette the library who didn't want to attend is given the night off.) At the party Kaz is so happy he actually glows.

[Pam · Rating 3 out of 5]

The latest in this series. This book takes place near Halloween.
The boys and Claire travel to Seattle to visit her family and discover a lot of ghosts at the library. They solve the mysteries and Little John finds his own special friend.

[Chloe (Always Booked) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a good ending to the series. This is a super special so its longer (5 extra chapters) than normal and honestly I'm glad this is the only one like that because it got a little drawn out. In this book, Kaz and little John go to Seattle with Claire and they meet her old friends (she used to live there) and explore the library there. Little John gets separated because he's trying to follow a ghost that lives in the book dumbwaiter. The ghost is a little kid who cries because he was separated from his family. Little John is gone the whole book because Kaz was too scared to keep up on the chase. In the end, we find out that Little John wanted his own "solid" girl so he went home with another girl named Claire (who I guess could also see ghosts?) and he came back the night of the Halloween party. The little crying ghost is returned to his family and Kaz figures out how to glow. The whole series is wrapped up really nice and I am so glad we read it!

[Hana]

The final installment in The Haunted Library series by Dori Hillestad Butler was as touching and funny as the nine books preceding it. I'm a sucker for chapter books, and the whole girl meets ghost meets ghost tracking detective agency combines cute and spooky perfectly in a fun blend of short chapters and helpful illustrations (from illustrator Aurore Damant). Highly recommend this book and the whole series!

[Catarina · Rating 5 out of 5]

probably the cutest installment of this series, and supposedly the last one???!! PLEASE GIVE ME MORE!!!!!!!! Kaz and Claire and Little John make the cutest team. I want more ghosts helped my C&K (&LJ) Detectives!!!

[Melissa Brandts · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute, fun book to have read with Lucy! ❤️

[Kim Hampton · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this series with my 7 year old daughter, and we both really liked it. It's not scary at all.

[Kelly Littrell · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun and easy Halloween read! My 5-year-old son and I really enjoyed it.

[Michael Chomin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Please write more of these!

Please write more of these. My daughter and I enjoy the series so much. This is such a great story for ghost-lovers and Halloween fans!

[Blančitos · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tak a série je u konce. Mohu jenom doporučit, protože je to moc fajn oddechovka.