Ghosts Who Went To School

Wilbur is bored with being a ghost so he decides to go back to school.

“Failing schools. Underprivileged schools. Just plain bad schools.” That’s how Eve L. Ewing opens Ghosts in the Schoolyard: describing Chicago Public Schools from the outside. The way politicians and pundits and parents of kids who attend other schools talk about them, with a mix of pity and contempt. But Ewing knows Chicago Public Schools from the inside: as a student, then a teacher, and now a scholar who studies them. And that perspective has shown her that public schools are not buildings full of failures—they’re an integral part of their neighborhoods, at the heart of their communities, storehouses of history and memory that bring people together. Never was that role more apparent than in 2013 when Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced an unprecedented wave of school closings. Pitched simultaneously as a solution to a budget problem, a response to declining enrollments, and a chance to purge bad schools that were dragging down the whole system, the plan was met with a roar of protest from parents, students, and teachers. But if these schools were so bad, why did people care so much about keeping them open, to the point that some would even go on a hunger strike? Ewing’s answer begins with a story of systemic racism, inequality, bad faith, and distrust that stretches deep into Chicago history. Rooting her exploration in the historic African American neighborhood of Bronzeville, Ewing reveals that this issue is about much more than just schools. Black communities see the closing of their schools—schools that are certainly less than perfect but that are theirs—as one more in a long line of racist policies. The fight to keep them open is yet another front in the ongoing struggle of black people in America to build successful lives and achieve true self-determination.

From R.L. Stine, master horror author of the Goosebumps series and the Fear Street trilogy—now streaming on Netflix—comes another spooky tale! Max’s life wasn’t going so well even before two ghosts moved into his closet. But when Nicky and Tara show up, claiming that they used to live in his room, everything changes for Max! Soon they’re following him to school, using their invisibility to embarrass him in front of the girl of his dreams. And to make matters worse, there’s some other totally evil spirit named Phears following him around turning animals inside out!

Andrew, the class bully, brings ghost-stopping slime to the school basement, but the Ghostville ghosts aren't planning on being caught.

A Bank Street Best Book of 2021 Inspired by the children's song "The Ants Went Marching" and involving early math concepts, writer Kim Norman and illustrator Jay Fleck's The Ghosts Went Floating is a spooktacular adventure perfect for Halloween. The ghosts went floating, one by one, BOO-rah! BOO-rah! when Halloween had just begun. BOO-rah! BOO-rah! The ghosts went floating, one by one, so why don’t YOU come join the fun? Trick-or-treat with ghosts, skeletons, witches, zombies, and all sorts of cute and creepy creatures in this fun-filled Halloween counting adventure!

Best friends Maude, CJ, and Tiny are so excited to start third grade at Boo Academy (affectionately called Boo La La), the world's premier haunting school! The ghost girls love their new dorm mother, Ms. Finley. But she has some strange characteristics that make them think that she might be... human. Could it be?! The ghost girls are determined to find out, for the sake of their school -- and the entire ghost world!

Upon discovering that she has the gift of Second Sight, Blossom also learns that whether glimpsing the future or traveling into the past, one is powerless to alter history.

Aspiring to be the fastest sprinter on his elite middle school's track team, gifted runner Ghost finds his goal challenged by a tragic past with a violent father.