Ghosts in the White House

Gr 4-6-"Your evening prison tour just ended. You walk back past dark, empty cells." These opening gambits precede short accounts of two haunted venues in each slim volume. The publisher's promise that these books "burst with intense action [and] high-speed heroics" is heavily overstated, but there are interesting "shadows of the unknown." Anne Boleyn's ghost, her head tucked under her arm, is perhaps the eeriest figure, and the White House is an intriguing locale of contemporary haunting. Prisons focuses mostly on Al Capone and speculates on what drove him "mad." The busy, occasionally cluttered layout includes short bits of white text and assorted elements (maps, sidebars) in each spread. There's less commentary on ghosts and hauntings provided than in comparable series. VERDICT Quick introductions to the eerie and weird, these will adequately serve libraries in need of materials on ghosts. © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.