Dead good detectives

Sid loves darkness, creepy crawlies, maps, and the nearby cemetery where her mother is buried. Indeed, Sid likes the cemetery so much that she often stays well after best friend Zen leaves for the evening. After discovering a new headstone and eager to add it to her incredibly detailed map of the town, she inexplicably and accidentally releases a pirate from the halfway house where disgruntled spirits are held until their business on Earth is finished. Naturally, this is unsettling, and Sid finds the only way to get rid of the specter and his parrot is to unearth his buried treasure. Though she is temporarily successful at keeping all of this a secret from everyone, eventually Zen figures it out and starts seeing the ghosts himself. Delightfully illustrated in black and white throughout, the rollicking adventure ends with more than a few open questions, leaving the reader certain that a sequel might be soon on the horizon. All in all, in this particular case, the "Arghhh!" also stands for recommended.

Sidonie May Jones, 12, enjoys spending time in the graveyard where her mother is buried. There, she works on her map of Fathom, the pirate-obsessed, seaside town she calls home. While exploring the graveyard's oldest corners, she discovers a long-hidden headstone for Ezekiel "Bones" Kittow, an 18th-century pirate whose ghost she inadvertently frees from his captivity inside a nearby mausoleum. Now haunted by Bones and his parrot, Sid is the only one who can help the wayward spirit take care of his unfinished business and move on to the afterlife. But Bones is being hunted by Old Scratch, his former captor. Worse, if Sid and her best friend Zen don't solve the riddle surrounding Bones's lost treasure, he'll be doomed to become a mindless wraith. This upbeat piece by McLachlan (the Land of Roar series), the first in a series, boasts ghost pirates, puzzles, and buried treasure galore. It's a lively nautical adventure and a celebration of owning one's weirdness, standing up to peer pressure, and sticking by friends when the going gets tough. Sid reads as white; Zen is Black. Ages 8--12. Agent: Julia Churchill, A.M. Heath Literary. (July)

Young amateur cartographer Sid Jones accidentally releases a centuries-old pirate ghost from the cemetery in her English seaside town of Fathom. Sid can see and hear the boisterous pirate Capt. Ezekiel "Bones" Kittow and his impish macaw, Elizabeth--but no one else can, not even her best friend, a boy named Zennor Moyo. After an understandable period of disbelief and frustration, Sid teams up with Bones to solve the mystery of his missing treasure so that he and his crew can escape their ghostly limbo and pass on. Though Sid draws Zen into the historical puzzle of Bones' pirate booty, she's been growing self-conscious about hanging out with her proudly oddball friend and drawing more attention from their classmates; she's already been called weird, after all, and having a ghost as a constant companion, even a secret one, doesn't help. The overall tone is one of whimsy more than menace. McLachlan infuses both the supernatural adventure and Sid's emotional evolution with a charming earnestness, especially as Sid grows bolder and more comfortable with her magical talents. Stylized black-and-white illustrations depict Sid as a white waif with large, round glasses and Zen as an energetic Black boy with short twists; Bones receives a loving visual treatment that includes voluminous hair, a tricorn hat, and a beard entangled with seaweed. A series opener--big on heart and short on horror--that offers fun ghostly escapades. (map) (Paranormal. 8-12) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.