The Curse on Spectacle Key is an engaging and very well written ghost story chapter book for middle grades readers by Chantel Acevedo. Released 6th Sept 2022 by Harper Collins on their Children's imprint, it's 256 pages and is available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately.
This book engaged me from quite literally the first page. The last day of fifth grade, and Frank's looking forward to the summer for the first time. His family's business, renovating and flipping unusual houses generally meant that he'd be moving yet again to start the next school year in yet another town, far away. The characters are written so sympathetically and realistically that I was fully engaged with Frank from the first chapter.
This is also a well told story with a main character who is genuine, kind, honest, and realistically rendered. He has a warm and loving family and a great relationship with his grandfather. He's close with his parents as well and he's Cuban American (his dad's from Cuba). There's a fair bit of Spanish scattered throughout. Words and phrases are self explanatory or defined in context in the text. Representation is important and this is a positive and warm portrayal.
It *is* a ghost story, but the supernatural bits aren't overly scary, in fact they're quite charming, and shouldn't be problematic for kids in the target audience group (8-12ish).
Four and a half stars. This would be a good choice for public and school library acquisition, home reading, and gift giving. Although the target age for readers is stated as 8-12 years, it's an enjoyable read for all ages. The denouement especially has a cool Scooby Doo climax and denouement which I loved.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
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