Book Review: School Spirit

TITLE: School Spirit
PART IN SERIES: Book 1 in the Suddenly Supernatural series
AUTHOR: Elizabeth Cody Kimmel
PUBLISHED: 2008
CATEGORY: Childrens
GENRE: Paranormal
PREMISE: Kat's mom has the ability to see ghosts and therefore is resigned to the fact that her life will always be strange. She doesn't appreciate it though when she herself turns thirteen and discovers she has gotten the same gift because seventh grade is hard enough...
MY REVIEW: Most of what I can say about this book is cute. It's not phenomenal but it's not horrible either. For the audience it's aimed for (older elementary schoolers and middle schoolers) it's appropriate and very relateble and they'll probably get a kick out of it.
Kat herself wavered for me. Sometimes I felt she was a little whiny but even she acknowledged things weren't so bad so it didn't get out of hand. I also felt the mean girls of the school were grossly stereotyped and a little over the top. The ghost story part was also pretty easy to figure out and was of course neatly dealt with, though there is a hint of something being at the school that may be dangerous so that may play out in an interesting way in later books.
So honestly, this book just gets a okay from me. It's good for the audience it's aimed at but for anyone else it'll probably just feel silly. If you have kids in that tough middle grade age who like ghost stories but aren't ready for Stephan King, this is a good book series to suggest.
WHO SHOULD READ: middle schoolers, older elementary school kids
MY REVIEW: Three and a half out of Five flutes

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