Ghosts, Toast, and Other Hazards

Ghosts, Toast, and Other Hazards
Susan Tan
Roaring Brook Press, 2023
228 pages
Grades 4-7
Realistic/Horror-ish

Mo is new to town. She, along with her mother and younger sister, move in with Uncle Ray to a house in a small town next to the former dump. Mom is severely depressed since her husband left her and Mo also feels abandoned, losing the only father she ever knew, even though they weren't biologically connected. Mom can't seem to get it together and it is former musical engineer, Uncle Ray, who takes over the parenting and exposes Mo to the healing power of music. The sudden losses in Mo's life are heightening her anxiety and she is compulsively nervous about electronics, such as the toaster in the title, and fire. A strange white elephant starts to haunt her dreams and she suspects supernatural happenings stemming from the dump next door. Through a new ghost-hunting friend, Nathaniel, Mo learns about the legend of the circus fire that made her new town famous, and the elephant whose ghost is haunting her dreams. Mo and Nathaniel are determined to get to the bottom of the town's mysterious past and settle the soul of the tortured pachyderm. The investigation does not go smoothly, landing both sixth graders in a heap of trouble and secrets about all of the players are revealed. Will Mo and her family ever find healing and acceptance in their new home? And is there really an elephant ghost?

Scary stories are currently trending and this new title embraces this trend, all within the framework of a solid realistic family/friendship tale of healing. Mo is a likable and relatable character. Readers will identify with her hurt over the rejection of her stepfather and her efforts to take control of her situation by obsessing over electronics. Readers will be relieved that Uncle Ray is there to step-up as a functional adult. He helps Mo to heal the only way he knows how: through the power of music. None of the characters in the book are perfect, but they have good intentions and the story ends with a sense of understanding and onto the path to wholeness. The book never gets too scary, but the ghost hunting will satisfy thrill-seekers, all while giving them more substance than the average fare. The reader never knows for sure if supernatural happenings are afoot, but it doesn't matter. All of the players, including those long-dead, receive a satisfactory resolution. My only complaint with the novel is I would have like to see a playlist of the music featured within the pages of the story or, even better, a QR code, like Dan Santat recently did with his new graphic novel, leading readers to a playlist on Spotify. A creepy story with a great message of the power of friendship, music and the village it takes to help us grow up.