School of Phantoms
(No Place for Monsters #2)
by Kory Merritt
Clarion Books, 2021
384 pages
Middle Grade (8 and up)
The secret organization SINISTRAL is keeping its eye on Cowslip Grove. The place is crawling with cryptids! This book details their strangest case: The Phantom Storm!
The protagonists from No Place For Monsters, Kat Bombard and Levi Galante, begin to investigate mysterious snowmen that appear in the yards of the town’s homes. Where do they go for an assist? Margalo’s Home for Unloved Creatures,of course, located in the house where the Mushpits once lived.
The storm is coming. There is no travel. Students are trapped at school, forced to stay the night. (True horror!) When the snowmen come to life and attack the school assembly after most of the kids fall into a hypnotic stupor, the source of this new horror is revealed: The Boojum King is back!
Then the polar vortex begins. “It’s time for the harvest!” cries The Boojum King! Will the students be vanished like Twila almost was last year?
Having been away from the assembly, Levi, Kat, Levi’s little sister Twila, and fellow students Jordan and Donte end up trapped in the back halls of the school with Twila’s teacher Ms. Padilla and custodian Mr. Chuck. But the Boojum King is after them, throwing all his supernatural weirdness at them by shifting reality.
Donte and Kat take on room 217 with Mr. Chuck: Social Studies! Then the story turns a little southern gothic when Levi and Ms. Padilla get pulled into an ant farm. Twila and her friend Jordan find a snow tunnel back to Margalo’s Home to get help. You guessed it, it’s not just a home for animals, it is a research center and sanctuary for cryptids like giant isopods! When they find themselves trapped under the snow, Willow comes to the rescue!
This adventure has it all: lunch-food monsters, giant spiders, minotaurs! The book is what I’d call a hybrid graphic novel, the sort of effort made familiar with The Invention of Hugo Cabret in that it is a written novel interspersed with chapters of graphic artwork. A strong sequel to No Place for Monsters, with Merritt’s signature artwork and sense of humor. It’s the perfect length for a snowbound weekend in winter!
