1 WHAT'S WITH MOM AND BECKETT

BY EDGAR AWARD WINNER DORI HILLESTAD BUTLER The HAUNTED LIBRARY

CHAPTER 1 WHAT'S WITH MOM AND BECKETT? One... two... three... GLOW!" Little John shouted. It was nighttime, and all the solid people who lived above the library were asleep. Kaz hovered in the library entryway with his mom, pops, and little brother. They were all glowing. Kaz scrunched up his face. He gritted his teeth. He squeezed his hands into tight fists. And he tried, tried, tried to glow like the rest of his family. But no matter what he did, no matter how hard he tried, Kaz couldn't glow. "I know you can do this," Mom told Kaz as the glow faded from her body.

"You've mastered all your other ghost skills," Pops said. It was true. Kaz could wail now. He could also pass through solid walls and pick up solid objects. He could even transform solid objects into ghostly objects. Back when he and his family lived in the old schoolhouse, Kaz couldn't do any of those things. He could only shrink and expand. So much had happened since then. Kaz remembered how he and his brothers used to swim around the old schoolhouse. His big brother, Finn, liked to scare Kaz and Little John by sticking an arm or a leg through the Outside wall. But one day Finn stuck his head a little too far through the wall, and the wind pulled him all the way into the Outside. Grandmom and Grandpop tried to rescue him, but they couldn't. The wind blew them all away. After that, Mom and Pops tried even harder to teach Kaz his ghost skills. But before Kaz had

learned any new skills, the old schoolhouse was torn down. Kaz and the rest of his family ended up in the Outside, and they all got separated in the wind. The wind blew Kaz to the library, where he met Beckett, the other ghost who lived there, and Claire. Claire was a solid girl, just Kaz's age. She could see ghosts when they weren't glowing, and she could hear ghosts when they weren't wailing. No one knew why. Claire and Kaz started a detective agency to solve ghostly mysteries and try to find Kaz's missing family. They'd found Kaz's parents last week. Now Finn was the only one left to find. Kaz was worried he'd never see Finn again. "It's getting light outside," Pops said now. "It won't be long before Claire wakes up. Try again, son." "This time don't squeeze your hands together," Mom suggested. "And don't grit your teeth. It's

hard to glow when you're all tensed up. Let the glow flow through your skin." "I don't know what that means," Kaz said. "You don't know what what means?" Beckett asked as he wafted into the entryway. "Oh!" he said when he saw Kaz's mom. "I'm sorry. I didn't know you were in here."

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