All the Lovely Bad Ones by Mary Downing Hahn

While Greg’s positive about the move, he’s not completely uncaring about Rowley’s action. Left with only enough inheritance to patch and repair the exterior of the house-and with the school’s dismal standardized test scores as a final straw-Greg’s mom steers the family toward moving, opening up house-hunting and house-selling storylines (and devastating loyal Rowley, who doesn’t want to lose his best friend). Once the professionals are brought in, the problems keep getting worse: angry neighbors, terrifying problems in walls, and-most serious-civil permitting issues that put the kibosh on what work’s been done.

Before bringing in the construction crew, the Heffleys attempt to do minor maintenance and repairs themselves-during which Greg fails at the work in various slapstick scenes. Greg’s mom calls a family meeting to determine what to do with their share, proposing home improvements and then overruling the family’s cartoonish wish lists and instead pushing for an addition to the kitchen. When Great Aunt Reba dies, she leaves some money to the family. The Heffley family’s house undergoes a disastrous attempt at home improvement. Travis and Corey are tan-skinned most characters are light-skinned.Ītmospheric illustrations give this retelling extra chills.

Sepia tones are effectively used to portray past events. Characters’ faces are emotive, and the ghosts are spooky and sinister. Light and shadow are used to great effect to depict the sun-dappled forest and a chilling grove of trees. This examination of how children can do bad things without being bad at heart and how adults can wield their power over the young will resonate with readers. But when a staff member experiences a presence that has nothing to do with the siblings’ fun, they must confront the inn’s troubled history and try to lay its ghosts to rest. The “hauntings” bring plenty of attention from the living. While they play at haunting the inn’s guests, Travis can’t help feeling ill at ease as he catches glimpses of something in his peripheral vision while wandering the inn grounds. After learning about the inn’s haunted reputation, the siblings decide they’ve found the perfect outlet for their mischief: pretending to be the ghosts that have gone quiet since their grandmother took over.

Having been banned from camp for all the pranks they pulled last year, they’ll spend this summer at their grandmother’s Vermont inn. Travis, nearly 13, and his sister, Corey, who’s a year younger, enjoy a good prank or 10. Innocent mischief goes awry for siblings in this graphic novel adaptation of Hahn’s 2008 novel.

All the Lovely Bad Ones by Mary Downing Hahn