Taxi Ghost
by Sophie Escabasse; illus. by the author; color by Kiwi Byrd
Intermediate, Middle School    RH Graphic/Random    224 pp.
9/24    9780593565988    $21.99
Library ed.  9780593565995    $24.99
Paper ed.  9780593565971    $13.99
e-book ed.  9780593566008    $8.99

Adèle learns she is a medium—an inherited gift that emerges along with her first period—in this spirited graphic novel set in Montreal over the protagonist’s winter break. Her grandmother can also see and speak to ghosts but feels the “family gift” is a burden and discourages Adèle from engaging with the supernatural. The girl, curious and open, is not deterred and soon befriends ghosts. It turns out that both humans and former humans are concerned with gentrification—there are activist groups (people- and ghost-led) working to protect the neighborhood from a shady developer. When her grandmother’s group gets blamed for property damage perpetrated by a group of radical ghosts, Adèle and a ghost-hacker friend try to make things right. Well-paced panels keep the energetic narrative moving at a speedy clip, and elements of world-building are embedded into dialogue without overexplanation. The frigid city setting is attractively delineated through clean black lines and lots of snow, condensation, and winter gear. Lighter pastel hues clearly separate the spirit from the human world. Disagreements about activist strategy and movement-building ring true, as do the characters’ intergenerational and cross-realm insights. A smart fantasy firmly grounded in real-world issues.

From the ">September/October 2024 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.