The Curse on Spectacle Key
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5.0 • 4 Ratings
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
A sweetly spooky ghost story about a Cuban American boy who befriends a pair of spirits and tries to break the curse on his island home . . . only to discover a seemingly lost piece of his family’s history in the process. This new middle grade standalone mystery from the author of the Muse Squad series is perfect for fans of Doll Bones and The Girl and the Ghost!
Frank Fernandez’s family never stays in one place for long. His parents renovate unusual buildings and turn them into homes, which means the family moves—a lot. This makes it hard for bookish Frank to make friends. So when his parents announce they’re moving to Spectacle Key, Florida, to live in a lighthouse—this time for good!—Frank is thrilled.
But Spectacle Key isn’t the perfect forever home they'd imagined. The lighthouse is falling apart. There are knocks on the door—but no one is there—and mysterious sighs and sniffles from nowhere. There’s even a creepy doll that seems to move on its own. Could Spectacle Key be haunted?
Then one day while exploring, Frank meets a girl in old-fashioned clothes, with no memory of who she is. What she does know, though, is that the island is under a curse—and she needs Frank’s help to figure out how to lift it. But what if learning the truth about Spectacle Key means losing the first real friend he’s ever had?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Cuban American 11-year-old Frank Fernández, an ardent book-lover, has never resided anywhere for more than a year, making it difficult for him to establish friendships. Though his parents had agreed to stay in Alabama for two years, their work renovating unique buildings leads them instead to a lighthouse in the Florida Keys, which is meant to finally become their forever home. But after arriving, inexplicable things begin to happen at the Spectacle Key property—thorny vines grow on the lighthouse's exterior walls, hundreds of blue crabs infest the building, and Frank begins to hear a sighing, sniffling sound accompanied by a sweet smell. After conducting an exothermic science experiment in a nearby abandoned building, Frank meets Connie, a white girl his age who can't recall anything about herself. As his parents start fighting and incidents around the lighthouse increase in severity, Frank, Connie, and Frank's Great Dane puppy, Mary Shelley, investigate a local curse, hoping to protect Frank's home. Acevedo (the Muse Squad series) concocts a tidy small-town mystery, filled with ghosts and suspicious townsfolk, that's led by an earnest tween's compassion and hope for friendship, justice, and stability. Ages 8–12.
