Avery and her brother have always played make-believe games to pass time during summers at their grandma’s house in the country. But one summer Blake announces he’s too old for the games, and Avery isn’t sure what to do with her time until she runs into the son of a man renting a house from her grandma. Julian wants to make a movie using his phone, and Avery thinks it would be fun to help.

The trouble is, Julian wants to make a scary movie filming at the Hilliard House. Strange things have happened at that house, and Avery’s grandma has warned her to never go there. When Julian insists anyway, unexplained events keep occurring, and they get scarier every day. Avery will have to dig deep into local history to find out the truth of what happened in the abandoned house before someone gets hurt.

Ghostlight by Sonia Gensler is a story about the supernatural, but it’s also grounded in real-life issues for pre-teens. Gensler’s Avery is very relatable in the dilemmas she faces: defying her grandmother, voicing her anger at her brother, confronting a friend when she’s wronged, and facing her fears to solve a mystery. Topics for thought and discussion (which apply to more than one generation) include adapting to changing interests as you age, communicating with family members, being honest on important issues, and more.

Ghostlight has just the right amount of creepiness to entice young readers without scaring them too much. I highly recommend it for mother-daughter book clubs with girls aged 8 to 13.

The author provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.