The Midnight Gate by Helen Stringer - ADVISABLE

Stringer, Helen The Midnight Gate, 376 p. Feiwel and Friends (Macmillan), 2011.  Content: G.  Two months ago Belladonna saved her parents (okay, so they are still ghosts) and faced down the world’s enemies, unfortunately, school is back to its same own pettiness and Steve, her paladin, is back to ignoring her.  When a jealous classmate turns Belladonna into the authorities (in turns out ghosts don’t count as guardians), she is sent to live with foster parents – an older couple who seem to have ulterior motives.  A class visit to an ancient monastery put Belladona and Steve in contact with the last Paladin – who has waited more than 600 years to give the new pair a parchment with a hidden map and hidden riddles.  The pair must recruit one of their school ghosts, Elsie, and follow the clues to find nine stones which are the key to closing the Gate, the gate which will hold back the Empress, who wants to bring the Dark Spaces to the world.  Neither Belladonna nor Steve is what their enemies – or their allies - expect.  I love their willingness to go out and pursue their fates, not hiding (unlike other “heroes” I could mention).  Stringer has created a second book which is just as interesting as her first.  It deserves a much larger audience than it will probably get – don’t be afraid to point your younger Harry Potter readers at this series too.  EL – ADVISABLE. Cindy, Library Teacher