A Bad Case of Ghosts - Barnes & the Brains Book 1 - Kenneth Oppel

A Bad Case of Ghosts
Barnes & the Brains Book 1
Kenneth Oppel (blog)
HarperTrophy Canada - Browse Inside
ISBN 9781554685288

These books are fun, light, easy reads, intended for children who are growing out of picture books but not yet ready to tackle full-length novels. Coming in at around 60 pages they can easily be read in a session or two. This story revolves around the beginning of the friendship of Barnes and the Brains. Giles Barnes has just moved and he finds the house, old, musty and creepy. On his second day in the new home, he notices two kids across the street staring at his house with some sort of electronic instrument. When he goes to meet them they say they are listening for ghosts and his house is haunted. Giles soon realizes this is the truth and his house if full of Ghost birds. That is when the fun really begins.

These stories seem to revolve around themes of friendship, self understanding and self worth, all wrapped up in fun and mysteries. Kenneth Oppel has created a great series with something to teach us all. The six books currently planned in this series were originally published by Scholastic between 1994 and 2004. Now they are being reissued by Harper Collins, in new editions with new cover art. Now to be honest, I prefer the original Scholastic covers, but that is just a matter of personal taste. Yet we can only hope that more books will soon come out in this grand series.

Barnes & The Brains Books
A Bad Case of Ghosts
A Strange Case of Magic
A Crazy Case of Robots
An incredible Case of Dinosaurs
A Weird Case of Super-Goo
A Creepy Case of Vampires

Books by Kenneth Oppel:

Half Brother (2010)
The Devil's Cure (2000)
Dead Water Zone (1992)
The Live-Forever Machine (1990)

Apprenticeship of Victor Frankenstein
This Dark Endeavour (2011)
Such Wicked Intent (2012)

The Silverwing Saga
Silverwing (1997)
Sunwing (1999)
Firewing (2002)
Darkwing (2007)

Airborn Series
Airborn (2004)
Skybreaker (2005)
Starclimber (2008)

Children's Fiction:

The King's Taster (2009)
Peg and the Yeti (2004)
Peg and the Whale (2000)
Emma's Emu (1995)
Galactic Snapshots (1993)
Cosmic Snapshots (1993)
Follow That Star (1992)
Cosimo Cat (1990)
Colin's Fantastic Video Adventure (1985)