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Warga, Jasmine

A Strange Thing Happened in Cherry Hall

224 pp. | HarperCollins/Harper | September, 2024 | Trade ISBN 9780062956705 $19.99 | Ebook ISBN 9780062956729 $9.99
(2) 4-6 Sixth grade is not going well for Rami Ahmed: his friends no longer want anything to do with him, leaving him feeling lonely and invisible. His single mother, a Lebanese immigrant to the U.S., works as the cleaning-crew supervisor at the local art museum, which is where he must hang out over spring break. When a painting is stolen from one of the rooms in the museum, Cherry Hall, Rami's mother falls under suspicion, and he starts seeing an apparition of a girl almost no one else can see, which underscores his feeling of being invisible. But the ghost girl has a link to the stolen painting, and Rami believes that if he can find the painting, it will right his life's wrongs: his friends will like him again; his father, who left when he was two, will return; and his mom will be happy. With the help of the ghost girl and an artistic turtle, Rami and a new friend team up to solve the mystery of the stolen painting. Warga's lighthearted mystery dances around some serious issues -- loss, abandonment, and a yearning to belong -- but it's tempered by witty banter, a touch of whimsy, and just enough suspense to make it a page-turner.
Reviewer: Julie Hakim Azzam | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2025

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