Ghosts populate this lively fictional chapter book (for readers ages 6 to 11). Are they real or just imaginary friends? Jennifer Hayes’s THE EXTRAORDINARY IMAGINATION OF JENNY FIGMENT leaves that decision up to the reader. It tells the story of only child Jenny Figment, who believes in the abundance of ghosts with whom she plays year-round, especially during otherwise-boring summer vacations. Jenny enjoys her ghost friends more than the real kids at school, who are “a little too ordinary” for her. Andy, for instance, is “sort of imaginative” but only has friends “from outer space.”

Jenny’s ghost friends all have jobs doing things that her parents, Clarence and Winifred, consider nuisances. The ghosts cause the garbage disposal to erupt, grow dandelions, lock the Figments out of their house, protect baby spiders, and smudge windows. One of Jenny’s favorite ghosts is Arachna, who trains baby spiders and teaches them to look scary. Jenny imagines herself shrinking down to their size and “jumping and giggling with her eight-legged friends” as they bounce on a web.

Another favorite is Grandpa Tony, who—like a class clown—enjoys slamming doors against the Figments’ bottoms. Yet Tony is also a source of good advice if Jenny needs help. When her parents become exhausted from all the extra work these ghosts are creating for them, Grandpa Tony proposes a solution that sends Jenny on her biggest adventure. It’s a visit to Ghost Town City Hall through a door at the base of an oak tree in her neighborhood park. As befits Jenny’s extraordinary imagination, she rides there on a “noble steed.”

Other, stranger creatures—like rainbow-colored pixie toads, “annoying” tickle nymphs, and sparkly, “kitten-sized” pocket dragons—dwell in both Jenny’s imagination and some of the book’s cute illustrations (by Ramona Pepegna Bianchini).

The author, Jennifer Hayes, brightens Jenny’s story with enticing words like “exasperated,” “hullabaloo,” and “sarsaparilla,” all of which are detailed in a glossary at the end of the book. But Hayes cleverly builds word meanings into her story, such as when Jenny observes that she “liked the word exasperated. It basically meant the same thing as mad or annoyed, but it sounded so much more exciting.”

THE EXTRAORDINARY IMAGINATION OF JENNY FIGMENT is the kind of chapter book in which teachers can find exciting words to enliven weekly vocabulary quizzes. It’s a good choice for classroom read-alouds, and likely will stir conversation about the existence and nature of ghosts, as well as imaginary friends. Older students may be slightly disappointed that Jenny’s adventures aren’t spooky, especially her journey through Ghost Town. But the book’s humor compensates for its lack of edginess. When Jenny meets with the Ghost Town Council, she discovers that most of the members have numbers—from one to seven—for names. She decides “it must be awfully embarrassing to have a name like Number Two.” Expect some guffaws.

THE EXTRAORDINARY IMAGINATION OF JENNY FIGMENT by Jennifer Hayes is a fun book for classroom read-alouds and will likely win over its young readers.

~Alicia Rudnicki for IndieReader