The Phantom Tower

This novel, aimed at students in Grades 4 to 6, combines magic with a present day realistic story.  After their Dad’s death, twins Mal and Colm move with their mother from Dallas to Chicago to make a fresh start.  They find themselves living in an ancient, downtown apartment building with a mysterious thirteenth floor that only appears on the elevator key pad between the hours of one and two in the afternoon.  In the strange building, they meet eccentric neighbours and make a new friend, Tamika.  The three twelve year olds find a way to move back and forth through the portal to the phantom floor. They communicate with the ghost characters of long dead tenants of the building; sometimes they are trapped in the portal and have to make elaborate schemes to keep the secret from their parents.  The main characters are multi-ethnic, and believable middle-graders.  Their adventures to stay in the present, discover and reverse the curse that is on the building add enough suspense and mystery to the plot to keep division two students engaged.