Brakus, Krakus... or the Incredible Adventure of Mr. Skola's Tourist Club.: By Mirko Gabler

Gabler imbues this offbeat, benign ghost story with the same wacky sense of humor and fascination with the magical found in his The Alphabet Soup . On a school outing with Mr. Skola's Tourist Club, two of the youngsters fail to leave a haunted castle before the ordained hour, and thus encounter the ghost of Count Zuba the Great. A flustered Mr. Skola, returning to rescue his charges, finds them attending a 300th-birthday celebration for the phantasmal but exceedingly polite Count, who serves up chocolate cake and assorted feats of magic. When the Count botches an incantation and turns his guests into animals, Mr. Skola discovers an antidotal spell (``Brakus, krakus, pidlibus. Rah, rah, rah!'') which even fixes the Count's large, silly-looking ears. Gabler's fluid illustrations, complete with overlapping watercolors, have an agreeably slapdash appearance; the cramped, boldface text on each page, however, seems slightly mismatched to the dynamic drawings. While the mystical elements here may not suit every taste, rest assured that this yarn is far more funny than frightening. Ages 4-8. (Apr.)