The Mystery of the Haunted Dance Hall

Cotter (The Dollhouse) delivers an unusually poignant adventure in this 1960s-set retelling of the Grimm brothers’ The Twelve Dancing Princesses. Phoebe “Bee” Griffin, 12, is struggling to make friends at Camp Blue Heron, a birding summer program where she feels like everyone considers her “a pudgy girl who is a bit weird.” This feeling is exacerbated by her super-human ability to hear across great distances. After stumbling over Jewish camper Zippy, also 12 and with a complementary gift of keen vision, Bee learns that the older campers sneak off at night, returning exhausted with dead flashlight batteries. Bonding over their shared heightened senses and outsider status among their cabinmates, Bee and Zippy embark on a deceptively straight-forward mystery investigation à la Nancy Drew. Things get complicated when bully Felicity inserts herself into the duo’s adventure, injecting snarky, destabilizing tension to the budding friendship. Ghostly music initially audible only to Bee leads the tween sleuths to the site of an event that has haunted the camp for decades—and an adolescent longing for romantic connection. Steady pacing and elegant prose combine to craft a warmly bewitching tale about young love and heartache. Main characters cue as white. Ages 9–12. Agent: Hilary McMahon, Westwood Creative Artists. (May)