Excerpt from A STRANGE CASE OF MAGIC
by Kenneth Oppel
Illustrated by Sam Sisco
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"Miss Hibbins," Tina began solemnly, "are you aware of any ghostly disturbances in this library?"
Miss Hibbins's eyes widened, and her mouth wobbled around a bit, searching for words.
"Well . . . I . . . no! I mean, there was Roger, years ago, but he wasn't a ghost, though people thought he was fairly odd. I mean, he was awfully pale, but - "
"Miss Hibbins," interrupted Giles gently, "you might have a ghost in your library."
The librarian looked nervously around the room, making sure no one was listening.
"Here?" she said in a whisper.
"Someone, or something, just took out all the books on magic," Giles told her.
"And they weren't even signed out," said Miss Hibbins, sounding genuinely annoyed.
"Completely against the rules."
"Ghosts get away with an awful lot," said Kevin, nodding wisely.
"You really think there's a ghost in the library?" Miss Hibbins asked again.
"Nothing has been proven," Tina said firmly. "But we'd like to carry out some tests. We'll need the ghostometer."
"The ghostometer?" said Miss Hibbins.
"A personal invention of mine," Tina told her briskly. "It measures ghost activity. It's been highly successful in the past."
"I see," said Miss Hibbins. "Well, I think that's a good idea. I mean, nobody wants some inconsiderate ghoul roaming around the stacks."
"He'd scare the heck out of everyone," Giles agreed.
"Oh, I'm not worried about that!" Miss Hibbins exclaimed. "I'm worried about the books! I don't want some greedy ghost gobbling up all my books!"
From A Strange Case of Magic, copyright © 1994, 2000 by Kenneth Oppel.
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