The Twilight Prisoner, by Katherine Marsh, is the sequel to The Night Tourist. 
In this story, Jack revisits the underworld, this time bringing a girl from his school, Cora, with him. They meet Euri, who is the ghost Jack befriended in The Night Tourist , but soon discover that getting back to the living world is not going to be easy, because the ghosts have increased their security. Their one lead is to find a ghost engineer named Viele, who may know of a way back that is not on any maps of the area. Jack, Euri, and Cora discover that Viele's haunt has been classified, however, so they must figure out how to find him. This story touched on some pretty serious themes -- death, self-acceptance, suicide, and unrequited love. However, I found the story engaging and even funny at times. This sequel nicely compliments the original story, and I enjoyed it. The ending brought closure to many story threads, but I would not be surprised by a third book, as Jack's future is still full of possibilities.
The Witch of Blackbird Pond, by Elizabeth George Speare, won the Newbery Medal in 1959. The story is set in Connecticut in 1687. When her grandfather and guardian dies,
16-yer-old Kit sails from her home in Barbados to New England to live with her aunt and her family in a Puritan community. Kit was brought up in a very different environment, one where she was free to read a variety of good books, swim in the warm ocean, and enjoy the services of slaves. In her new home, she finds that she must help her new family with difficult, menial work, leaving little time for leisure. She meets a woman who lives on the outskirts of the settlement with whom she finds a kindred spirit. This woman, however, is shunned by the rest of the community and suspected of being a witch. Her association with "the witch of Blackbird Pond" soon lands Kit in deep trouble.
There is a touch of the romance novel here, with quite a bit of time spent on figuring out which young lady will marry which eligible bachelor, so it might be one girls will enjoy more than boys. There is also much period detail, such as talk of the "water trial" in which suspected witches are put in water to see if they float or sink (witches float, while the innocent sink like a stone). I enjoyed reading this book very much.
The Prince of Underwhere, by Bruce Hale (of Chet Gecko fame), is the first half novel, half graphic novel I have seen. 
Twins Zeke and Stephanie, along with their neighbor Hector and Hector's cat, venture to the world of Underwhere, a place where people wear their underwear on the outside of their clothes. Potty humor abounds, including plenty of bad puns (starting with the title). Whenever the kids are in the real world, the book is written like a traditional novel, but the parts that take place in Underwhere are in graphic novel form. I read this book in one sitting and did laugh a few times, but it was not really my cup of tea. This is not to say that I object to this kind of silly humor -- I'm a huge Captain Underpants fan. It's just that this series has not yet shown the kind of originality of Dav Pilky's series. I think I'll read the other two in the series and decided how much I like the world of Underwhere then.
