Christine Virnig

Judy

Author Website

Stand Alone Titles

A Bite Above the Rest (2024)

Official Description

When Caleb’s mom decides they are moving to her childhood home in Wisconsin, Caleb is not thrilled. Moving schools, states, and time zones would be bad enough, but Mom’s hometown is Samhain, a small and ridiculously kitschy place where every day is Halloween.

Caleb is not a fan of Halloween when it only happens once a year, so Halloween-obsessed Samhain is really not the place for him. How is he supposed to cope with kids wearing costumes to school every single day? And how about the fact that the mayor is so committed to the bit that City Hall is only open from sundown to sunup to accommodate his so-called vampirism? Sure enough, Caleb becomes an outcast at school for refusing to play along with the spooky tradition like the other sixth graders. Luckily, he manages to find a friend in fellow misfit Tai, and just in time, because things are getting weird in Samhain…or make that weirder.

But there’s no way the mayor is an actual vampire, and their teacher absolutely cannot really be a werewolf—right? Caleb discovers Samhain is so much stranger than he ever could have imagined. As one of the only people who realizes what’s happening, can he save a town that doesn’t want saving?

Phantom Academy (2025)

Official Description

After an unlucky collision between a coconut and the top of his head, twelve-year-old Finn not only joins the ranks of the recently deceased, but also becomes the newest student at Phantom Academy, a boarding school for ghosts.

Once Finn gets over the unfairness of still having homework (you’d think being dead would give you a pass, right?), he discovers that life—er, death?—as a ghost isn’t that bad. He’d probably even enjoy it, if not for one thing: students cannot leave Phantom Academy until they graduate. He can’t check on his family. He can’t see his cat. In fact, he can’t leave the Spirit Realm at all.

As his homesickness builds, Finn convinces his new friends they should escape. But finding the way out is harder than he anticipated, especially when their biggest clue mysteriously goes missing. Finn’s not giving up, though, not with his human memories growing fuzzier and fuzzier with time. They just need to find a way through the veil…

Leave a comment