Book bag: Coralville library inspires book series

Fans of children's author Dori Hillestad Butler's 2011 Edgar Award winning mystery series, 'The Buddy Files,” will celebrate the recent release of the first two books in her latest mystery series for children, 'The Haunted Library” and 'The Haunted Library: The Ghost in the Attic” (Grosset & Dunlap, 2014, $12.99, ages 6-8).

French illustrator and television animator, Aurore Damant, pairs delightful illustrations with Butler's curious characters, a nine-year old ghost boy named Kaz and a human 'solid” girl named Claire, the only solid who can see him. While Butler honed her mystery writing finesse with her Buddy Files series, the new Haunted Library series delivers much mystery to love.

Book 1 begins with Kaz trying to learn the essential ghost skill of walking through walls. Even his younger brother, Little John, and his dog, Cosmo, know how, but walking through solid objects makes Kaz feel 'skizzy” and Kaz also knows all too well what happened to his older brother, Finn, and his grandparents when they slipped through the wall to the Outside, only to be blown away forever (ghosts cannot swim in the wind).

When a bulldozer bashes into Kaz and his family's haunt, Kaz is separated from Mom, Pops, Little John, and Cosmo and is blown to the library where Claire lives with her librarian grandma and her detective parents. Always told by his parents to avoid the Outside because solid people are dangerous, Kaz eventually learns otherwise and finds a very good friend exactly when he needs one.

Although a longtime Iowan for nearly twenty years, last spring Butler moved to Seattle, Washington, but will soon return to the special place for her book launch party that partly inspired her Haunted Library series, the Coralville Public Library. I caught up with Butler and asked her a few questions regarding her new series and returning to Iowa.

Q: Reading your Buddy Files series and now your new Haunted Library series makes me feel ... HAPPY, taking me to a childhood place. As a writer, how do you tap into that childlike place inside yourself to create this magic on the page?

A: Thank you. With Buddy Files it was easy. My dog, Mouse, was my inspiration. Like Buddy, Mouse is just happy, happy, HAPPY ... with a little ADD thrown in. I'd never in my life had so much fun writing anything as I had writing the Buddy Files. It was hard to NOT write the Buddy Files and instead write a completely different series. The only way I could was to find something else that was fun and happy. Kaz may not be as lighthearted of a character as Buddy, but his world is just as fun to play in. As for tapping into that childlike place inside myself, I remember how I felt as a child very well. The details fade over the years, but the feelings are still sharp.

Q: Was it difficult for you to create your own set of 'ghost rules” for Kaz and his family? My favorites are that ghosts can throw up when they feel 'skizzy” and can shrink and expand. Kaz even shrinks small enough to fit inside Claire's water bottle, which kids will love.

A: Creating the rules is the fun part. What's hard is sticking to the rules. Sometimes a rule I created in book 2, for example, turns out to be a little inconvenient in book 4. But I can't change anything I've already established in a previous book. I have to find a way to make it work.

Q: Did you have favorite books when young that had ghosts in them?

A: I loved ghost stories as a kid. It was a 'good” trip to the library if I could find a brand new ghost story I hadn't already read. I was a fan of the Georgie books as a kid. And the Gus books. I also liked Peggy Parish's Haunted House and the other two books in that series (even though they weren't really 'ghost stories”).

Q: You began writing this new series shortly after winning the national Edgar Award for Juvenile Mystery in 2011 for your first mystery series, The Buddy Files. What did that first series teach you about writing mysteries for kids?

A: It taught me the importance of character and voice, even in mysteries. Mysteries, by their very nature, tend to be more plot driven than character driven. But I know it was the character that appealed to readers of the Buddy Files. So I'm doing my best to develop just as interesting characters in the Haunted Library books, too. Character and voice can elevate one mystery over another.

Q: After living in Iowa for almost twenty years, you recently relocated to faraway Seattle. I know Iowa holds a special place in your heart and mind. What does it mean to you to be coming back to the Coralville Public Library for your Haunted Library book launch party later this month?

A: I'm so grateful to Karen Stierler, Sara Glenn, Erika Binegar and the teen volunteers at the Coralville Public Library for hosting this launch party. Karen had mentioned the possibility of doing this before I knew I was going to move and I was really excited about that. Where else would you launch a series called the Haunted Library but a library? And I logged a lot of hours in the Coralville Public Library (as a reader, a writer, a mom, and a volunteer). Much of the first two books in the series were even written there. So while I'm sure I could've found a library in the Seattle area to host a launch party, it wouldn't have been the same. This particular series has to be launched at the Coralville Public Library. It just does. I can't wait to come back!

FYI: Book reading

' What: Author Dori Hillestad Butler will read from and sign copies of her new books, 'The Haunted Library” and 'The Haunted Library: The Ghost in the Attic”

' When: 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. Sept. 22, readings at 5 and 6 p.m.

' Where: Coralville Public Library, Children's Department, 1405 Fifth St., Coralville

' Also: Activities and crafts

Wendy Henrichs is a children's author living in Iowa City.