Get our latest staff recommendations, classroom reading guides and discover assets for your stores and social media channels. Receive the Children’s Bookseller newsletter to your inbox when you sign up, plus more from Simon & Schuster.If you are an independent bookseller in the U.S. and would like to be added to our independent bookseller newsletter, please email indies@simonandschuster.com
Table of Contents
About The Book
Everyone in Whispering Pines knows their town is full of ghosts, but Helena Novak hasn’t seen a trace of her late grandmother, Babi. Helena and her best friend, Ben, spend most of their free time in the cemetery, yet no amount of gifts on Babi’s grave has lured her spirit out. But someone else has been paying attention.
Helena feels she’s being followed, and one day, all Babi’s grave gifts disappear. When Helena and Ben investigate, they find a secret door in a crypt that leads to the underworld itself. The sprawling subterranean world is a maze of eerie kingdoms, piercing castles, creepy forests, swirling seas, and crowded marketplaces full of unsavory characters. While the living can visit, if they get lost—or taken by the mysterious Nightmare—they won’t be able to leave. Despite the danger, Helena is set on finding her grandmother and seeing for herself that Babi is doing well in this strange place.
So when eccentric underworld guide Grumbones offers to help Helena and Ben find their way, they think it’s their lucky break. Sure, he looks like Santa’s skinny evil brother and some of the memento mori spilling out of his pockets look awfully familiar, but better a slightly suspicious helper than none at all…right?
Product Details
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers (July 16, 2024)
- Length: 320 pages
- ISBN13: 9781665930321
- Grades: 3 - 7
- Ages: 8 - 12
Browse Related Books
Raves and Reviews
* "[R]ichly executed, with well-drawn creatures and characters...Helena’s experiences in Hereafter reflect the grieving and desperation that humans feel for connection with their loved ones after death. Loving bonds between family members and close friends sit comfortably at the heart of this supernatural, often gruesome tale that expertly explores people’s feelings of love and loss against the backdrop of an absorbing story of the nonliving...[o]riginal and absorbing; presents suspenseful underworld chills alongside heartfelt human emotions."
– Kirkus Reviews, starred review
Resources and Downloads
High Resolution Images
- Book Cover Image (jpg): Grumbones Trade Paperback 9781665930321
- Author Photo (jpg): Jenn Bennett Photograph by Heidi Darbo(0.1 MB)
Any use of an author photo must include its respective photo credit