Stephen Oh-O’Driscoll (Double O Stephen)’s enthusiasm is infectious, and his love of pirates, and piventurats (i.e., pirate adventurer) verges on obsession. After getting suspended for the accidental injuring of his best friend at school, he’s also forbidden from wearing his pirate bandanna and eye patch there.

His stern professor mother decides spending some time at the local historical museum during his forced absence from school will be good for him. The problem is, after touching the sea chest of a famous, local long dead captain, or possible pirate, sets off a remarkable chain of events that require Stephen to help said captain’s ghost get to the great sea of the afterlife, confront his mother about some pretty important family secrets, and learn to use his new ability to interact with ghosts. He also gets to meet the ghost of his maternal grandmother.

Stephen lives his life with great energy, and he’s a caring and responsible kid. The way he takes on his new duties is admirable, and it looks like there is more headed his way, based on how the book ended. I liked him, and the story is fast-moving fun.

I was, however, not that impressed by how his mother was handled. She’s closed off, secretive, and not the warmest, and I could appreciate how frustrated Stephen felt with her several times. However flawed she is, I was less than enthused that Stephen’s absentee dad was, despite frequently letting Stephen down and giving him “bribe gifts” to patch things up, greeted with enthusiasm and warmth by Stephen, who frequently spoke derogatorily to his mother. She also, despite having the same gift as Stephen, and doing the lion’s share of the parenting, still felt like more of a cardboard cutout than a fully-fledged character. So, I’m dropping my rating a bit for a total of 3 stars.

Thank you to Netgalley and to Penguin Random House Canada for this ARC in exchange for my review.

Double O Stepehn and the Ghostly Realm follows Stephen, who on his mother's side is gifted the ability to see ghosts - which she previously had not mentioned to him in hopes that he had not received the gift. This was a cute and fun book that teaches about keeping your promises and being brave even with it may be difficult.

Having splashed into Canadian middle grade with a pair of realistic novels, Angela Ahn’s third title dives into speculative fiction. Pirates and ghosts? Sign me up. Double O Stephen and the Ghostly Realm follows lively Stephen Oh-O’Driscoll as he discovers he can communicate with ghosts – one of whom may have been a pirate and needs Stephen’s help crossing over.

Ghosts feature more prominently than pirates, with few archetypal pirates/ pirate-like deeds taking place. Pirating – or more accurately, piventurating – plays more of a philosophical role as an approach to life that Stephen and his best friend Brandon have adopted. When I first read the blurb, I anticipated Stephen entering the ghostly realm and setting sail with a crew of ghost pirates. That does not happen (but some sailing does take place!)

"PIVENTURATE. That’s a word I made up myself. […] Piventurates are sailors who passionately seek adventure. People who boldly travel into the unknown to explore and learn." (2%)

The story stagnates a bit early on as Stephen stumbles into the ghostly realm. Not much happens apart from exposition via dialogue. It picks back up after Stephen returns to the living and finds his mom knew where he was the entire time. Stephen’s mom was an unexpected stand out character of this book for me. Stephen, of course, is a delight to read about, with his vibrant energy and enthusiasm and thoughtfulness for his friends. But I’ve always appreciated fully-realized adult characters in my middle grade novels (even when I was 10 years old).

She’s not one of those incredibly warm and supportive middle grade mothers. She has to work through her rejection of her abilities as a mudang and how she’s going to help Stephen navigate his own abilities. She’s extremely down to earth, pragmatic and realistically flawed. For example, she doesn’t hide her disdain for Stephen’s dad (her ex-husband) but she’s not so toxic towards him that it hurts Stephen’s relationship with his parents. Stephen himself is well aware his dad isn’t an exemplar father. Stephen happily accepts “bribe gifts” when Dad cancels their weekend together. I haven’t seen this dynamic portrayed much in middle grade. Often, a protagonist with divorced parents is suffering from that separation. In this story, the divorce happened three years ago. Stephen is mostly comfortable with his relationship with his parents now, even if it’s not perfect.

“The power of remembering who you really are,” Mom said softly as she watched everything unfold with very little expression on her face. “I should have known.” (80%)

The Bottom Line: Double O Stephen and the Ghostly Realm may have fallen short of my hopes for speculative fiction that invokes pirates and ghosts, but the characters of Stephen, his mom, and his halmeoni all make this a great read for fans of ghostly interactions or multigenerational stories.

Definitely a fun pirate story and I like the main character of the book and the plot so definitely a good one check out.

This book was an absolute pleasure to read. Anything by Angela Ahn is actually. I highly recommend this book.

Thank you to #NetGalley and #tundrabooks for an eARC of DOUBLE O STEPHEN AND THE GHOSTLY REALM by Angela Ahn (Release Date: August 30/22).

I loved this author’s first two realistic fiction stories with Korean-Canadian main characters and intergenerational storylines, so I wasn’t sure what to expect when I heard this new book centred around a pirate ghost. I’m happy to say I really enjoyed reading about Stephen, who dreams of being a “piventurate” (a term he coined that means a sailor looking for adventure rather than a traditional pirate with a bad reputation). He accidentally finds himself on a mission to help the ghost of a pirate captain move from his existence trapped in The Midway to The Great Sea, where he would reunite with his former crew. This book has mystery, secrets, and a supernatural cast of supporting characters that support Stephen in an entertaining story that will appeal to a wide range of middle-grade readers.

Start with a boy who loves pirates, and a mother who wants him to be more “normal” with his playtime, and mix in a pirate ship in the nearby port, and ghosts, and you have the background for this wonderful, playful story that appears to be the first in the series.

Stephen is half Korean on his mother’s side, and she neglects to tell him that here side of the family has the power to not only see ghosts, but to help them as well. As she puts it, she sort of hoped because of his father’s genes, he wouldn’t get the gift. His mother does not like to talk to ghosts. She would prefer they left her alone.

Cute, fun sense of play with this book. And the best friend gets to be as involved as he can be, instead of shoving him to the side. Even Stephen’s mother gets in on the action, though she would rather not.

All good fun. Plus the importance of courage and keeping promises.

I look forward to the next book in this series.

<em>Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.</em>