“Gather around the table and dim the lights. Clap. Clap. Clap. Do you hear that? It’s the sound of young readers applauding Barb Rosenstock’s American Spirits, a compelling, dramatic, wonderfully strange, yet entirely true ghost story. Gullibility and fakery; obscurity and celebrity; religion, history and biography. It’s all here, and it’s utterly mesmerizing.” —Candace Fleming, Sibert Medalist, winner of the LA Times Book Prize for Young People’s Literature, author of Murder Among Friends and other award-winning nonfiction and fiction for all ages.

“The Fox sisters captivated their neighbors, friends, detractors, and all of America. This book will captivate readers—with great storytelling, rigorous research, the truth—and no trickery!” —Deborah Heiligman, winner of the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for Nonfiction for Vincent and Theo, author of Charles and Emma, Torpedoed, and other celebrated nonfiction.

“Both a personal story of the three Fox sisters and a unique look at mid-nineteenth-century history, American Spirits has it all: rise to power, fame, greed, love, lost love, and fall from grace, all recounted blow by blow in the frenzied media coverage of the day.” —Elizabeth Partridge, National Book Award Finalist, 2023 Sibert Medalist for Seen and Unseen, and author of more than a dozen award-winning books for young people.