Ghost Squad

Ghost Squad describes the adventures of two middle-school girls who ally with witches and family ghosts to fend off an army of evil spirits. Most of the characters are girls or women from various ethnic groups. The story touches, if gently, on feminism, the history of witches in America, and multiethnic communities.

Protagonist Lucely Luna is the youngest family member from the Dominican Republic, a country on the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean Sea where Hispanic and African people and cultures have blended together. Lucely, her father, and their ghostly relatives enjoy fried cheese, a Dominican staple. They listen to Merengue, an Afro-Euro-Taino music popular in the Dominican Republic, and they use many Spanish words in casual conversation.

Lucely can see her family’s ghosts, but others only see them as fireflies. A tradition in the Dominican Republic states that the dead who have not yet crossed over to the next world appear as fireflies, insects that emit a glowing light. (Alcequiez, Elvis. “Fireflies In The Dominican Republic And Their Mysterious Meaning.” Kiskeya Live, 2023.)

Syd Faires, Lucely’s co-protagonist, and Syd’s grandmother, Babette, are African American. The text implies that Lucely, too, can