Whitney Gardner – Mom Read It

Free Piano (Not Haunted), by Whitney Gardner, (July 2025, Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers), $23.99, ISBN: 9781665938136

Ages 10+

Margot is a kid living in a town called Cascade Cove. Her father’s too busy chasing Internet success to pay much attention to her, and her mother works long hours to keep the household running. Margot finds a synthesizer put out for the trash bearing a sign: FREE PIANO (NOT HAUNTED). Who can resist? Not Margot, who hopes she can connect with her dad over music. Except, guess what? The piano is haunted by the spirit of a woman named Vision, a pop star from 1979 who bonds with Margot over their mutual passion for music; Vision also has lessons to share with Margot about success and wanting things for the wrong reasons. The two come together in the most hilarious of situations as Vision attempts to figure out modern-day technology and colloquialisms; when Margot tells Vision she wants “followers”, for instance, Vision fears that Margot is starting a cult. Margot’s friends Sebastian and Seven, the “Sons of Smash”, throw things off a tower for followers and add more humor to the story. A solid story about complicated parental relationships and a cautionary tale about wanting things for the wrong reasons. Free Piano (Not Haunted) was an Indie Next pick and is a good pick for graphic novel collections.

Long Distance, by Whitney Gardner, (June 2021, Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers), $14.99, ISBN: 9781534455658

Ages 10-14

Vega is a girl who’s not thrilled with summer vacation this year. Her parents have moved her from Portland, Oregon, to a new life in Seattle, and she’s miserable. She’s left behind her best friend, Halley, and to add insult to injury, her dads are sending her off to Camp Very Best Friend, hoping she’ll make some new friends. When the Camp VBF bus pulls up, Vega’s got a strange feeling about this camp… and it only gets weirder once she and the other campers arrive! Cell phones don’t work, and the counselors are just… different. Together with fellow campers Qwerty (like the keyboard), and twins Gemma and Isaac, Vega decides to get to the bottom of this odd camp in a hilarious story about making friends! Early in the story, Vega Googles how to make friends; each piece of advice she receives heads a different chapter, giving readers a humorous idea of what to expect. The characters are likable, and dialogue and story move at a good pace, and readers are going to love this summer camp story. Artwork is colorful with cartoon-realistic characters, similar to Raina Telgemeier and Shannon Hale’s characters. A good book to hand to introverts – Camp VBF is filled with kids who don’t find it that easy to make friends, until they’re put into the unusual situation that sets the stage for this story. Vega is interested in astronomy, Qwerty relates to computers “better than people”, and Gemma and Isaac are all about rocks and minerals, so there’s a nice little STEM/STEAM thread quietly running through the story. A fun summer story that satisfies wanderlust.

Visit Whitney Gardner’s webpage for coloring pages and more info about her books, including one of my favorites from last year, the 2020 Cybils-nominated Becoming RBG.

Tag: Whitney Gardner

Long Distance: A summer camp like you’ve never experienced!