This will eventually be a two part review. My 11 year old son is also reading this and I will share his thoughts once he finishes.

Crossed Up is about tween and teen boys who are participating in a basketball tournament in Galveston, TX. They are staying at a historic, haunted hotel where they encounter the ghost of a girl and a pirate ghost. The boys come into contact with the ghost girl and decide that they want to figure out why she is stuck at the hotel. The beginning of the book starts with the background of the pirate and the girl. It is a very strong beginning and immediately sucked me in. The actions of the boys were less interesting, but that is probably because I don't relate to teenage boys!

I give Crossed Up 3 stars, but that is less about the writing and more about the simplicity of the story. When reading books with my son, I have found that he tends to enjoy middle readers more than I do. I tend to be bothered by the unrealistic actions of parents, where my son loves to see the freedom that kids can be given in books. I'm going to predict that this will be the case in this book too.