Captain America: The Ghost Army

Gr 5 Up–It’s World War II, and readers join Captain America and sidekick Bucky Barnes on the Eastern Front, surrounded by Nazi forces, struggling to help the British hold their position. With reinforcements nowhere nearby, the duo is flailing—until they hear the American cavalry rolling in. With the Nazis retreating, Cap and his compatriots are shocked to find the amassing American troops are just a few soldiers and jeeps with speakers, a “ghost army” of artists who dupe the enemies with smoke and noise. Their position thankfully maintained, Cap, Bucky, and the troops make camp, but little do they know they’re in for a ghastly surprise. As they settle around the fire, they suddenly find themselves in a real ghost story—the spirits of the German soldiers from their recent battle have risen from the dead and are on the attack. The secret behind who’s controlling these specters (and how to stop the dead from killing the living) lies at Wundagore Castle, where Baron Mordo’s dark magic has created a ghost machine capable of awakening spirits…and summoning something even more dangerous. Can Cap and Bucky stop him before he turns the tides of the war, or worse, destroys the world? Gratz, a well-known author of historical fiction, works facts in with the flashy fiction: America’s “Ghost Army” was a real top-secret deception unit tasked with pulling the wool over the eyes of the Axis. Readers more familiar with the Marvel movie version of Bucky might take a while to acclimate to this young Buck, but the thrill of the story will have them frantically flipping pages till the exciting cliffhanger ending.