The abandoned house that inspired Jennifer Wolf Kam‘s latest book might have been a real estate listing, but the author saw a story waiting to be told.
While driving along Long Island back roads with her husband, Wolf Kam passed farmland, meadows, farm stands and charming homes before coming upon a crumbling house with boarded-up windows, surrounded by weeds. The sight sparked a question: Who would buy a haunted house, and what would selling one look like?
“It also then got me thinking about haunted homes, and then of course the ghosts that haunt those homes, and how we really need to think about them too, because they all have stories,” Wolf Kam says. “Because they are people, and people have stories. Empathy is important in fiction and in life.”
That idea became Minnow Mayberry Talks to Ghosts, a middle-grade novel set in Pickling Forks, a fictional Long Island coastal town partially inspired by the North Fork’s landscape, communities and history. Published by Nosy Crow, the 256-page book is scheduled for release Jan. 12, for readers ages 9 to 12.
Wolf Kam, who grew up in Jericho and now lives in Syosset, has spent much of her life exploring Long Island. The North Fork holds particular significance for her, from trips to the Orient Point ferry and the Mattituck Strawberry Festival to family traditions of apple and pumpkin picking. When she had children of her own, she continued those outings. Her younger son learned to swim in Greenport, and her boys enjoyed the village’s carousel.
For Pickling Forks, Wolf Kam imagined a blend of Greenport, Sag Harbor and Cold Spring Harbor. The fictional town’s maritime past draws on Long Island’s whaling history, while its farm stands, pie shops and coastal atmosphere evoke the sensory details she associates with the region.
The book follows 12-year-old Minnow Mayberry, who moves in with her eccentric aunt Elaine after surviving the car crash that killed her mother. The accident leaves Minnow able to see and speak with ghosts, and she soon discovers that Pickling Forks is crowded with spirits. A supernatural storm known as the Vortex threatens to sweep them away before they can resolve their unfinished business and cross over to the afterlife.
Beneath the supernatural mystery, Wolf Kam explores grief, isolation and the unexpected ways people find connection. Minnow readily befriends ghosts but struggles to connect with the living, while the spirits themselves must confront what keeps them from moving on.
“I think to deal with such serious themes, on one hand there needs to be a balance,” Wolf Kam says. “There is a lot of kind of quirky humor, and that sort of softens some of the more serious themes, some of the darker themes, to make it, more palatable, more accessible for younger readers.”
Wolf Kam’s emphasis is less on delivering a specific lesson than on encouraging openness to friendship, self-belief and relationships that arise in surprising places.
The region’s history also extends beyond the novel’s fictional setting. An author’s note discusses the whaling industry, Indigenous history and the women’s suffrage movement, drawing on research that included the Whaling Museum and Education Center in Cold Spring Harbor.
For Wolf Kam, the novel combines her fascination with ghosts and history with a chance to showcase a side of Long Island that traffic and strip malls can overshadow. Pickling Forks may be imaginary, but its sense of place grows from the real communities and stories that have shaped the island she has called home throughout her life.
