Be very careful: contains ghosts!

The book is called The Compleat Necromancer, and when Ming, Orion, and Courtney read an incantation from its pages, they have no way of knowing they are about to conjure up the ghosts of an entire nation. Because the ghosts that the three friends summon aren't just any ghosts. They were captured from an island in the middle of the Indian Ocean-the Ilhas dos Fantasmas-a place where the living and the dead once coexisted peacefully. Now confined to the pages of a few dozen library books in a New England town that's thousands of miles from their home, the ghosts must rely on the children and a determined librarian to free them before they are lost forever.
About the Author

STEPHEN ALTER is the son of American missionaries to the Himalayas, and was raised in India. The author of seven books for adults, he is the former Writer-in-Residence at MIT, and a recipient of a Fulbright grant. He currently lives in India with his wife, where he is researching his newest book for adults-a behind the scenes look at the world of Bollywood.

From The Phantom Isles:
Between the pages of the book Alma saw the profile of a boy's face. The words were still there, printed on the paper, but hovering just above them, like a filmy, translucent layer, was an unmistakable image, as if traced in the air. The boy's features were completely lifelike and she could see the freckles on his nose and the tattoo on his cheek. Unlike a photograph, the image moved and the face turned to look at her. His eyes were a distant gray color, like smoke, and Alma realized that he could see her too. The boy looked almost as startled as the librarian. For a moment it seemed as if he would also cry out, though he remained silent. Slowly, in the quivering light of the florescent bulbs, the image began to shift like a reflection on a fluid surface. The boy's face seemed to lean forward, as if peering through a window. Finally, the rising panic in her mind sent a delayed signal to her h