Those looking for a spooky yet sincere story this Halloween can look forward to reading "Ghosting Aloha," a new book written by the students of Sacred Hearts Academy.
The work of collaborative fiction focuses on fear, friendship and ghosts, and it was written by 11 Sacred Hearts Academy students through an extracurricular writer's workshop.
SHA educator Paul Sneed described how the class got started and what it was like kicking things off.
"I mentioned to the principal at the time, Mrs. Cleo Eubanks, 'Hey, what do you say we try to get the kids to write a novel this summer?'" he told HPR. "Miraculously, we were able to pull it off."
To learn more about the stories that the students put into the actual novel, HPR spoke with three of the writers behind the book: Meredith Mullen, Isabel Chang and Lilia Gushiken.
"Before taking the class, I've never really considered myself as a writer," Chang began. Thanks to her experience in the class, however, "I now feel confident to say, yeah, I'm a writer."
For the students, writing "Ghosting Aloha" was an opportunity to work together and step outside of their comfort zones to create what is now a published work of literature.
"I'm so proud of the students," Sneed said about their accomplishment.
"I love the fact that they can open up a book and that their name is listed as one of the writers, and that's something that they can carry."
Learn more about "Ghosting Aloha" at this link.
This story aired on The Conversation on Oct. 27, 2026. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. Jinwook Lee adapted this story for the web.
