It is universally acknowledged that each generation of young people believes it has it worse than previous generations. Two wonderful new novels underscore this, allowing anxious readers to travel vicariously to simpler times. It’s not entirely clear what era 10-year-old Emma Phineas Wilkey, the protagonist of Kate DiCamillo’s latest balm-for-the-soul of a novel, lives in. And FERRIS (Candlewick, 240 pp., $18.99, ages 8 to 12) is full of love, if not tremendously busy with plot. When Charisse discovers that the resident ghost needs the home’s chandelier lit to win back her spectral husband, she enlists Ferris to help.

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Persons: TikTok, It’s, Emma Phineas Wilkey, Kate DiCamillo’s, Dixie, Charisse, Emma Phineas, Ferris, ’ Charisse, ’, Newbery, Despereaux, Ulysses ” —, FERRIS