Skull of the Skeleton is book five in Tommy Donbavand's Scream Street series. (Sadly, books 1-3 & 5 are the only ones my county's libraries have.) It's Halloween and Luke Watson is trying to introduce his friends, Resus Negative and Cleo Farr, to real world Halloween traditions.
Cleo is a mummy, but Luke has convinced her to go as a witch. He's trying to convince Resus (the normal member of a family that has been vampires for generations), to go as Harry Potter. Okay, Mr. Donbavand doesn't come right out and name the wizard, but from questions in chapters one and seven, we know it's Harry. Luke is going as a skeleton.

Shortly after they start out, they meet series regular Doug the zombie. Doug has lost something that's left him quite perturbed. Luke is skeptical, Cleo is sympathetic, and Resus makes puns.

That Luke hasn't thought things through is obvious because the first house they go to belongs to Mr. and Mrs. Crudley, bog monsters. Even if they had wrapped candy on hand, would you trust it? There Luke finds out what Halloween means on Scream Street -- not to mention Valentine's Day. Luckily he doesn't have much time to feel crushed when loud screaming erupts from central square.

The screaming is over who is moving into house 26: the Headless Horseman. Women of various supernatural types are THRILLED. (By the way, there is a feminine form for 'ogre'. It's 'ogress'.) One of his fans faints as Eddie the Headless Horseman leaves his house on his huge black stallion. There's a full-page illustration, but one of Eddie's boots is conveniently placed to hide the stallion's unmentionables.

Luke, Cleo, and Resus discuss the Headless Horseman without once bringing up Washington Irving's classic story. Eddie's agent, a small gargoyle named Rocky, explains to our trio. Eddie himself is hawking his new product: a perfume named 'Decapitation Pour L'Homme' (Decapitation For Man). I loved the play on real life celebrity obsessions, especially the secret ingredient in the perfume.

One of the fans present is a small, shy female skeleton named Femur Ribs. She lives at number 27. She's so shy that this is the first time she's come out of one of her closets in years. Eddie was the reason. When his head is stolen, she's devastated.

The fifth relic Luke needs in order to get his parents back to the real world is the skull of the skeleton. Naturally, he figures that his archenemy, Sir Otto Sneer, landlord of Scream Street, has once again attempted to get a relic for himself. Luke, Cleo, and Resus sneak off to Sneer Hall. Sir Otto is up to something all right, but it's worse than they expected.

As usual, Sir Otto is verbally abusive to his dim-witted nephew, Dixon. That changes when Dixon's mother shows up. Queenie Sneer has taken back her maiden name because Dixon's shapeshifter father has done something for which I can't blame him, but Queenie does. She's Sir Otto's big sister and scarier than he is.

Queenie and Sir Otto's latest scheme are the two menaces of the book. Decide for yourself which is worse.

Notes:

Chapter 2: The Headless Horseman, Rocky, and Femur Ribs are introduced.

Chapter 3:

a. The Everwell Emporium sells a china plate commemorating a wedding of a couple whose names are puns on a famous fairy tale.

b. This is where we learn Femur's name and address.

Chapter 4:

a. Femur and Samuel Skipstone chat.

b. Sir Otto uses a line from a famous horror film.

Chapter 5:

a. We're introduced to Ottostein.

b. We learn about a company called Oddbods.

Chapter 6:

a. A Hex Hatch opens and we meet Queenie Sneer. She tells Dixon what his father has done.

b. Number 13, the Watsons' house, suffers a spot of damage.

Chapter 7:

a. While carrying out Luke's plan, we overhear Queenie's.

b. Resus makes a Harry potter joke.

Chapter 8: Queenie is making life difficult.

Chapter 9: We find out Eddie's previous job.

It's a great climactic battle. Queenie Sneer is a lot of fun to read about. There's a hint of romance and one about Luke that I've been expecting.
Wish I could afford to buy book six, let alone the whole series. ( )