A Youth Series to Die For

There seem to be a pretty high number of youth series that deal with the supernatural in different ways. I've just found a new series that is fun and different -- 42 Old Cemetery Road written by Kate Clise and illustrated by her sister, M. Sarah Klise. I read the first two books in the series yesterday.

The first book is 43 Old Cemetery Road: Dying to Meet You. Ignatius B. Grumply is a children's ghost story author who has had writer's block for twenty years. He decides to rent a house for the summer to finally write that next book in his series and chooses Spence Mansion in Ghastly, Illinois. The only problem is that he isn't told that the house is already inhabited by Seymour Hope, a young boy who has been abandoned by his parents, and Olive Spence, the builder of the home who has been dead for ninety-seven years. At first Seymour and Olive try to get rid of Grumply but eventually they see other options for co-existence in the house.

This book is told entirely through notes, letters and newspaper pages. It's an interesting way to tell the story and gives a definite "back and forth" feel to the book. I think that grade school kids would find this amusing and, as there is nothing actually scary in the book, it's appropriate for all kids. There has never been a sweeter ghost than Olive Spence -- she even cooks dinner!

The second in the series is 43 Old Cemetery Road: Over My Dead Body. This book continues the story with a busybody bureaucrat who thinks that Spence Mansion is not a proper home for young Seymour. Grumply gets hauled off to the mental institution for insisting that Olive exists and Seymour is taken to the orphanage. It's up to Olive to get them free and to make them all a real, legal family.

This book was written in the same way which wasn't bad for a second book but I'm not sure if I could read many more books in this format. It might get a bit boring. For now, though, I think these two books are cute! The sisters have worked together on other series and their work perfectly complements each other.

Already formulating my haunting plans,
K


Support our site and buy Dying to Meet You (Book One) and Over My Dead Body (Book Two) on Amazon or find them at your local library. We borrowed our copies from the library.