43 Old Cemetery Road: Over My Dead Road

43 Old Cemetery Road: Over My Dead Road Book Two (2009) by Kate Klise and illustrated by M. Sarah Klise. 116 pages.

ISBN 978-0-15-205734-3

Les and Diane Hope, professors of the paranormal, have moved in to the mansion haunted by Olive C. Spence. They want to document Olive's ghost and make lots of money. Except, Olive only appears to their son, Seymour. His parents then leave him when they go to Paris on a lecture tour. Seymour Hope ends up in the care of Olive and Ignatius B. Grumply, an author who has rented the mansion. They start a publishing company; they write and sell popular ghost books. All are living quite happily, making enough money to buy the house from the Hopes.

But, their happiness gets threatened when they are investiaged by the International Movement for the Safety & Our Kids & Youth (IMSPOOKY) run by Dick Tater. Mr. Tater determines Seymour is not safe and he sends Seymour to a (ghastly) orphanage and Mr. Grumply to a home for the deranged. Tater also plans to ban Halloween and warns that ghost stories are bad for children. He even ordered librarians to build bonfires to burn dangerous books.

Text is a varietal mix among the pages. Font styles vary among the characters. Characters communicate with each other through letters. The Ghastly Times newspaper reports local stories. Black and white illustrations creatively enhance the story. The names of the characters are especially funny; Ike N. Openitt, the locksmith, Fay Tality and Shirly U. Jest are few more.

Although some text may be sensitive to some people, such as "nut house" and "loony bin" for the asylum and having "mental illness" from defending a ghost, the book is amusing and witty. Good read for 9 to 11 year olds.

This book is part of a series: 1) Dying to Meet You, 2) Over My Dead Body, 3) Till Death Do Us Bark. Listen and watch to the Klise sisters talk about writing these books.

The Storm in the Barn

The Storm in the Barn (2009) by Matt Phelan. 201 pages.
ISBN: 978-0-7636-3618-0

This story takes place in 1937 Kansas during the Dust Bowl. Jack Clark is 11 years old, living on a farm with his family; they have not seen rain for at least four years and the effects are taking their toll on the people. Jack's sister Dorothy is bedridden and enjoys reading Wizard of Oz books, parelleling some of the story lines. Mabel, his other sister is a curious youngster who likes to explore. The townspeople start believing in a mysterious illness, dust dementia, and suspect Jack may have it. Jack starts to see a creepy apparition in a neighbor's barn that foretales rain. Meanwhile, the townspeople are growing tired of the rabbits eating their meager amount of food and decide to eradicate them. These frames are unpleasant and disturbing.

Illustrations are pencil drawings with spudged shading; giving the reader the feeling that they can almost feel the dust. Muted tones provide for atmospherics that enhance the feeling of that time and place in history. Interesting read for 11 to 13 year olds.

-------------------------More books related to the Dust Bowl:

Years of Dust: The Story of the Dustbowl (2009) by Albert Marrin.
"Exceptional overview brings close the terrifying, bleak realities of the Dust Bowl; Marrin puts the era into both historical and environmental context". Gillian Engberg, Booklist Online



Out of the Dust (1997) by Karen Hesse.
A story about an Oklahoma family in the Dust Bowl. Told in free verse from the point of view of fourteen year old, Billie Jo Kelby.



Dust (2003) by Arthur Slade.
"Eleven-year-old Robert is the only one who can help when a mysterious stranger arrives, performing tricks and promising to bring rain, at the same time children begin to disappear from a dust bowl farm town in Saskatchewan in the 1930s. " - Book summary from http://catalog.plsinfo.org/