Over My Dead Body (43 Old Cemetery Road)
Grade 4–6—Having been abandoned by his parents inDying to Meet You(Harcourt, 2009), 11-year-old Seymour Hope is happily living and writing at 43 Old Cemetery Road in collaboration with his friends, author Ignatius B. Grumply and 190-year-old ghost-writer-in-residence Olive C. Spence. The trio's serialized "true" supernatural stories are widely popular. Ambitious busybody Dick Tater, head of the International Movement for the Safety & Protection of Our Kids & Youth (IMSPOOKY), sees their somewhat irregular arrangement as an opportunity to push his anti-ghost, anti-Halloween agenda. Tater has Grumply committed to the Illinois Home for the Deranged, locks Seymour in a Dickensian orphanage, and announces that Halloween is cancelled. Only Olive's hidden manuscripts can save the day—if she can remember where she hid them. The story is told through letters, newspaper clippings, and interview transcripts. Text styles help differentiate the characters—invisible Olive types in an ornate outline font while Seymour's notes are hand written, often including black-and-white sketch illustrations. The names are amusing, although they don't always match the characters. (The local locksmith is Ike N. Openitt while the feisty librarian, who staunchly resists Tater's book burners, is called M. Balm). References to Grumply's incarceration in the "nuthouse" and "loony bin" and Seymour's "possible mental illness" are unfortunate in a book with an otherwise strong underlying theme of individuality and freedom of choice. All in all, the short, graphic-heavy text and broad humor will appeal to middle grade readers.—Elaine E. Knight, Lincoln Elementary Schools, ILEND--This text refers to theHardcoveredition.