What an awesome book! The story is primarily told through letters between Ignatius Grumply, Seymour, Olive, Ignatius’ lawyer, real estate agent, book agent and a private investigator. The letters, down to the sign offs and signatures, do an incredible job conveying the personalities of each character. There are quite a few drawings mostly done by Seymour and some very clever and hilarious excerpts from the local newspaper.The plot is not overly complex nor is the book very long, but I don’t think it suffers for it. There is plenty of character development and things come out well in the end. In terms of ghost stories this is low on the spooky factor and high on the silly scale, but in the best possible way. All of these factors make it about right for third and fourth grade, really even into fifth. I know I sound like a broken record saying this, but it would be great for low readers, especially with the picture support and engaging format. There are quite a few more books in the series 43 Cemetery Road which makes it all the more appealing for this age range. When I.B. Grumply—a children’s author with a severe case of writer’s block—rents an old house for the summer, in the hopes of finding inspiration, he doesn’t expect to find a child, a cat, and a ghost already living there! Told in letters and newspaper pages, this is a story about pursuing goals, learning to believe, and living out the story of one’s own life.This would be a good book for reluctant readers, as it is a story of manageable length, and helps to maintain interest in the story through the illustrations and letter-format. The informal tone of the letters between characters may feel more accessible to a reluctant reader. At the same time, however, this book is full of great vocabulary and clever plays on words—for example, all of the characters have “ghastly” names like Sammy Tarry, and Les Hope—that make this book fun for more mature readers as well.This would be a fantastic book for teaching about epistolary novels, and would work well as a read-aloud in the classroom, due to its brevity and the aforementioned plays on words. It would be fun to include in a display of gentle ghost stories, or readalikes for A Series of Unfortunate Events.
What do You think about Dying To Meet You (2009)?
Its in a diary/journal entry form. Its a simple book, easy to finish. Its a good book
—LcBobich
Very, very quick read. It's fun and clever though, and the format is original.
—Tammy
Great epistolic mix of newspapers, letters, and notes. Over all too quickly!
—kmdz
