Eleven-year old Seymour Hope has been abandoned by his parents and lives with the man who is renting the house--Ignatius B. Grumply--and the ghost of the woman who lived in the house originally--Olive C. Spence. They are writing and publishing a ghost story that everyone loves. However, Dick Tater, the head of International Movement for the Safety & Protection of Our Kids & Youth (IMSPOOKY) decides Seymour is in a bad environment and puts him in an orphanage and Ignatius in an asylum. Tater also bans Halloween and tells everyone they have to burn all of their ghost stories.This is a cute little book. The story is told mostly with illustrated pictures, newspaper clippings, and letters. I really thought it was a fun read.I especially liked the names of the characters and had fun trying to figure out what they meant: Les Hope, Claire Voyant, M. Balm, Fay Tality, etc. I really enjoyed how they worked together to keep as a family. In this book the main problem is that Dick Tater specifically is trying to take away Seymour and bring him to his parents who were actually the ones who left him in the house to go on a trip. Now that they want him Ignatius has to fight to keep him after sending some letters Tater comes for a visit that could end no worse, Seymour goes to the orphanage and Ignatius goes to the home for the deranged. They communicate of course by letters and decided to ask Olive to use her manuscripts for the next three chapters of the book so Olive sends these letters to people who she thinks has a key to open whatever. After some more letter sending she finally finds that her coffin holds the manuscripts.In the end they put together the next chapters to give out, Seymour's parents go to jail and Tater goes to the home for the deranged. So in the end they're together as a family.
What do You think about Over My Dead Body (2009)?
Book 2 of 43 Old Cemetery Road. See "Dying to Meet You" review.
—rog
I loved it but I didn't love it as much as I wanted too.
—merissa
