I hope you all had a happy 4th of July! I got to help my nephews night-write with their sparklers, which was delightful! Games, good pie, and lots of fireworks. 🙂

Today’s spotlight is on Dying to Meet You, by Kate Klise. I can’t help but chuckle when children’s writers put a children’s writer in their book, but it really works here! I loved the names for the town, loved the ghost–Olive–and the gently amusing dynamic of the three main characters. Four, if you count the cat.

Olive is exactly what a ghost should be–sensible, practical and well-mannered while unflinching in her perspective on everything from being invisible to pulling off a good haunting. As a plus, she’s a big fan of books and an excellent cook. Come to think of it, she’d be welcome to haunt my house!

The two living people are Seymor Hope and Ignatius B. Grumply. The former is 11-years-old and something of a surprise, since his parents left for Europe and rented the house under the condition that the renter would look after Seymor and his cat ‘until his parents requested he be returned’ at some indefinite date in the future. Not terribly loving, are they? Ignatius Grumply is of course the renter who shows up to rent the house for the summer and get in a spot of quiet writing, only to find a kid and cat in residence–not to mention a ghost. He is understandably put out, but given he’s had plenty of quiet in which to overcome his 20-year writing block, it’s possible a little disturbance is exactly what he needs.

The story is short and sweet, with few twists, but amusing and a fun read. I was initially a little hesitant over the format, since it’s told entirely in letters, excerpts, newspaper clippings, and the like. Call me a traditionalist, but I always wonder if an author will pull off this kind of unique format, or if the characters will lose something in the process. But in reality I think this style works remarkably well for this story–perhaps better than a typical prose book, because the words-on-page style makes for some fun ‘real time’ exchanges between Ignatius and Olive. It was also highly believable that fussy, anti-social Ignatius would instruct his young charge to limit communication to written notes left at his office door. However, the real winner of the format goes to The Ghastly Times. This witty little paper is quite adept at printing off the record remarks, and brought the little town of Ghastly, Ill to life for the reader. Highly tongue-in-cheek, it brought the story up to a level that’s fun for kids and adults alike.

I also must give a shout-out to the illustrator, M. Sarah Klise. Sister to the author, I’m guessing there was some collaboration between the two creators, and certainly the story is extended by the clever illustrations. If you pick the book up, take the time to look closely at the front and back flaps, and enjoy some of the details on the extra pages which the illustrations bring to life.

I meant this to be a quick spotlight, and hear I am going on and on! Let’s see what Apricot-kitty thought:

“‘Four, if you count the cat?’ If you count the cat? I’ll have you know that Shadow is a pivotal character in the story, arguably the glue that brings the other three together. The novel would be quite flat without him. Nothing but a tossed together bunch of words and people with no idea how to handle themselves. If you count the cat, indeed.”

Um, yeah, if you need me, I’ll be over here plying Apricot-kitty with her favorite tuna dish and cat-nip snacks, in hopes that she’ll one day forgive me. Can’t imagine what I was thinking.

For the full round up of Marvelous Middle Grade Monday reviews, spotlights, interviews and giveaways, stop by our host Greg Pattridge’s blog, and happy summer reading!

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