Pleasing the Ghost

by Sharon Creech

Nine-year-old Dennis, whose uncle and father died within a year of one another, is visited by the ghost of his uncle, and together they settle some unfinished business.

• ISBN10: 0064406865
• ISBN13: 9780064406864
• Publish Date: 23 April 2013 (first published 19 July 1996)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• Imprint: Collins
• Edition: Harper Trophy ed.
• Format: Paperback
• Pages: 89
• Language: English

Reviews

[Silvara]

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This was a really cute book. I liked the explanation about how ghosts appear, and why the one Dennis wants most to see, wasn't there yet. It was also really sweet the way he helped his Uncle Arvie with his three "pleases".

I loved the bit with the "wasps", and how Dennis had to try to figure out what Uncle Arvie was saying to him. Uncle Arvie had a stroke when he was still alive, and so his words are all garbled. That seems to have carried over into his ghost-self. So Dennis' dad is called his "pepperoni", and Arvie calls his wife Julia "Heartfoot". None of his words really mean what he's trying to convey, and Dennis has to figure out what he means before he can help him.

I didn't much like the plotline with the bully though. It doesn't really get resolved at the end of the book, and the fact that he seems to have gotten away with throwing rocks through numerous windows at Dennis' house irked me.

But overall it was a funny and sweet book. A very quick read, with nothing scary in it, not even the ghosts.

This review was originally posted on Fantasy of the Silver Dragon