Ghost Town
Richard W. Jennings
Hardcover
(Houghton Mifflin Books for Children, June 29, 2009)
Spencer Adams Honesty may be the last best hope for Paisley, Kansas—and for lonely kids everywhere.Spencer Honesty and his mom are the last people left in Paisley, except for Chief Leopard Frog, Spence’s imaginary friend. One lonely day, Chief Leopard Frog’s carved rabbit talisman tells Spence to take his photo, so Spence digs up his late father’s camera and starts shooting photographs all around his ghost town. When the photos come back developed, he does not expect to see his old neighbor Maureen Balderson in her bedroom. Or Ma Puttering clearing weeds in her yard. They aren’t in Paisley anymore. Yet there they are. What happens to Spence next is unexpected. It involves a catalog called Uncle Milton’s Thousand Things You Thought You’d Never Find, a poetry deal gone awry, and a ghost camera that promises to take pictures of the past (just be sure not to photograph yourself).
Z+