What I thought: I wanted to read this story because I love mysteries. I read this book thinking that the family would find a ghost in the house, but I liked how the "Ghost" was acctually the little boy who sat out by the road everyday. I thought it was a cute story about building trust and friendship. This is a great story about mystery and friendship. It shows that if you go out of your way to be nice to somebody they will be nice back. I liked how the boy was able to stay with the family after he got caught because he was able to stay with those who cared about him. I really enjoyed the mystery behind the story of this book, I thought that because of the mystery in the story it made the book easier and more fun to read. When I started reading the book I thought that it was just going to be a story about a ghost, but the story had a twist at the end that kept me guessing.

Summary: The Ghost of Windy Hill by Clyde Robert Bulla (1968) A family was asked to move into a house for the summer and if they made it through the whole summer without seeing a ghost the man that owned the house would be able to move back in with his wife. While there the two children befriend a boy that sits at the crossroads before they get to the house on Windy Hill. One night the boy sneaks in and moves the young girls quilt to another room while she was asleep so that she would think that a ghost had moved it. Then another night he came back but there was a trap set and he got caught. The reason why he snuck in and moved her quilt was because he wanted the family to stay because they were the only friends he had. In the end the owner showed up with his wife, but she did not want to stay so far away from the city and the family was able to stay in the house.

Classroom Extension
1) The students would be able to make a connection between the book and real life. They would be asked to write about a time that they went out of their way to help someone else, and tell why they felt like they should.
2) I would probably read this story around Halloween so that my students could write their own ghost stories to tell to the class or to take home. This exercise will help them in their writing. ( )