Dial-a-Ghost

(Review by my co-blogger, eight year old Z)

The book is about this boy called Oliver Smith who goes to Helton Hall but gets bullied by Fulton & Frieda Snodde-Brittle. Fulton asks Dial-a-Ghost Agency for scary ghosts for scaring Oliver to death but the Wilkinsons showed up instead. The Wilkinsons are friendly ghosts who wanna protect Oliver. The Shriekers were the original choice to go to Helton. The Shriekers were scarier!

I thought the book was funny but scary at the middle. My favorite character was the pet budgie because he was kinda stupid. The book made me believe in ghosts!

http://webereading.com/2012/10/rip-vii-read-13-dial-ghost.html

Oliver is an orphaned boy who unexpectedly comes to be the sole owner of Helton Hall, a large and spooky mansion. Oliver's cousins, Frieda and Fulton, are less than happy about this fact and make it their mission to get rid of Oliver and claim the mansion. They decide to call the Dial-a-Ghost agency in search of some spooks that will frighten Oliver to death. But what they get is a nice family of ghosts, the Wilkinsons, that immediately befriend Oliver and help him feel comfortable in his new home.

As you might have guessed from the title, this wasn't a life-changing read. But it was a fun read-aloud. I thought it was a little gruesome (perhaps overly so) in some parts, but that might just have been because I always read it while eating lunch. The kids loved it, though, so I've chosen to see the gruesomeness as Roald-Dahl-esque, which it is. It's funny, though because this is just the kind of book I would have loved at my daughter's age (8 years). A year older, and I was reading vampire stories and Edgar Allan Poe. A year after that I'd started in on Stephen King's books. And now I've not read a scary book since I went on a Shirley Jackson kick nine years ago.

That's a lie, actually. In 2010 and 2011, I read two scary books, Let show more the Right One In and Horror Stories and Other Horror Stories. But it sounds better to say I've not read a scary book since 2004.

I haven't watched any scary movies, though. Of that, I'm fairly certain. I think being a parent is so scary, it's made being scared for fun less...fun.

Dial-a-Ghost isn't scary, though, so it's irrelevant to this review how I feel about scary stories nowadays. show less

The Dial-a-Ghost Agency finds good homes for ghosts. And Fulton and Frieda Snodde-Brittle are looking for a few frightening ghosts to "accidentally" scare their young cousin and heir, Oliver, to death. The ladies at the Dial-a-Ghost Agency have the perfect match: the Shriekers, two bloodstained and bickering horrors. But thanks to a mix-up at the agency, the Wilkinsons, a kind family of ghosts, arrive instead. Can they put a stop to the Snodde-Brittles' schemes before it's too late?

It's hardly a work of art, but it has a certain charm and sense of fun. It's hard to tell if the ghosts are thought-out or not, but either way they're fairly consistent and the story is purely for fun, not really for philosophy or deep thought.

Also, the end of the Shriekers is a little... convenient. But other than that, I actually really like the ending. It's very fitting for the story.

So while most of the book is all fun and ghostly adventures, I must say that the Shriekers are pretty darn terrifying. Or at least, definitely grotesque. And when Oliver's deep in depression? Honestly, that's one of the most tragic things ever.

"And for a child to think like that is not good at all."

A great children's book in the tradition of Roald Dahl--a young orphan must battle his evil relatives, who are determined to scare him to death. Ibbotsen is delightful, clever and rather inventive with the cast of ghosts she creates to go along with this story.

Dial-A-Ghost tells the story of Oliver Smith who is an orphan who finds out that he is the heir of a mansion called Helton Hall. Oliver's cousins who thought that they would be the next to inherent to house and fortune are furious and plot to get rid of Oliver. Fulton, Oliver's cousin, decides to hire an agency that finds homes for homeless ghosts, he wants to get the scariest ones there are. When there is a switch up at the agency a nice family of ghosts are sent to Helton hall and the instantly fall in love with Oliver. They decide to protect Oliver from his cousins plots and they run the evil cousins away. With his new money and large house Oliver decides to begin a ghost research facility so they can learn more about ghosts and he show more offers a home to any ghost who needs it. show less