Denise Daley (Children's Literature)
Well-known author Peg Kehret has done it again. She has written another exciting and entertaining ghost story. In this story the main character is Josh, a typical teenage boy whose dreams of playing baseball all summer are destroyed when he learns that he will be visiting his Aunt Ethel for eight long weeks. Josh fears his summer will be boring but the excitement begins as soon as he meets Aunt Ethel. The adventures quickly escalate as Josh meets a ghost who asks for help. Josh reluctantly agrees to help the ghost by digging in a nearby cemetery. While he is digging, Josh discovers more than he expected and this leads to a dangerous confrontation with a crook. Josh is an intelligent young man but is he clever enough to escape a conflict with an armed and angry intruder? This book is very enjoyable. It is well written, fast-paced, and hard to put down; all of the attributes that many young people seek when selecting reading material. 2005, Dutton Children’s Books/Penguin Group, $16.99. Ages 10 up.

Kirkus (Kirkus Reviews, July 1, 2005 (Vol. 73, No. 13))
Twelve-year-old Josh expected his summer with an elderly relative in Carbon City, Wash. to be utterly boring. However, his aunt turns out to be amusingly eccentric, and a secluded tree house in the woods is a perfect place to read and watch deer. There he encounters the ghost of a one-legged coal miner, Willy Martin. Willie asks him to dig up his lost leg and bury it with the rest of his body. Surprisingly, Josh agrees, but he finds more than just leg bones; the man who stole the money the town had raised for an animal shelter had hidden it in the leg's uncared-for grave. Josh's first-person narrative literally opens with a bang, as Aunt Ethel shoots a bat in her kitchen his first night there. The action moves quickly to the suspenseful moment when the robber, seeking to retrieve his treasure, threatens Josh at gunpoint. A subplot involving taming an abandoned cat may add interest for animal lovers. Easy to booktalk, this is a solidly plotted ghost story for middle-grade readers. 2005, Dutton, 192p, $16.99. Category: Fiction. Ages 9 to 12. © 2005 Kirkus Reviews/VNU eMedia, Inc. All rights reserved.

Michele Winship (KLIATT Review, July 2005 (Vol. 39, No. 4))
Josh is a normal 12-year-old boy with hopes of playing summer baseball and making some friends in his new home in Minneapolis. However, his mother and stepfather Steven have different plans. They are spending two months working in India, and Josh is shipped off to Washington State to spend the summer with Steven's 82-year-old great-aunt Ethel out in the middle of nowhere. He anticipates a miserable summer with a doddering old woman, but when Aunt Ethel shoots a bat in the kitchen his first night and feeds him spaghetti for breakfast the next morning, Josh realizes that this summer will be unusual. Aunt Ethel has a peacock that she is certain is the reincarnation of her sister Florence. And Carbon City, the old mining town a few miles away, has ghosts of its own. Josh discovers one when he finds the old tree house in the woods and cleans it up for a place to read and listen to music. Wilbur Martin, Willie, has been haunting the tree house for decades, hoping for someone to unbury the leg he lost in a mining accident and move it to where the rest of his body is buried. Reluctantly, Josh agrees to help so he can have his tree house to himself, but when he digs up the leg bones, he finds a box full of money, and gets pulled into a mysterious theft, becoming the target of the thief who has come to collect his money. Kehret shares her extensive knowledge of turn-of-the-century mining towns in a warm-hearted novel of the relationship between a boy, an old woman, and a ghost. Category: Hardcover Fiction. KLIATT Codes: J--Recommended for junior high school students. 2005, Penguin, Dutton, 192p., $16.99. Ages 12 to 15.

Karen Scott (Library Media Connection, April/May 2006)
When Josh moves in with his eccentric aunt for the summer he is very unhappy since Aunt Ethel has no television and no Internet. The first night, however, seems to set the stage for things to come. Aunt Ethel shoots down a bat that is flying in her kitchen. The next morning Josh wakes up to a peacock on the front porch. Aunt Ethel tells Josh the peacock is his Aunt Florence, her dead sister. Just when Josh thinks things can't get any weirder, Aunt Ethel tells Josh about a tree house back in the woods which Florence thought was haunted. Josh finds the tree house, and there meets a friendly ghost named Willie who is waiting to become an angel. Willie and Josh become friends and he asks Josh to dig up his missing leg from its grave. When Josh digs up the leg bones he finds a box of money. Mr. Turlep, the bank manager, had stolen the money and buried it. The first month of the summer ends on a positive note. Josh makes a new friend in Willie, is allowed to keep a stray cat, and returns the money to its rightful owners. Young readers will revel in Josh's wacky adventures. This is a good read for those who love humor with a hint of the supernatural. Recommended. 2005, Dutton Children's Books (Penguin Putnam), 210pp., $16.99 hc. Ages 9 to 12.

Horn Book (The Horn Book Guide, Spring 2006)
Reluctantly spending the summer with eccentric aunt Ethel, Josh encounters the one-legged ghost of a man whose leg and body were buried separately. Willie asks Josh to re-bury his leg with the rest of his remains. When Josh starts digging, he finds a box of stolen money and solves a local mystery. Kehret's fast-paced story offers likable characters and plenty of suspense. Category: Intermediate Fiction. 2005, Dutton, 210pp, 16.99. Ages 9 to 12. Rating: 3: Recommended, satisfactory in style, content, and/or illustration.

Jaclyn Wear (The Kutztown University Book Review, Spring 2006)
What seems to Josh as the most boring summer of all time, turns out to be the greatest summer of his life. Josh's summer is filled with adventure from little kittens, to a ghost in his aunt's old tree house. The body of the ghost is buried in a cemetery, but his missing leg is buried in a different place in the same cemetery. The ghost wants Josh to bury his leg with the rest of his body. The ghost talks with him in order to help him accomplish this task. When digging for the leg, he finds a box filled with money. He keeps the money and becomes a target of someone looking for the money. The man tracking him down was a bank robber who had buried the money in the leg's grave. This book was both spooky and suspenseful. It was slow at times. At other points, it kept you wondering what would happen next. I recommend this book to readers who enjoy mystery and adventure. Category: Adventure, Mystery. 2005, Dutton Children's Books, $16.99. Ages 12 to 14.

Debbie Griffin (The Lorgnette - Heart of Texas Reviews, (Vol. 18, No. 2))
Josh is sent to spend the summer with his step-father’s aunt in the middle of nowhere while his mom and step-dad spend the summer working in India. Josh is not happy but from the moment he meets Aunt Ethel, his summer is anything but boring. He finds a tree house that has a one-legged ghost in it and a stray cat with kittens. The ghost is Willie, a man who was killed in a mine explosion a long time ago. While Josh is fulfilling Willie’s request that he dig up his leg bones from where they were buried in the old cemetery, Josh finds not only the leg bones, but a stash of cash. Thinking he will call the police about the money when he gets back to his aunt’s house, Willie takes the money and the leg bones. After burying Willie’s leg bones where the rest of him is buried, Josh hurries home with the money only to find that his aunt has fallen and must be rushed to the hospital. The story climax comes when the man who buried the cash comes looking for it at the house where Josh is staying by himself. The readers will be entranced by this quick-moving, action-packed book. I highly recommend this book! Fiction, Highly Recommended. Grades 6-8. 2005, Dutton, 210p., $16.99. Ages 11 to 14.