I. B. Grumplydoesn't like children—which is funny considering he's an author of children's books. One summer he rents a quiet place to write for the summer, but gets morethan he bargained for.
Presented entirely through written correspondences between several characters and a few newspaper clippings, Dying to Meet You has enough visual stimulation to attract distracted readers (it's targeted for 3rd-6th graders), but the story itself is fun.It has a sweet old lady ghost in it. An old house with 32 ½ rooms. A kid whose best friend is a ghost, whose parents abandoned him to go on a lecture tour in Europe, set on proving ghosts don't exist.The book is a delightful blend of amusing, grim, and silly and the ending is just right: the selfish old guy learns to love again, the kid gets a new sort of family, and the ghost receives recognition and acceptance.
If none of this appeals, note thatthe author and illustrator are sisters. Their website states that their mother read them to sleep every night, their father was a writer, and they started writing and illustrating together before their teens. They loved E. B. White,The Phantom Tollbooth, Edward Gorey, Roald Dahl, and Garth Williams. This book falls into a similar vein.
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