The Ghost’s Grave

I love ghost stories, and Peg Kehret does, too. That’s why she wrote The Ghost’s Grave for young people, and she has won a number of awards for it. The award closest to home for me is the “Sasquatch,” which is a yearly prize awarded by the Washington Library Media Association for chapter books for grades 3-6. Around here, we love anything to do with Big Foot! The book has also won other awards, including New Hampshire’s Great Stone Face Award, Tennesee’s Volunteer State Book Award, and Pennsylvania’s Keystone to Reading Award.

From Peg Kehret’s web site:

What Josh thought would be the dullest summer of his life, spent with his eccentric aunt, turns chilling when he meets the ghost of a coal miner killed in a mine explosion. Willie has been waiting years for some kind soul to dig up his leg and rebury it with the rest of him–only then will he be at peace. Josh agrees to do the grisly deed, but when he digs in the old cemetery, he finds more than Willie’s leg bones. Who buried the box of cash in the grave, and why? How far will that person go to get the money back? 

This book was a fun read for me, and I know I would have loved reading it as a child. I actually had a great-uncle who lost his leg in a logging accident, and it was buried in a separate grave from the rest of said great-uncle in a cemetery near Afton, Wyoming! I was always fascinated by the fact that his leg had been buried all those years before he died and then many years later he was buried in a grave right next to it. I hope he’s at peace with the arrangement!

Peg Kehret is a favorite of mine, and one of those special Pacific Northwest authors. This was a fun book to read for Michelle’s Book Awards Challenge!