There's a Dead Person Following My Sister Around

by Vivian Vande Velde

Overview

When Ted’s five-year-old sister, Vicki, invents an imaginary friend, no one is too concerned . . . except that Vicki’s friend has the never-popular name of Marella, and unlike most imaginary friends, Marella can move things. Ted might think Marella is a ghost, but why would a ghost haunt Vicki, of all people? And why would she suddenly move into a house Ted’s family has lived in for ages? And why is Marella terrified of another ghost, a dark figure who seems to be hunting Ted? Hilarious, haunting, and unexpectedly moving, There’s a Dead Person Following My Sister Around is Vivian Vande Velde at her frightening best.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780547351643
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	10/01/2008
Sold by:	HARPERCOLLINS
Format:	eBook
Pages:	160
Lexile:	870L (what's this?)
File size:	213 KB
Age Range:	10 - 12 Years

About the Author

Vivian Vande Velde has written many books for teen and middle grade readers, including Heir Apparent, User Unfriendly, All Hallow's Eve: 13 Stories, Three Good Deeds, Now You See It ..., and the Edgar Award–winning Never Trust a Dead Man. She lives in Rochester, New York. Visit her website at www.vivianvandevelde.com.

Editorial Reviews

Ted's big problem is not his annoying brother Zach, his social studies report on Luxembourg or his stuck-up cousin Jackie. He has ghosts in his house. His five-year-old sister, Vicki, is the first to see them; she starts keeping a hammer under her pillow for protection. Then, 11-year-old Ted dreams of mud, drowning and cobwebby fingers touching his face. Naturally, their parents don't believe these ghostly accounts of undead residents, so the children are on their own to do the supernatural sleuthing. The ghosts soon progress to the usual haunting activities of slamming doors, stealing keys and tipping over school projects. They appear on cable TV and even show up in a museum elevator. But why? Only when Ted unravels a mystery involving the Underground Railroad and reveals the ghosts' identities can peace be restored. Vande Velde's (Tales From the Brothers Grimm and Sisters Weird) dialogue has a natural cadence and the plot unfolds at a brisk pace. And the African-American ghosts provide an intriguing counterpoint to a thoroughly modern houseful of children, who learn a history lesson strong enough to chill their bones. Ages 10-up. (Aug.) Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Gr 4-7-Vande Velde continues her string of historical ghost stories, this time focusing on the Underground Railroad. The first-person narrator, 11-year-old Ted, is certain that his house in Rochester, NY, can't be haunted because it has been in his family for generations and there have been no secrets to speak of in its past. Then his five-year-old sister Vicki's imaginary friend Marella and the "bad lady" who seems to be chasing her prove themselves to be all too real. Ted decides to get to the bottom of the mystery and finds a journal belonging to one of his ancestors. It recounts the tragic story of two runaway slaves, a mother and her five-year-old daughter, who drowned in the Erie Canal, which used to run through the family's backyard. The story culminates in Ted and Vicki being possessed by the spirits in order to help them move on. The secondary characters include busy parents barely present; a typical teenage brother; and a trendy, smart-talking cousin. However, the plot has original twists and the journal passages are nicely integrated into a story with some genuine chills. The penultimate chapter unnecessarily switches to present tense when Adah, the mother's spirit, possesses Ted. Nonetheless, there is sufficient humor, action, and scariness to keep readers engaged. A good choice for fans of Bruce Coville's "Nina Tanleven" series (Bantam).-Timothy Capehart, Leominster Public Library, MA Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

School Library Journal

Vande Velde (Never Trust a Dead Man, p. 458, etc.) combines a ghost story with slave history for a comic middle-grade novel. Fifth-grader Ted has an obnoxious teenage brother, Zach, and a cute five-year-old sister, Vicki, who seems to attract ghosts. Her announcement that she has a new invisible friend, Marella, is followed by another pronouncement, that Vicki is afraid of a "bad lady" who is also invisible, but who comes through the walls. Ted has a series of vivid nightmares about corpses trying to drown him; when his school project on Luxembourg is wrecked by apparently unseen hands, he's convinced the house is haunted and begins digging for clues. Ted learns his house once sheltered runaway slaves, and identifies the ghosts as mother and child fugitives who drowned in an old section of the canal behind the house. A description of the real-life mother in an old diary indicates that she was a good person—has she turned nasty in the afterlife? In a surprising twist, it is Marella who must fulfill her sinister purpose and possess Vicki. Ted, a witty narrator on the subject of the typical sibling behavior that is spiked into the plot, must submit to possession himself, in a fast-paced story that mixes scares and history for some can't-put-it-down fun. (Fiction. 8-12)

Kirkus Reviews

A fast-paced story that mixes scares and history for some can’t-put-it-down fun.”—Kirkus Reviews “A spooky last-minute plot twist, a bittersweet climax, and a humorous conclusion helps make this an unusually rich and thoughtful supernatural tale.”—The Bulletin —

From the Publisher