Burgess, Melvin. The ghost behind the wall.Henry Holt. 176p. c2003. 0-8050-7149-0. $16.95. J Teased tease v. teased, teas·ing, teas·es v.tr. 1. To annoy or pester; vex. 2. To make fun of; mock playfully. 3. for being small for his age, 12-year-old David creates an exciting secret life for himself when he realizes he's just the right size to crawl into the air conditioning air conditioning, mechanical process for controlling the humidity, temperature, cleanliness, and circulation of air in buildings and rooms. Indoor air is conditioned and regulated to maintain the temperature-humidity ratio that is most comfortable and healthful. ducts in his apartment building. He uses them to enter into various apartments, where he does mischief A specific injury or damage caused by another person's action or inaction. In Civil Law, a person who suffered physical injury due to the Negligence of another person could allege mischief in a lawsuit in tort. , and he spies spies n. Plural of spy. v. Third person singular present tense of spy. on lonely old Mr. Alveston upstairs. Then he encounters the frightening ghost of a boy in the ducts, a boy who wants David to stay and play with him. This ghost seems to have a hatred for Mr. Alveston and vandalizes his apartment, for which David gets blamed, though he had only a small part in it. David's father is aghast when David is David I, king of Scotland David I, 1084–1153, king of Scotland (1124–53), youngest son of Malcolm III and St. Margaret of Scotland. During the reign of his brother Alexander I, whom he succeeded, David was earl of Cumbria, ruling S of the Clyde caught and accused, and David tries to make it up to Mr. Alveston by becoming his friend and helping him out. Then Mr. Alveston has a bad fall and lands up in the hospital, and the ghost vandalizes the apartment again. It's up to David to solve the mystery of who or what the ghost really is, so that he won't be blamed again, and so that Mr. Alveston can achieve his wish of dying peacefully at last. Burgess, the author of Smack, Lady: My Life as a Bitch, and other books for YAs, aims this title at a younger audience and succeeds in creating a suspenseful sus·pense n. 1. The condition of being physically suspended. 2. a. The state or quality of being undecided, uncertain, or doubtful. b. mystery. The concept of a ghost as the memory of a living person rather than a dead person's spirit should intrigue readers, and readers will come to care about both David and Mr. Alveston as they try to understand what it is the ghost wants. For upper elementary and middle school students. |
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