The Ghost Sitter [Hardcover]

Peni R. Griffin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 4, 2001 | Age Level: 9 and up | Grade Level: 4 and up

For fifty years, ten-year-old Susie has waited for her parents and sister to come back. Each new family who moves into her home seems not to notice her, except for the young children. Susie likes children. She even likes baby-sitting, but can she baby-sit forever? Why can't she get anyone else's attention?

Charlotte is looking forward to a great summer in her new home, despite her many baby-sitting duties. But someone else seems to be helping her watch her little brother. Someone only he can see. Gradually Charlotte realizes her all-too-normal house is haunted-by the ghost of a girl who doesn't or won't realize that she's dead.

Set around the Fourth of July, this story offers two perspectives-one of the living and one of the dead-in a wholly entertaining and thought-provoking way.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Gr 4-6-Susie, 10, can't understand why her parents moved out of the house with her younger sister, Gloria, leaving her there alone. Other families move in and out, but they never pay any attention to her; only very young children ever notice her at all. Readers will quickly realize that Susie doesn't know she is dead, the victim of a firecracker accident 50 years ago. When Charlotte moves into the house with her parents and younger brother, she and her neighbor Shannon begin communicating with Susie, and Charlotte realizes that the ghost will only be able to stop haunting the house when she confronts the truth about her death. The idea of an invisible presence in the house, interacting with tiny children and causing puddles of cold air to form, is a spooky one, but this mild ghost story never induces more than a shiver or two. Most of the interest comes from Susie's own perceptions of her strange existence, as well as the new friendship between Charlotte and Shannon. What little tension exists-there seems to be some foreshadowing that harm might come to Charlotte's little brother-simply melts away at the end, which features an emotional meeting between the ghostly Susie and her now-adult sister. Readers who don't like their stories to get too scary will find plenty to enjoy here.

Eva Mitnick, Los Angeles Public Library

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Gr. 4-6. Charlotte has her own room in the new house, and there's a peach tree and a cat. She has to look after her baby brother, Brendan, but even that isn't too bad. Lately, Brendan seems easier to handle--except for his staring into space and talking to someone named Susie, whom no one else can see. According to Charlotte's neighbor, Shannon, "Sparkler Susie" is the ghost that lives in Charlotte's house. As legend has it, she was killed 50 years ago and has been hanging around ever since. Charlotte and Shannon have a seance to contact Susie, and after connecting with her they decide to help her find a way out of her ghostly limbo. Discussions of death and what happens afterwards may prove upsetting to some youngsters, but otherwise there's little that will frighten readers. This a suitable choice for kids who really don't want to be scared but love ghost stories. Marta Segal
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 9 and up
  
• Hardcover: 128 pages
• Publisher: Dutton Juvenile; 1st edition (June 4, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0525466762
• ISBN-13: 978-0525466765
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.8 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,758,901 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Ghost Sitter, March 4, 2005

A Kid's Review

This review is from: The Ghost Sitter (Paperback)

The book Ghost Sitter is a good book it is mysterious. It is about a girl named Charlotte who moves into a new house she thinks her life is great because she has her own room and neighborhood pool and there's even a Fouth of July block party coming up soon. The only bad thing is she has to watch her little brother Brandon! She meets one of her neighbors Shannon who tells her that the house is haunted, and what she has seen in that house but Charlotte doesn't belive her. But when her brother who is usually a pain starts acting good all of the sudden and is asking for his friend Suzie. Things get weird. This is a good book.It will get you to the tip of your chair woundering what's ganna happen next! This is an exciting book.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a beautiful story about a ten-year-old ghost, April 21, 2005

By 

sarah voss (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Ghost Sitter (Paperback)

when charlotte moves into her new house, she hears about a ghost, but doesn't believe. Soon, that changes. The ghost, Susie, doesn't realize she's dead and doesn't wonder long about what happened to her - she waits until the day her parents and little sister Gloria, who moved out after Susie's death, come back. In the meantime, she plays with babies and toddlers, the only people who can see her, as family after family moves in and out of her house. Then Charlotte (whose little brother Brandon is a playmate of Susie's), with the help of her new friend Shannon, manages to talk to Susie, and the two girls try to find out what happened to Susie, and figure out a way to help her.

What made this book so good was Charlotte's thoughts. In the process of helping Susie, she wonders about death and what happens, feels sad about all the people in the cemetery who have been forgotten. Charlotte isn't just the girl who helps Susie, she's also a growing ten-year-old with no previous experieces with death, who thinks and wonders. Charlotte makes the book, not just a good story, but REAL.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Ghost Sitter, October 11, 2004

By 

Susie Ann - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Ghost Sitter (Paperback)

This book is mainly about a little girl named Susie who died on the fourth of July when she was about twelve years old. Then her parents and her little sister, Gloria, moved away. Gloria could see Susie's ghost and told her that she would come back one day. Susie promised to stay at the house til she came back. So for years Susie played with all the children five and under waiting for Gloria. Nobody older then five could see her unless she concentrated really hard.

The author of this book, Peni R. Griffin, uses a lot of dialogue and gets to the point really fast. She doesn't have very many discriptions and the ones that she does put in aren't in very much depth so I couldn't feel like I was in the book very much. I like this book a lot. It was really interesting right from the start. I chose to read it because my sister read it and she said it was really good and I needed a book for school. I think the audience intended for it was sixth and seventh graders though. It was a really easy read and they get sidetracked really easy and this book is just always interesting. It is a mystery in a way if you like to read those. I would definitely recommend this book though. It has a good ending and a great beginning. It's not a slow moving book that you have to get into and it keeps going like that. All people will enjoy it, but if your looking for a challenging reading this isn't what you should be reading.