Customer Reviews

Over My Dead Body (43 Old Cemetery Road)

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I love children's books and ghosts stories, so I was excited to get Over My Dead Body. When I got it ... well, I was alarmed by the format of the book and was prepared to dislike it. It's entirely written as a graphic novel or as letters between various people, along with excerpts from the local newspaper. It sounds confusing, and I thought it would be, but it wasn't. It was easy to follow and fun to read.

The story is essentially this: Seymour Hope is living with Ignatius Grumply and Olive C. Spence in a mansion that Seymore bought from his parents, after his parents left him alone to go to Paris. Seymour, Ignatius and Olive, who happens to be the ghost of a woman who died more than 100 years ago, write ghost stories and sell them to the townspeople of Ghastly, IL. Dick Tater, of IMSPOOKY (International Movement for the Saftey and Protection of Our Kids & Youth), receives an anonymous letter that Seymour is living in nebuluous circumstances and steps in. Grumply is committed to the Illinois Home for the Deranged and Seymour is taken the Ghastly Orphanage. No one believes that Olive exists, so she's left alone in the mansion. How do Olive, Seymour and Igantius reunite? That's the story here.

While I enjoyed the book, and I think younger children will, it might be "too young" for 11-12 year olds. However, younger children will very likely enjoy not only the story, but the format as well.

This book was very interesting. It is written in letters and an unusual way to read a book. I kept wanting to pick it up to finish.

Ghostly Olive, grumpy Ignatius and their adopted son, Seymour, have to work hard to keep their little family together in this sequel to Dying to Meet You, book one of the 43 Cemetery Road series. This time, they're up against "Dick Tater", the creepy, megalomaniac director of the International Movement for the Safety & Protection Of Our Kids & Youth (IMSPOOKY). Tater sends Seymour to an orphanage, has Ignatius committed and tries to do away with Halloween - turning it, instead, into a Dick Tater Day Celebration.

As in the first book, the story is creatively structured through a succession of letters, drawings and newspaper articles that make this an entertaining read. In this book we find out just how awful Seymour's birth parents really are and what became of Olive's manuscripts. In fact, books, and a bookmobile may save the day, hopefully in enough time for Olive, Ignatius and Seymour to create the next installment of their ghostly tales.

This story of three "lost" and lonely people who find their way to each other is as charming as the first. And with Seymour and Ignatius in danger, the stakes are higher. Will Seymour's real parents come back to claim him? Will Olive's manuscripts resurface in time to do any good? Will Seymour, Ignatius and Olive continue their writing career? Will Dick Tater succeed with his evil plan to banish Halloween forever?

The delightful drawings, quirky character names and spooky-fun setting of the Spence mansion all add up to another enjoyable book with a message about family at the heart of it. Hurrah for Kate and Sarah Klise. I look forward to the next book in the series.

My 9 yr. old daughter just loved this book and the first one. She's waiting for the next one to come in a couple more months and it's driving her crazy to have to wait so long. She loved them so much she read them each in 2 days. She was so sad when she finished because she wanted more pages to read! They are really fun books, I read them after her and it was really fun to talk with her about them afterwards. We highly recommend these!

I like this book a whole bunch. Sounds corny, but I do. The approach was refreshing and just a fun, enjoyable read. The book format is unique as you follow the storyline through a series of letters between the old ghost lady, the author, and Seymour, they boy. The visuals and graphics really enhances the storyline as well. I found myself just looking and having fun reading. This did not feel like work. I have the first book as well from the library and I plan on reading this one as well even though it is not a Cybils. The character names, addresses, and other little details were a pleasure as well as many of them were play on words as suggested above in the review. Perfect for any age level and one that I think I need to help promote in my school. I left reading the final pages with a smile on my face which is always a sign of a good old fashion story. Like so many that I read for the Cybils, this is another book that I never would have read if not for this tournament. Thank you Cybils for including me.

After being abandoned by his parents, 11-year-old Seymour Hope took to living at the old Spence Mansion with the cranky author, Ignatius B. Grumply, and the ghost of Olive C. Spence, a failed author who has vowed to haunt the mansion at 43 Old Cemetery Road until one of her mysteries is published. Together, the trio has published the first three chapters of a ghost story (aptly entitled 43 OLD CEMETERY ROAD), and are busily working on the following three, which they hope to have ready for their subscribers by Halloween.

At least, they were until the arrival of a letter from Dick Tater, director of the International Movement for the Safety and Protection of Our Kids and Youth (aka IM SPOOKY)...

According to Mr. Tater, Grumply cannot be the legal guardian of Seymour, and neither of them can be living with Olive, since she died in 1911. Tater promptly removes Seymour and places him in the orphanage, and has Grumply committed to an insane asylum. As if that wasn't bad enough, Tater announces that the book was a hoax all along. Outraged fans of 43 OLD CEMETERY ROAD begin demanding refunds and jumping on board Tater's plan to burn all of the ghost stories in the world instead of celebrating Halloween. It's up to the illustrator Seymour to come up with a clever plan to save the reputations of his coauthors and, ultimately, Halloween.

Told through a series of letters, transcripts, and newspaper clippings, this second book in the series makes for an enjoyable read, especially for the reluctant reader who likes to laugh.

Reviewed by: Allison Fraclose

From page one, this little book was a pure delight! The format was fresh and humorous, the language was silly, the pictures had character, and the story was lots of fun to watch unfold! This story about an old house, an abandoned boy, a writer, and his ghostly love interest play out through dialogues written in different typefaces, a local newspaper, letters, and illustrations, and the reader has the benefit of seeing multiple perspectives, all quite humorous.
The author has a flare for short snappy dialogues that get right to the point, and even with all the wordplay and absurd happenings, you happily suspend disbelief. This is a book that is accessible for children of all ages (and of course, fun for adults), and while I didn't have the benefit of reading the first one, I look forward to more in the series.

Over My Dead Body is probably a children's book. One of the heroes is an 11 year old boy. There are a lot of illustrations. The language is simple. It doesn't talk down to anyone, but it's simple. Obviously written for children.

However, as someone who's been an adult for a LONG time, I loved this book. It's a quick read - took me about an hour, which included interruptions by the kittens. It is about the aforementioned 11 year old (Seymore Hope), a grumpy older writer (Ignatius Grumply) and a ghost writer (Olive C. Spence). It's written as a collection of letters and newspaper articles, which gives it a sense of whimsy. There are characters named Dick Tater, M Balm, Fay Tality, and Judge Clare Voyant.

The main story is about a horrible adult, Dick Tater, an evil control freak. He has Seymore sent to an orphanage and Ignatius sent to a "Home for the Deranged". He writes to Seymore's horrible parents to have them pick him up. (Seymore's parent's apparently abandoned him in book 1.) Through letters and newspaper stories, we learn how Seymore, Iggy, and Olive save the day.

Beneath the charming story, there's a serious message about censorship, but it's told in an entertaining way.

This is a good one. I'm looking forward to more from these authors.

The story of "Over My Dead Body" is nicely summarized in the reviews below.

I teach fourth grade, and most of my 9 and 10 year old students, as well as kids somewhat younger and older, would love this book. It uses a good mix of letters, newspaper clippings, drawings, and documents to tell its story. It's also a good tool for showing younger writers how stories can be told in a variety of ways, not merely with standard narrative form.


Clever, interesting, and certainly worth checking out.

OVER MY DEAD BODY: 43 OLD CEMETERY ROAD--BOOK 2 by sisters Kate Klise and illustrated by M. Sarah Klise has changed the way a child's storybook can be told.

The story is explained through letters, newspaper articles, transcripts, and illustrations, among other things, that the characters in the story write/draw to each other--all created through the Klises' imagination.

In OVER MY DEAD BODY, readers are reacquainted with an unusual trio, a 91-year old ghost named Olive C. Spence, a 64-year border named Ignatius B. Grumply, and an 11-year old boy named Seymour Hope--characters from the first book Dying to Meet You: 43 Old Cemetery Road -- who are living at the old mansion located at 43 Old Cemetery Road. They have joined forces and are writing a series of ghost stories to fans, but encounter a problem when a killjoy by the name of Dick Tater, who doesn't believe in ghosts, wants to shut down Halloween and get rid of all the books dealing with ghosts. He splits up the trio by sending Seymour to an orphanage (the 11-year old was abandoned by his parents) and committing Grumply to a mental institution. So it's up to Olive to save the day!

If you haven't already caught on, there are clever play on words with the character names and young readers should have an enjoyable time going through all the letters and articles in the book. Even though there's lots to explore in the story, it's a quick read since some pages are just letters written from the characters to each other--which is how they communicate--so OVER MY DEAD BODY doesn't get boring or bogged down with junk.

The story isn't scary and it does have a heart-warming ending.

I haven't read the first book and I didn't feel lost reading this one. I do plan on getting the previous 43 CEMETERY ROAD because I love the storyline and the clever way the Klise sisters have presented the book.

Recommended for readers 8-12 but I think it's great for kids of all ages!