This sequel to Dying to Meet You begins with eleven-year-old Seymour Hope living happily with Ignatius B. Grumply (alive) and Olive C. Spence (a ghost). Their satisfactory arrangement changes abruptly when meddling Dick Tater butts in. As with the first book, the story's fun is in its narrative devices: letters, newspaper excerpts, legal transcripts, etc., all accompanied by unfussy black-and-white spot illustrations.

The laughter continues in this second installment of the Klises' series about a ghost and her friends. As in the first book, Dying to Meet You (2009), the entire story is told through letters, newspaper articles and the like and is adorned with M. Sarah Klise's amusing line drawings. Dramatic tension builds when elderly writer I.B. Grumply and his charge, the abandoned boy Seymour, are carted off to an insane asylum and an orphanage, respectively. Ghost-in-Residence Olive breaks them out and does her best to see that all villains get what they deserve. A dreaded government agent tries not only to break up the happy partnership but to outlaw Halloween. Worse, he turns the town against the trio, endangering their livelihood—publishing a serialized illustrated mystery. Much of the town of Ghastly, Ill., gets involved in the excitement, with characters sporting names appropriate to their callings, such as the locksmith, Ike N. Openitt. Even the addresses on the letters add to the comedy of this light, diverting romp. (Fantasy. 8-12)

Gr 4-6 Having been abandoned by his parents in Dying to Meet You (Harcourt, 2009), 11-year-old Seymour Hope is happily living and writing at 43 Old Cemetery Road in collaboration with his friends, author Ignatius B. Grumply and 190-year-old ghost-writer-in-residence Olive C. Spence. The trio's serialized "true" supernatural stories are widely popular. Ambitious busybody Dick Tater, head of the International Movement for the Safety & Protection of Our Kids & Youth (IMSPOOKY), sees their somewhat irregular arrangement as an opportunity to push his anti-ghost, anti-Halloween agenda. Tater has Grumply committed to the Illinois Home for the Deranged, locks Seymour in a Dickensian orphanage, and announces that Halloween is cancelled. Only Olive's hidden manuscripts can save the dayif she can remember where she hid them. The story is told through letters, newspaper clippings, and interview transcripts. Text styles help differentiate the charactersinvisible Olive types in an ornate outline font while Seymour's notes are hand written, often including black-and-white sketch illustrations. The names are amusing, although they don't always match the characters. (The local locksmith is Ike N. Openitt while the feisty librarian, who staunchly resists Tater's book burners, is called M. Balm). References to Grumply's incarceration in the "nuthouse" and "loony bin" and Seymour's "possible mental illness" are unfortunate in a book with an otherwise strong underlying theme of individuality and freedom of choice. All in all, the short, graphic-heavy text and broad humor will appeal to middle grade readers. Elaine E. Knight, Lincoln Elementary Schools, IL