Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Pleasing the Ghost
    Pleasing the Ghost
    Pleasing the Ghost
    Ebook75 pages1 hour

    Pleasing the Ghost

    By Sharon Creech and Stacey Schuett

    3.5/5

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Newbery Medal winner and master storyteller Sharon Creech spins a wonderfully funny and tender tale.

    As nine-year-old Dennis confronts the ghost of his uncle Arvie, Arvie's eccentric antics and wonderful wordplay keep the reader laughing. But at its tender heart, the story reveals the holes left in our lives when we lose the ones we love.

    Ever since nine-year-old Dennis's dad died, a veritable parade of ghosts has been passing through his bedroom. When the ghost of his uncle Arvie blows into his room on a warm breeze, Dennis isn't surprised, but Uncle Arvie is the first ghost who wants something from Dennis.

    Dennis would love to help Uncle Arvie, but he can't quite understand what Uncle Arvie is asking for. What, for example, is "Fraggle pin Heartfoot a wig pasta"? Dennis has to find out, because this is one ghost who isn't going to leave until he gets what he came for.

    Uncle Arvie's antics and Dennis's attempts to please his ghost form the heart of this touching story.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateOct 6, 2009
    ISBN9780061972485
    Pleasing the Ghost
    Author

    Sharon Creech

    Sharon Creech has won, or been shortlisted for, nearly every major literary award for children’s books, both in the USA and UK, as well as selling all over the world. And she won the Carnegie Medal for outstanding children’s literature with her novel Ruby Holler . Sharon is an American who lived in England for nineteen years. She now lives in New Jersey, USA, with her husband.

    Read more from Sharon Creech

    Related to Pleasing the Ghost

    Related ebooks

    Children's Humor For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      GHOST In The HOUSE

      Oct 1, 2021

      GHOST In The HOUSE
      7 min read

    • Article

      Ready, Rosie?

      Jul 1, 2020

      “HEY! DON’T TELL me you’re scared!” Sasha smirked at Rosie, then leaned into her horse’s cheek and circled his head with her arms, as if he were nothing but a big stuffed animal. “I’m not.” The lie didn’t sound as definite as Rosie wished it did. She

      6 min read

    • Article

      Dream Home for Earthworms

      Apr 1, 2022

      “What’s in your pocket, Oscar?” asked Rosie. “Did you catch another toad?” Mom came out of the garage, a pot of zinnias in each hand. “Oh, Oscar. Please be careful! I don’t want any of your little friends ending up in the washing machine!” Oscar rea

      3 min read

    • Article

      Whoa! How Embarrassing!

      Aug 8, 2019

      It was my school’s sports car nival day and I was about to run the r elay race. I was standing at the start line waiting for the race to begin and I was daydr eaming. I thought I hear d the starter so I started sprinting as fast as I could. Suddenly

      3 min read

    • Article

      Whoa! How Embarrassing!

      Feb 1, 2023

      Whoa! How Embarrassing!
      2 min read

    • Article

      THE FLYING TORTOISE A Nigerian Folk Tale

      Sep 1, 2020

      THE FLYING TORTOISE A Nigerian Folk Tale
      3 min read

    • Article

      Temple Opens The Door

      Jan 5, 2022

      Temple Opens The Door
      4 min read

    • Article

      The Quest For Mushrooms

      Feb 2, 2022

      The Quest For Mushrooms
      4 min read

    • Article

      Delayed Reactions

      Feb 1, 2023

      Delayed Reactions
      6 min read

    • Article

      Finding the Perfect Sandy

      May 1, 2019

      Finding the Perfect Sandy
      7 min read

    • Article

      The Best Apple Crisp in the World

      Jul 1, 2020

      The Best Apple Crisp in the World
      2 min read

    • Article

      The Seal's Skin

      Nov 1, 2021

      The Seal's Skin
      5 min read

    • Article

      Totally EMBARRASSING

      Nov 8, 2020

      Totally EMBARRASSING
      2 min read

    • Article

      The 19 th Arrgh September

      Sep 1, 2022

      The 19 th Arrgh September
      2 min read

    • Article

      “God Is A Bathtub !”

      Jul 15, 2021

      IT must be the full moon. It was all going along quite comfortably for, ooh, about nine seconds. I’d asked what the album will be like, like it tells me to in the manual. And Björk had replied, “all sorts of things”, just like pop stars are supposed

      9 min read

    • Article

      Greetings Earthlings

      Sep 7, 2023

      Greetings Earthlings
      5 min read

    • Article

      Me & Davey Waters

      Jan 15, 2023

      Me & Davey Waters
      4 min read

    • Article

      The Joke

      Sep 1, 2020

      Although best known for his 1953 novel Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury was also a prolific writer of short stories, having published his first while still a teenager. This previously unpublished story likely dates to 1950, the year The Martian Chronicle

      5 min read

    • Article

      Swisher Sweets

      May 1, 2022

      Swisher Sweets
      17 min read

    • Article

      Chosen

      Aug 2, 2018

      Chosen
      10 min read

    • Article

      Supportive Husband

      Sep 12, 2023

      There were less intimate places available, so it was odd when a woman took the seat directly facing mine across the subway aisle. I looked up from my book and right back down: a couple of months before, we’d gone home together. She had a Southern acc

      22 min read

    • Article

      Greetings Earthlings

      Apr 18, 2024

      Wiping the sleep out of my eyes, I turned the lock in the back door and opened it. It was 6am on 11 December 2018, freezing and dark. But my two dogs Penny and Blossom needed to go out to the garden – it was the same routine every morning. Standing i

      5 min read

    • Article

      Kids & Angels

      Jun 25, 2019

      Kids & Angels
      4 min read

    • Article

      A Voice In The Marsh

      May 24, 2019

      A Voice In The Marsh
      5 min read

    • Article

      THE WALLS Have Eyes

      Aug 6, 2019

      THE WALLS Have Eyes
      4 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Pleasing the Ghost

    3.5/5

    42 ratings4 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      So fun. The ghost of the title is key, though - it's his uncle, a victim of a stroke that left him with tangled semantics. But our hero can figure out what he's saying. Therefore it's not just a funny ghost story but also a heartwarming story about relationships and communication.
    • 4/5
      A great story to read aloud to fourth grade students. Tight story, good pace, realistic despite its paranormal subject matter, and just enough humor.
    • 3/5
      Not the best Creech book, by far. Not horrible, but not as good as many of her others, such as Walk Two Moons.
    • 4/5
      This book is about a nine year old boy named Dennis. He is visited by ghosts frequently, but always hopes that is the ghost he has sent for. His father died a year ago and he is hoping that he will visit Dennis soon. He does get a visit from a familiar ghost, his Uncle Arvie. Before his Uncle died he had a stroke which fumbled his speech. His Uncle tells Dennis that he wants him to help him with "3 pleases" wishes. It is unfinished business that he would like Dennis to help him with. Throughout the story Dennis is trying to help his Uncle Arvie with this pleases, but is having trouble understanding him due to the stroke. It is kind of a distraction when reading to have to decipher what he is saying or to read through it to get to the translation. He ends up helping his uncle with his wishes while also dealing with a bully named BIlly. They end up having something in common. I think this could be a good story to introduce this genre of science fiction.

    Book preview

    Pleasing the Ghost - Sharon Creech

    1

    WITH THE WIND

    I’m Dennis, your basic, ordinary nine-year-old boy, and usually I live a basic, ordinary life. I go to school, I take care of my dog, I eat, I sleep. Sometimes, though, my life is not so ordinary. This is because of the ghosts.

    Another one arrived last week. It came on the wind, like the others. It’s not an ordinary wind that brings these ghosts—it’s a bare whisper of wind that tickles the curtains. No one feels or hears this wind except me and my dog, Bo.

    The first ghost came a month after my father died. It was my great gran, but I didn’t know she was a ghost. She seemed real enough to me. When I mentioned Great Gran’s visit to my mother, she said, Dennis, Great Gran’s in heaven.

    Not last night she wasn’t, I said.

    A month later my old cat, Choo, flew in my bedroom window. I could see him plain as anything, but he felt as light as a leaf. When I held his puckered old face up to my mother, she pressed her hand against my forehead. Oh Dennis, she said. Not feeling well? Choo’s been dead for six months.

    There have been other ghosts since Choo and Great Gran. There was an old man who used to live next door, a woman who said she had lived two hundred years ago, and a policeman. A constant parade of ghosts, but never the one I really want.

    I asked the policeman ghost, Why do ghosts visit me? Why don’t they visit anyone else I know?

    You didn’t send for us? Sometimes we’re sent for.

    I didn’t send for you, I said. I hadn’t sent for Choo or Great Gran either, though it was nice to see them. And I certainly hadn’t sent for the dead old man or woman. But if I did send for a specific ghost, would he come?

    Hard to say, he said. Can’t always go where we aim! I was just out riding on the wind, and this is where it brought me. Thought maybe you sent for me.

    Imagine! To ride on the wind and whiz into people’s windows like that!

    Last Friday, as I climbed into bed, I heard one of the whispering winds. When my mother came in to say good night, I asked her if a storm was coming.

    Storm? I don’t think so. Look how calm it is. Not even a breeze out there.

    So I knew that this was another ghost wind. Soon it would be followed by a faint whistle, and then the wind would swirl and roll and twist in through the room trailing a cloud of blue smoke. Out of that blue smoke would step a ghost. That’s how it happens. It doesn’t matter if the window is open or not. The wind and the ghost will come right through it.

    I’ve tried to tell my friends and teachers about these ghosts, but they just laugh. What an imagination! my teachers say. One boy at school, Billy Baker, punched me in the chest. You don’t see no ghosts, you stupid liar, he said.

    Billy was new at our school. My teacher sat him next to me. She whispered, You and Billy have something in common. I know you’ll be nice to him.

    Nice to him! I tried, but he was the grumpiest crab I’d ever met. After he punched me for no good reason, I decided someone else could be nice to him. And as for having something in common—hah! The only things we seemed to have in common were that we were both boys and we were in the same class.

    Bo whimpered in his sleep. Did he sense what was coming? The wind whistled, and the curtains curled in the air. Bo’s yellow fur stood on end.

    The ghosts

    Enjoying the preview?
    Page 1 of 1