Lucky third graders in The Haunting of Grade Three. Their school is overcrowded, so they get to have their classes in the old Blackwell Mansion, abandoned almost 20 years ago. Did the Blackwells flee a ghost? Adam, our main character, would like to think so. The 1984 'Ghostbusters' is his favorite movie. (Although this book copyrighted 1987, there's no mention of the cartoon series based on that movie, 'The Real Ghosbusters', which started in 1986. It was a good show.)

Some strange things happen in Mr. Jenkins' classroom, #3-B. He appoints six of his students to investigate. Adam is thrilled to be one of them. Norma Hamburger, chair of their committee, isn't. Neither are Chuck Webber, the class clown or Dan Biddicker, the football player,. Debbie Clark the science nut thinks it could be interesting. Joey Baker, who doesn't even try to keep track of his lies, is frankly terrified.

I enjoyed glimpses of the kids' home lives and their investigations. Adam and his pal Chuck make a rather ominous discovery on the mansion grounds. Have they found the ghost, if there is a ghost?
I don't want to give the answer away, but I'm quite sure I wouldn't have been brave enough to do what these kids do when I was in third grade (in 1963).

Notes:

Chapter 1: 'VCR' is the initialism for video cassette recorder, which is what we used before DVRs (digital video recorders).

Chapter 2: Adam's big sister, Lisa, tells a ghost story.

Chapter 4:

a. Adam and Chuck exchange some bad monster riddles.

b. 'Hold the pickles, hold the lettuce' was part of a Burger King jingle. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJXzkUH72cY

Chapter 10: Where the Wild Things Are, Little House on the Prairie, and Barbie are all mentioned.

Chapter 12:

a. There's another bad monster riddle.

b. 'Have it Your Way' is another part of that old Burger King jingle.

Chapter 15:

a. Look here for some newspaper articles. This is where we learn that Elmwood is in Bacon County.

b. I knew 'the joint is jumpin' was an old expression for a very lively place, but I didn't know it was also an old Fats Waller song. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKe6yH3ZwGo

Chapter 16:

a. 'Where's the beef?' was the catchphrase from a series of Wendy's commercials.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmRe5RglLxk

b. Have some more monster riddles.

Chapter 17:

a. Adam is talking about a real movie, but the author included a big spoiler, so I'm not going to name it in case you haven't seen this classic. (That was the movie that made me realize all those gruesome photos I was seeing in the medical library where I worked had changed me. Instead of being scared by a gross scene, I murmured, Nice special effects.)

2. Adam is talking about the classic 1954 monster movie 'Them!' http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047573/

3. We were telling the story Chuck tells here back when I was a kid.

Kelly Oechsli's illlustrations add to the fun. ( )

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Book level 3.8, 1 AR pt.