Jimmy's Aunt owns a house that everyone claims is haunted. She laments that their financial situation would be remedied if only the house could be rented out. Jimmy figures out a way to trick the ghost who lives there. He finally gets people to rent the house, and then he and his aunt get the financial stability they had been withing for.

This was a really cute, unexpected story. It reminded me that there is always another way to look at problems, and that sometimes the ones we least expect to come up with solutions are the ones who find them.

I am a mildly enthusiastic fan of Walter R. Brooks, classic American children's author of the Freddy books. I was curious when I saw what looked like a book I had never seen before...

There's no information on where this volume popped up from, although from various clues I'm guessing it was a lately discovered, possibly unfinished manuscript of Brooks. It doesn't appear to have been published before.

Jimmy lives with his aunt in rather tight financial circumstances. If only she could rent out the old house she inherited! But everyone is afraid of the ghost. After a terrible fright, Jimmy comes up with a clever plan to make the house livable. This brief story is full of Brooks' dry and folksy humor and is a quick and enjoyable nostalgic read, although I doubt if many kids will be drawn to it.

ISBN: 1585678953; Published May 2007 by Overlook; Borrowed from the library