The Ghost Next Door
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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| Author | R.L. Stine |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | Goosebumps |
| Genre(s) | Horror fiction, Children's literature |
| Publisher | Scholastic |
| Released | August 1993 |
| Media type | Print (Paperback) |
| Pages | 124 p. |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-590-49445-7 |
| Preceded by | Welcome To Camp Nightmare |
| Followed by | The Haunted Mask |
The Ghost Next Door is the title of two different children's books.
[edit] R.L. Stein's Book
The Ghost Next Door is the 10th novel of the R.L. Stine's Goosebumps series.
In the book a girl named Hannah wonders if her new neighbor is in fact a ghost, after waking up after a nightmare in which she and her family died in a house fire.
While Hannah is outside, she meets a boy named Danny. After Danny survives many dangers, (for example, a high fall), she starts to suspect that he is a ghost. Meanwhile, Hannah is being followed by a strange man in black.
Hannah discovers the truth from a conversation between two old women--Hannah and her family died in the house fire Hannah thought was a dream. She also finds out that Danny's mom was actually deaf and that was why she wouldn't answer the door. When Danny and the other kids set fire to the mailman's house, Danny is trapped inside, making him an easy target for the shadow man. Hannah saves Danny from the shadow man's clutches and is reunited with her family in the afterlife.
[edit] Wylly Folk St. John's Book
The Ghost Next Door is also the title of a 1970s children's book by Wylly Folk St. John with illustration by Trina Schart Hyman.
This book is set in Georgetown, Georgia one summer during the late 1960s or early 1970s. The story is narrated by Lindsey Morrow, and mainly concerns her elderly neighbor Judith Alston. More than thirteen years before the events of the story, Judith's niece Miranda drowned in the fishing pond in her backyard.
The book's main plot centers around the visit of Judith's niece Sherry, 10 years of age, who is (unknowingly) Miranda's half-sister. Even Sherry's mother doesn't know about her husband's previous marriage, and his deceased child Miranda. Judith reluctantly agrees to keep the secret.
Shortly after Sherry arrives she begins to play with an imaginary friend called Miranda. As more time passes it is revealed that Sherry has intimate knowledge of Miranda's life and her relationship with Judith. The reader is left to wonder if Sherry's friend is really Miranda's ghost. The book also offers alternate explanations: such as Sherry finding Miranda's lost diary and forcing her father to acknowledge Miranda's existence, or Sherry being a reincarnation of Miranda's soul.
[edit] References
The Ghost Next Door by Wylly Folk St. John (Viking books, 1971), ISBN 0671442902
