Dial a Ghost

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Title and Cover
The book I’ve read is named Dial A Ghost and it’s called that because that’s the name of the agency that brings the ghosts to the story.
On the cover of the book you can see a boy lay in his bed and he’s surrounded by ghosts that frighten the kid. I have absolutely no idea of how that has anything to do with the story, because in the book it says that the ghosts are nice and that they’re like a family to the boy.


Authoress
The name of the authoress is Eva Ibbotson and she has a daughter and three sons, who showed her that children like to read about ghosts, wizards and witches “because they’re just like other people but madder and more interesting”, so now almost all of her books are about those kinds of “creatures”, as she likes to call them. She has written books like Which Witch, Not Just a Witch and The Secret of Platform 13. Eva was born 1925 in Vienna. She came to England as a child together with her family under the Second World War and now lives in Newcastle.
This book was written in 1969.


Contents
The book is mostly about an eight-year old boy by the name Oliver Smith and he finds out that he is the rightful owner of a very large and grand house called “Helton Hall”. Unfortunately he is the nephew of the two disgusting Fulton and Frieda Snodde-Brittle, who very badly want the house and the only way to get it is to get poor Oliver out of the way. So to do that they go to the Dial a Ghost agency and order some terrifying ghosts to Helton so that Oliver would run away or even worse, so that he would die! Somehow something goes wrong at the agency and Helton ends up with the nicest ghost family there is, the Wilkinsons, and Oliver couldn’t be any happier, but when Fulton finds out about this he gets furious and does the meanest things to wipe the smile off Oliver’s face.
Dial A Ghost is about ghosts but it’s more like adventure book than a ghost book.


Character description
I think that the main characters are Oliver and Adopta. Adopta is a girl about Oliver’s age. She was found by the Wilkinsons lying on the ground all wet, because she had drowned in the water. Since that incident Adopta has lived like a Wilkinson, fed like a Wilkinson and raised like a Wilkinson. When they moved in to Helton Hall Adopta and Oliver became not only family but also best friends.
Oliver is a very silent boy at the beginning because he was very lonely, but after the friendly ghosts moved in he has been a happy boy and then in the end he shows very clearly that he is not just a nice little boy that can be messed around. In a chapter of Dial A Ghost Oliver gets so mad at Fulton that he almost kills him. Adopta is exactly the same during the whole book. She isn’t afraid of anything, she lets no one boss her around or mess with her and she stands up to what she believes in. She’
How Adopta looks is never described in the book. All they say about her is that she has an old-fashioned nightdress and a ribbon round the neck. Oliver however is described as having large dark eyes, stick-like arms and legs, and soft fawn hair.


Story-teller
This book is written in third person all the time except when they quote a character in the book. It’s written as if it’s the writer speaking.


Meaningful sentence
“I Set My Foot Upon My Enemies”. I chose this sentence because it was the only one that actually means something in the book. The book is written for children so it’s not such a serious book. I personally think it’s a ridiculous saying.


Judgment and comments
I liked reading Dial A Ghost even though I’m usually not in to ghost stories. It was a fun book with many interesting things. The book made me think a bit more about for instance if there really are any ghosts, if it’s true that some people can and some...