Published: 2024
Genre: Fiction, Realistic Fiction, Friendship, Humor, Ghosts
Triggers: None
Audience: 4-6; Middle Grade
Summary: It’s the summer before fifth grade, and for Ferris Wilkey, it is a summer of sheer pandemonium: Her little sister, Pinky, has vowed to become an outlaw. Uncle Ted has left Aunt Shirley and, to Ferris’s mother’s chagrin, is holed up in the Wilkey basement to paint a history of the world. And Charisse, Ferris’s grandmother, has started seeing a ghost at the threshold of her room, which seems like an alarming omen given that she is also feeling unwell. But the ghost is not there to usher Charisse to the Great Beyond. Rather, she has other plans—wild, impractical, illuminating plans. How can Ferris satisfy a specter with Pinky terrorizing the town, Uncle Ted sending Ferris to spy on her aunt, and her father battling an invasion of raccoons?
As Charisse likes to say, “Every good story is a love story,” and Kate DiCamillo has written one for the ages: emotionally resonant and healing, showing the two-time Newbery Medalist at her most playful, universal, and profound.
Review: Young readers will identify with Ferris’ relationship with her extended family, especially her grandmother. Ferris herself is not an extraordinary character, however she does not despair even as she spends her summer trying to please everyone else in her life. The novel is peppered with vocabulary words and definitions, which goes along with DiCamillo’s writing philosophy of the power of language. One takeaway from the book: don’t ride a ferris wheel if you’re pregnant.
