THE INTERNATIONAL HOUSE OF DERELICTION

A project-oriented child has her work cut out for her in a long-abandoned house with several resident ghosts.

No sooner does 10-year-old Alice discover that the derelict house next door has a heartbeat and is somehow aware of her than she knows what she must do. First, fix up at least the living room—a task of which she is perfectly capable, having assisted her father in refurbishing the last 11 houses they have lived in. Second, help the four ghosts she meets resolve the “Unfinished Business of the Heart” that’s kept them from moving on. This proves considerably more difficult—but with Alice’s being “a rare old soul with more flint and steel in her small body than most people might have guessed,” it’s not impossible despite obstacles ranging from a furious poltergeist to righting the shocking, shocking wrong of an overdue library book. Davies really cranks up the climax with the unexpected arrival of a demolition crew, but by that time the cast has already made this a magically immersive experience. Only the stony of heart could fail to fall in love with clever, competent, resolute Alice or, for that matter, the supporting cast that includes her adorable parents and a host of unfailingly interesting ancestors. On their way to the poignant, satisfying close, thoughtful readers may find some new insight into what Goodnight Moon is actually about, too. The cast reads White. Final art not seen.

Well cast, well told, but mostly just terrific.