Description:

There are ghosts at Bird Lake, and they're haunting Mitch Sinclair and Spencer Stone. Not the Halloween kind, but ghosts of the past. Memories of how life was before—before the divorce, before the accident. Can their ghosts bring Mitch and Spencer together, as friends? Or will their secrets keep them apart? Either way, it is a summer that neither Mitch nor Spencer will ever forget. ** ### From Booklist *Starred Review* Mitch Sinclair, 12, is at Bird Moon Lake because his parents are divorcing. But there are tense moments with his grandparents, so Mitch fantasizes about moving into the empty house next door. Then Spencer Stone and his family, who own the cottage, arrive. Spencer and younger sister love the lake, but it’s also the place where their barely remembered brother, Matty, drowned at age four. Told in overlapping chapters, the story is spare. Mitch tricks Spencer into thinking Matty is haunting them; then he does something worse. After the boys become friends, the truth becomes both barrier and bridge. As in his Newbery Honor Book Olive’s Ocean (2003), every word counts, moving the story forward moment by moment. Yet the writing is as evocative as it is precise: fireflies are “pinpricks of topaz.” Emotions are just as carefully carved, turning characterization into portraiture; the children stand out in relief, against the deceptive tranquility of the lake. Some children may find the story too quiet or the ending too abrupt. But Henkes knows children and their secrets, and readers will lean close to hear the whispers. Grades 5-7. --Ilene Cooper ### About the Author Kevin Henkes is the author of *Junonia*, *Sun & Spoon*, *Bird Lake Moon*, and the Newbery Honor Books *The Year of Billy Miller* and *Olive's Ocean*. He also writes and illustrates picture books, and among his many titles are the national bestsellers *Little White Rabbit*, *My Garden*, *Old Bear*, *A Good Day*, and *Kitten's First Full Moon*, for which he was awarded the Caldecott Medal. Mr. Henkes is also the creator of a series of books starring mouse characters, including the Penny books for beginning readers, *Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse*, *Chrysanthemum*, and *Owen*, for which he was awarded a Caldecott Honor. Kevin Henkes lives with his family in Madison, Wisconsin.