Ghost Buddy #2: Mind If I Read Your Mind?
Ghost Buddy #2: Mind If I Read Your Mind?
by New York Times-bestselling authors Henry Winkler and Lin Oliver
Ghost Buddy #2 is the follow-up book to the very successful 1st in the series, Ghost Buddy #1: Zero to Hero. Comical characters and hilarious plots will delight your kids and bring a fun reading experience to the long days of summer. It’s the perfect title for a family book club get-together!
About Ghost Buddy #1: Zero to Hero
Billy Broccoli is new to the neighborhood, and wants cool friends and a spot on the baseball team more than anything. But the one thing he never wanted is his own personal ghost. So imagine his surprise when he ends up sharing a room with Hoover Porterhouse, a funny ghost with a whole lot of attitude.
When an obnoxious school bully sets out to demolish Billy, the Hoove comes up with a plan for revenge. It’s all in the Hoove’s Rule Number Forty-Two: Stay cool. And like it or not, Billy and the Hoove have to stick together if Billy ever wants to get in style, get even, and conquer the school.
About Ghost Buddy #2: Mind If I Read Your Mind?
It's time for Moorepark Middle School's annual Speak Out Challenge, and Billy Broccoli thinks he's got it made. With his best friend Hoover Porterhouse—the ghost with the most—by his side, Billy’s got the competition in the bag. Who wouldn't vote for a demonstration on mind reading?
But when Billy lands a spot on the sixth-grade team, he starts spending more time with his new teammates than he does with Hoover. And the Hoove plays second fiddle to no one! If Billy's not careful, his secret weapon might just vanish into thin air, leaving Billy to pick up the pieces of a demonstration-day disaster
A Book For The Whole Family
When I first heard about the Ghost Buddy books, I may or may not have been primarily interested in reading them because they were written by Henry Winkler. I knew that my husband would first laugh at me for wanting to read children's books and then be intrigued by the fact that the books were written by someone he recognized. I didn't care about either of these things, though, because I thought that maybe I could read them to my boy and get him more interested in books for reading stories and expand his mind even more.
You already know that he loves books and that comes from us reading to him even when he was in the womb and then every day of his life. We mostly read children's books with lots of pictures so this was going to be a new experience for him – chapter books. He's only four so I didn't know how well it would go, but I thought it couldn't hurt to try.
A Ghost Story for Kids Like Me!!
After the initial shock of a book with no pictures – he said "Mommy, these books are no good because there are no pictures" – we thumbed through the pages and looked at the fronts and backs and decided that we could give it a try. I told him to use his imagination (like pretending) and we would read just a little bit at a time. I wasn't sure what to expect with the "ghost story" but my boy is also a little braver than I have ever been when it comes to "scary stuff". I'm a scared-y cat about everything.
There was nothing scary about these books and all three of us were entertained!!
We loved both books and would read a chapter or even half a chapter every night that we could. Sometimes I would keep reading after the boy fell asleep and then would tell him what happened in the morning (I'm way past my deadline in posting this because we took too long to read it ;)). We would talk about what Billy and "the Hoove" were going to do next and got quite a few laughs. Hubby couldn't resist listening to us after about half of the first book and by the time we were in the second book, he was turning the TV off and reading along with us. We had a great time as a family in reading these stories.
Learning about Billy and bullies
I really enjoyed reading about Billy and all of his awkwardness, all of the challenges that he faced, and then about how he met all of these challenges with humor. My boy is a little klutzy himself and can be shy and awkward, too. He's young enough right now that it's cute and funny and his friends at Pre-K don't notice, but I see how these can become challenges when he starts school or if he were put in a new situation with a new town and new friends.
I was happy to see that my boy was excited about the stories and I plan to read them to him again before Kindergarten next year. I'm going to save the books – and look forward to the next book – How to Scare the Pants off Your Pets – so he can read it again on his own someday!
Ghost Buddy trailer from Scholastic!!
What books are your children reading?!!
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