A GHOST IN THE HOUSE

Sarah's joy in a promising new life is threatened when her father loses his first good job. The family's financial crisis is somewhat alleviated by having a great-aunt come to live with them—with the result that Sarah must give up her dream bedroom and stay with crotchety Aunt Margaret while both parents are at work. Difficulties increase as strange events begin to occur and Sarah's mother refuses to consider Sarah's suggestion that there is a ghost, implying that Sarah is lying, and forcing her and Aunt Margaret to cope alone with the escalating violence of a malevolent spirit that turns out to be from Aunt Margaret's youth. Afraid that she too will be doubted, Aunt Margaret keeps her own counsel, resolving to return to her nursing home. In a final hair-raising encounter, Sarah helps rout the ghost, which also leads to everyone's realization that they truly are a family. Many of the motifs here will be comfortingly familiar to Wright's fans: a successful meld of family living and the satisfyingly scary supernatural. (Fiction. 8-12)