SCHOOL OF THE DEAD

From Newbery award winner Avi comes the story of seventh-grader Tony Gilbert, who, after transferring to the mysterious Penda School, starts seeing the ghost of his great uncle Charlie.

Anthony Gilbert was not always close to his Uncle Charlie. In fact, most of his life, Tony always thought of him as “Weird Uncle Charlie.” Until Uncle Charlie moves in with Tony and his family – then the two become inseparable, eating hamburgers and ice cream, driving around town together, and telling stories. And boy, does Uncle Charlie have a lot of tales to tell! He is always going on about ghosts and spirits and other supernatural stuff. Tony figures it is just his kooky Uncle Charlie being kooky...

But then, after a brief illness, Uncle Charlie dies. Tony is devastated at this loss, and though others around him encourage him to move on, he cannot. That is when he inexplicably starts seeing Uncle Charlie. Now, Tony wonders if all Uncle Charlie’s talk of spirits and ghosts was real after all.

Around the same time, Tony gets accepted to the Penda School, a private institution that Uncle Charlie attended as a kid. When Tony arrives, he cannot help but feel like there is something odd going on. For one, he keeps seeing a boy with blond curly hair around school, but whenever he tries to talk to him, the blond boy vanishes. There is also the eerie story of Austin, the boy whose spot Tony took at Penda. People say he disappeared, but no one wants to talk about the suspicious events leading up to it. And the kids that do seem to know something – Jessica and Macaulay – are too weird for words. But Tony will have to suck it up and join the weirdos if he wants to find out exactly what secrets this school is keeping – and how the ghost of Uncle Charlie factors in.

Avi is the award-winning author of more than sixty books for young readers, ranging from animal fantasy to gripping historical fiction, picture books to young adult novels. Crispin: The Cross of Lead won the Newbery Medal, and The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle and Nothing But the Truth were awarded Newbery Honors. He is also the author of the popular Poppy series. Avi lives in Denver, Colorado.