The door was locked with a rusted padlock, but when Alice yanked on the wooden handle, the whole thing came off in her hands.
     Another invitation? It was as if the house were saying to Alice, It’s about time you showed up.
     “Hello?” she whispered. But the house didn’t respond.

Ten-year-old Alice is moving to a new house for the eleventh time. Her loving but kooky parents keep hopping from one dilapidated wreck to the next, and Alice and her handy father fix-up each one until it’s better than new.

But when Alice arrives at their newest home, she can’t take her eyes off the house next door. Once a grand mansion and now a condemned disaster, the House beckons Alice in mysterious ways. That’s okay with Alice: It's the perfect new repair job!

As Alice begins to restore the House to its former splendor, she senses strange presences. Is there a heartbeat coming from the walls? Is someone watching t her as she works? Soon she realizes she’s not alone. Three ghosts are trapped in the House, and they need Alice’s help to find their way out.

Will Alice be able to help the ghosts, unravel the mysteries of the House, and find her forever home…before it’s too late?

Age Range: 8 - 12 years
Hardcover: 240 pages
Publisher: Clarion Books (July 18, 2023)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0063258072
ISBN-13: 978-0063258075

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REVIEWS

“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.”

Well cast, well told, but mostly just terrific.(Paranormal. 9-12)
—Kirkus, starred review

“An indefatigable 10-year-old resolves to help the restless spirits haunting the house next door move on to the afterlife in this wholesome ghost story by Davies (The Bridge Battle). In what her mother promises will be the white-cued family’s last uprooting for a while, Alice Cannoli-Potchnik and her loving parents move into a run-down house on the edge of the college campus where her mother lectures. While exploring the new neighborhood, Alice is drawn to the condemned abode next door. After fixing the residence’s damaged hearth—an easy feat for handy Alice, who’s helped her father fix up their last 11 homes—she finds herself in the company of several ghosts, all with unfinished business preventing them from passing on. But Alice’s mission to assist her ghostly neighbors is jeopardized when a demolition crew arrives to tear the house down. Spurred by Alice’s ferocious determination, this cleverly plotted genealogical mystery delves into the specters’ history as much as Alice’s own, culminating in an exhilarating sequence of events that proves Davies’s uncanny balance of whimsy and excitement. This mesmerizing Monster House–flavored tale is packed with oodles of heart.”
—Publisher’s Weekly, starred review

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