Dying to Meet You by Kate Klise is one of the most creative and clever books that I have read in a long time. Klise pays so much attention to detail throughout the entire book. She makes sure there is really good character development as well as a thoughtful plot. From the moment you open this book, you will also realize how different it is than any other. Once you open the inside cover, you immediately see the blueprint of the house. The blueprint gives amazing detail. As you turn the next pages the reader is shown portraits of the characters. Some of the names include I.B. Grumply, Anita Sale, Seymour Hope, and Paige Turner. I love how Klise played on words with the characters names. One of my favorites characters name was E. Gadds. Before you even get to the story, the reader also experiences a warning page. The creativity before the story even begins is awesome.
The story just gets better from here. The story is about an old writer who is experiencing writer's block. He moves to a rental home in Ghastly, Illinois. He soon realizes he is not living alone. His roommates consist of an 11 year old boy named Seymour and a 190 year old ghost named Olive C. Spence! Olive won't stop haunting the house until one of her own books gets published.
This book is so funny and I know kids over 3rd grade would love it. The book is written almost entirely of letters going back and forth from one character to the next. Within the book there are also newspaper articles and short clips from Grumply's next book. I do believe that students would really enjoy this format. It's fun and different than a lot of other books out there.
If you like this book by Klise then continue reading the series. The next book is called Over My Dead Body. Check out the YouTube clip below. This clip was actually done by Kate Klise herself along with her sister who illustrates the book. I found out from this clip that the house on the cover of the book is actually real!
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