Ghost Host

by Marilyn Singer

Ghostbusting isn't easy.

Bart Hawkins, star quarterback, has it all--looks, brains, personality, and a great looking girlfriend. But Bart's easy life is changing fast. His house is being haunted by a poltergeist. And this ghost is mean!

Bart decides to get rid of the nasty little spirit any way he can. . .until he finds out there are nine other ghosts who live in his house, too. One of them, named Millicent, strikes a bargain with him: If he leaves the nine nice ghosts in peace, she'll help him win his championship football game--invisibly.

This is one ghostly offer Bart can't refuse!

Genres: Young Adult, Horror, Paranormal, Ghosts, Novels

199 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1987

About the author

Marilyn Singer was born in the Bronx (New York City) on October 3, 1948 and lived most of her early life in N. Massapequa (Long Island), NY. She attended Queens College, City University of New York, and for her junior year, Reading University, England. She holds a B.A. in English from Queens and an M.A. in Communications from New York University.

In 1974, after teaching English in New York City high schools for several years, she began to write - initially film notes, catalogues, teacher's guides and film strips. Then, one day, when she was sitting in the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, she penned a story featuring talking insect characters she'd made up when she was eight. Encouraged by the responses she got, she wrote more stories and in 1976 her first book, The Dog Who Insisted He Wasn't, was published by E.P.Dutton & Co.

Since then, Marilyn has published over seventy books for children and young adults. Her genres are many and varied, including realistic novels, fantasies, non-fiction, fairy tales, picture books, mysteries and poetry. She likes writing many different kinds of books because it's challenging and it keeps her from getting bored. She has won several Children's Choice and Parents' Choice Awards, as well as the following: the Creature Carnival, Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award Honor Book, 2005; I Believe in Water: Twelve Brushes with Religion, New York Public Library's "Best Books for the Teen Age," 2001; Stay True: Short Stories for Strong Girls, Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults, 2000 (YALSA); On the Same Day in March, Booklist's Top Ten Science Books of 2000; NCSS-CBC Notable Book, 2000; Deal with a Ghost, finalist, YA category, Edgar Award, 1998; It Can't Hurt Forever, Maud Hart Lovelace Award, 1983; The Course of True Love Never Did Run Smooth, ALA Best Book for Young Adults, 1983; Turtle in July, NCTE Notable, N.Y.Times Best Illustrated and Time Magazine Best Children's Books of 1989; Turtle in July was also a Reading Rainbow review book.

Marilyn currently lives in Brooklyn, NY, with her husband Steve; their standard poodle Oggi, a cousin of their beloved and recently departed poodle Easy, seen in the home page photo; a cat named August ; two collared doves named Jubilee and Holiday; and a starling named Darling. Her interests include dog training, reading, hiking, bird-watching, gardening, meditation, playing computer adventure games and going to the movies and the theatre. She's also a major Star Trek fan.

Reviews

[Christy Hall · Rating 3 out of 5]

My daughter and I found this in a box of my old books from my early pre-teen and teen years. We decided to read it as a mother-daughter book. It was fun to revisit the book. I’m not sure it held up to my memory of it. Not enough depth of character. The action is at times repetitive. Some of the actions would have been better suited on slightly older characters. Some cliches are super heavy and annoyed me as an adult. My daughter liked it well enough. She thought it was a cute story. Her feelings are definitely an echo of my own 12-yr-old feelings.

[Katelynn · Rating 3 out of 5]

My battered copy of this book belonged to my older sister, and I still remember the day I found it in the basement when I was a kid, along with a bunch of her Christopher Pikes and other 80s young adult books she’d outgrown and I was a little too young for. This introduced me to a world of ghosts after Goosebumps and I was hooked. It was one of my favourite books when I was 11, and reading it now, 22 years later, I remembered the jokes and spooks and characters so well it felt a little like coming home in a way. There was even a section that I starred in pencil and I realized that was the part I read to my class for a book report. It’s a young adult book about ghosts written in the 80s so there’s a definite level of cringe and cheesiness but all in all it was as fun as I remember it being, and it made me happy to read because it was books like this that formed my love of ghosts (and good dialogue!) that I still have today, and it was a delight to reunite with it this October.

[Grace Chan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Maybe don't bother with this one unless you're like 12! Definitely more "kiddy" of the Point books I've read, this book was so wildly uneven. YES there are ghosts, but like, from a G rated movie. There's a poltergeist wreaking havoc in Bart's new family home but instead of raising up slimy skeletons from the pool or having creepy clown dolls come to life alá POLTERGEIST the movie (1982), this ghost resorts to zany tricks like zooming around and making all the chairs levitate and hiding things from their rooms. SNOOZE!!

I called this book uneven because while you have these Rated G antics, you also have underage drinking...one of Bart's friends sneaks a few 6 packs from their parents basement and they all drink "several" beers 🤣 I don't think I've ever read a Point novel with kids drinking so this was a fun shock lol.

Meanwhile a pretty girl ghost who enlists Barts help is super chill and cool and you think something may become of this relationship but no. This plot kind of drops out which was a disappointment.

A+ for a rad cover, and 2 stars for each can of booze that each kid drinks. Maybe seek your ghostly thrills elsewhere.

[Stay Fetters · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Bart flung down his backpack and raced after her. When he got to the living room door, he stood there and gulped. There was a splintered coffee table sitting in the middle of the room and no other furniture whatsoever. Where’s....... he began. Then he noticed his father and brother staring at the ceiling. He looked up too. There was everything else- sofa, chairs, lamps, end tables, tv, bookshelves, grandfather clock- all hanging from the ceiling. Barr let out a sound that was half laugh, half sob.”

It’s fun to revisit some of these that I remember reading as a kid. This one was a blast to get into again. It had some great lines and the story was pretty solid... even though it’s quite dated.

[Qt · Rating 4 out of 5]

3 1/2 stars

[Gina · Rating 5 out of 5]

this book tells the story of Bart, who is the quarterback of his school’s Football team. He also loves reading, but he doesn’t want anyone to know this, being a jock and all There ae ghosts in his house that only Bart can see, so with all the Football stuff, he also has to figure out how to get rid of a Poltergeist. You an tell that the auther likes both ghosts and sports. She does really well with showing the confusions of a teenage boy who’s really got a lot on his plate.

[Autumn Peirson · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite Childhood books! I still own a copy today, "Millie" is such a lovely, well written character and a delightful ghost!

[Felicia Moore · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very spooky and good!

[Tracy]

I got this in pack from one of those scholastic book programs with two other ghost books, one of which was called "The Rain Ghost". Recently, I was cleaning out old books and attempted to sell these to a used book store but they didn't want them. So I looked at them again (not sure why I didn't read back in ... third? fourth? fifth? grade, because I loved ghost stories) and decided to keep this one and "The Ghost of Graydon Place" and try to read them.

[Sharon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute and surprisingly wholesome. Relied a little too heavily on high school stereotypes for my taste, though Bart is a nice character who seems to do his best to manage school smarts and sports.

I did wonder, though, why he spent SUCH a long time trying to hide the poltergeist activity from his family when he could have just let them see it for themselves from the start.

[Vale Parada · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was delightful and charming. Even though I don't recommend it to horror fans. It's more like a suspense and humor ghost story.

[Stephanie Skye · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite books as a kid. I read it over and over.