Ghost Town

by Richard W. Jennings

Spencer Adams Honesty may be the last best hope for Paisley, Kansasand for lonely kids everywhere.

Spencer Honesty and his mom are the last people left in Paisley, except for Chief Leopard Frog, Spence’s imaginary friend. One lonely day, Chief Leopard Frog’s carved rabbit talisman tells Spence to take his photo, so Spence digs up his late father’s camera and starts shooting photographs all around his ghost town. When the photos come back developed, he does not expect to see his old neighbor Maureen Balderson in her bedroom. Or Ma Puttering clearing weeds in her yard. They aren’t in Paisley anymore. Yet there they are.
What happens to Spence next is unexpected. It involves a catalog called Uncle Milton’s Thousand Things You Thought You’d Never Find, a poetry deal gone awry, and a ghost camera that promises to take pictures of the past (just be sure not to photograph yourself).

Genres: Fantasy, Supernatural

167 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Richard Jennings was born and raised in Tennessee. After attending Rhodes College, he moved to Kansas City where he co-founded a popular book store, Rainy Day Books, where his books are always in stock.

Mr. Jennings lives in Overland Park, Kansas, with his wife and family. “He has five children, four grandchildren, a dog, a cat, and a parrot” (as seen on the cover of his books).

He has written novels, short stories, essays, articles, children’s activity books, has made several professional appearances, is a literary judge, and he continues to publish new works.

Reviews

[Diane Ferbrache · Rating 3 out of 5]

Spencer Honesty (13 years old) & his mom are the last people in Paisley, KS. Everyone has moved away, but they can’t leave because Spencer’s mom is the postmaster. In the absence of anyone else to talk to, Spencer’s imaginary friend from childhood reappears. When Spencer discovers his father’s old camera, he starts a chain of events that include “ghosts” appearing in his photos, poetry, and a correspondence with a novelty salesman in the Cayman Islands. Sound strange? It is, but ultimately pretty charming.
Unfortunately, I don’t know who the target audience is for this book. I don’t really expect any young teen to love it, and there are some interesting situations that will likely annoy parents. (Read the reviews on Amazon.com) It’s a short book with an intriguing, whimsical tale and I do understand the appeal, but I just couldn’t get into it.

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

Yeah. That might have been a "Young Adult" book, I'm not sure. But it is late in the year and my numbers are pretty bad so I'm going to put it on the list and arm myself with the defense that "Cather in the Rye" and "To Kill A Mockingbird" would probably be considered "ya" if published today. It was a good enough book, I'm just not positive it was meant for grown-ups. I guess if adults can un-ironically read "Harry Potter" it is pretty much anything goes.

[Shanna · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this one to my kids, and I am so glad I didn’t let them read it themselves. The idea for this book is intriguing, and the fact that it is set in a dying town in Kansas was exciting to us because our family moved to a small Kansas town that we initially called a “ghost town”. The main character, Spencer Honesty, is a 13-year-old boy that uses his late-fathers camera to photograph things around the empty town because he is bored. Turns out that it takes photographs of people who aren’t actually in the picture! This idea could’ve been developed more, my kids wanted to hear more about this but The author did not make much of this phenomenon except to have him reminisce about who used to live there. He also was not supposed to take pictures of himself, and when he took a picture of his toe, it disappeared! This should’ve caused more uproar, because yikes! But he seemed to forget about it. So we were disappointed that he didn’t make more out of the “ghosts”. And this 13-year old also had an imaginary friend that turned up in a picture, scared a journalist, and carved talismans and wrote poetry. So was it actually a ghost? We were confused by this character even though it was central to the story. Even though this was about a young teenager, this book was on our shelf for 9-12 year olds. After reading this aloud to them, I WOULD NOT have let them read it. There is a girl who kisses him and takes off her top (“it made the kissing more fun”) and several spots with bad language as well as talking about getting another girl to sleep in his room. My 13-year-old likes to think about kissing girls but is still somewhat innocent (THANK GOD). Why do we want to put these ideas into the minds of our 9-12 year olds? It happens naturally anyway, let’s keep them innocent as long as possible! I understand that there are many many kids who have an understanding of this they shouldn’t have yet as a result of their home life-but I would rather not normalize this! PROTECT OUR KIDS! Had I not read this to my kids to skip over those spots, I may be asking to take this off the shelves. But it would be better to put it on the young adult shelves since it is mild enough that teenagers would relate better than my 10-year-old that still thinks kissing is gross! It did have some funny spots and was otherwise decently enjoyable since I skipped what was inappropriate.

[N. · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5/5

[Jody Bachelder · Rating 1 out of 5]

What a strange little book! Thirteen-year-old Spencer Adams Honesty and his mom are the only two people in the town of Paisley, Kansas. Due to economic downturns and bad luck, the rest of the people in town packed up and moved away. Spencer’s mom is the postal carrier, so she draws a paycheck to deliver mail to -- no one. Needless to say, Spencer is a pretty lonely boy, and he has to create his own diversions. He has an imaginary friend, Chief Leopard Frog, who plays a large role in the story. Spencer discovers his deceased father’s camera and starts playing around with it, only to find that when he develops the film ghosts start appearing in his pictures. He’s not very spooked by that, and he doesn’t even share this information with the only other human around, his mother. He just starts scheming ways to make money so he can buy more film and take more ghost pictures. Enter a few wacky characters, and you’ve got a pretty strange story. This could appeal to that random, quirky middle-schooler, but be aware that Spencer is a little obsessed with his ex-neighbor Maureen Balderson who teases him by taking off her shirt before she leaves town. Spencer is a little like Forrest Gump, in that in a simple way with his can-do attitude, he is able to accomplish some pretty amazing feats. I just don’t know who I will recommend this book to.....

[Esther · Rating 2 out of 5]

Published in 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Books for Children
Interest Level: 8th-11th Grade

This book is about a boy who lives in an abandoned town with his mother. The reason why his mother and him are living at this abandoned town is because his mother is the postal worker who sorts and forwards all the mail that comes through the abandoned town. Spencer is a boy who is curious and goes gallivanting around the abandoned town but finds that some things, when photographed, are not what they seem.

What I enjoyed about this book were the mystery and plot progression for 3/4 of the book. What I did not enjoy was the hasty ending with a seemingly random set of events that were utilized to simply explain away any questions. I would rather have been left with questions than have a hastily ended plot with strange, almost inexplicable events.

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ok this book was a little strange. It bothered me how they made such a big deal about the "ghost camera", but it didn't turn out to be such a big part of the story. That bothered me and the end was pretty rediculous. As for the rest of it, getting into the mind of a 13-year-old boy worried me. I was right to be worried. It was a little iffy, but interesting at times. I had to make myself sit down and read it as opposed to wanting to sit and read. Oh well. Not my favorite book and somewhat of a waste of my time.

[Jessica · Rating 1 out of 5]

Really hated this book. Can I give it zero stars? Way too many loose ends and incredibly rushed at the end. There was no effort on the author's part to even try to explain what was going on with the camera and "imaginary friend" and so forth. And to add on to that, the message of the book seemed to be that money solves all problems and gives you friends. I can't stress enough how dumb this book was. Why a publisher actually spent money on this book is beyond me.

[Julissac · Rating 3 out of 5]

Spencer Adams a teenage boy and his mom are the only people living in Paisley, Kansas. Everybody has move but Spencer and his mom couldn’t because his mom is a postmaster. Spencer is a really lonely boy with no friends or other people to talk to except his mom. He tells himself if he even has a name since no one calls him by his name not even his mom. He started to imagine people that use to live there. He had imaginary friends witch he talk to and play with.

[Jennifer · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was just okay. I was hoping for something a bit more when I read the premise (a young man finds that his camera also captures the people missing from his photos), but about halfway through it got a little silly. The main character didn't seem to grow too much - no big lessons learned here - and I just got to the point where I didn't care.

[Emily Rozmus · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am not sure what this book was trying to be, but it never really made it anywhere close to anything. I really liked the main character, but not the course the book took at the end. There were too many quirky, magical components that led nowhere.

[Monica · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have no idea why I adored this strange little book so much. I think I was just fascinated by the whole idea of a ghost town and Spencer's friendships with imaginary, real and mail order friends. It was such a feel good book I'd recommend it to anyone who enjoys a fast, quirky read.

[AquaMoon · Rating 4 out of 5]

A far-fetched, yet enjoyable tall tale about a boy, his imaginary friend, a nearly-deserted town, and a mysterious camera that captures what's not really there.

[Christi · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found the main concept of this book "a camera that captures pictures of people no longer living in the ghost town of Paisley, Kansas a lot more interesting than the book itself.

[Kathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Such droll humor and funny insights make this a good read but I am not sure kids would like it as much as adults.

[Deena · Rating 2 out of 5]

Stupid book, but author does have a sense of humor. I gave it two stars only because of the number of times I laughed. Laughter is good.

[Laurie Arnez · Rating 2 out of 5]

The main character is too old for imaginary friend. Not a great book.

[Ashley Elking · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was just so lonely.

[Elizabeth Wilborn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a great short read. It has twists and turns that one never expects.

[Sabrina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sooo technically this is YA but i thought it should have been a J-fic....But this is a really good book! At first, it was kind of weird but it was great once you get into it!!! =)

[Stephanie A. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well, that was a whole lot of weird fantasy wish-fulfillment.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

Paisley is a ghost town.....there are currently only two residents, and one imaginary friend.