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Buddy Files #6
The Case of the School Ghost
It's the night of the Fourth Grade sleepover, and Buddy is invited. When he gets to school, Mr. Poe, the custodian, tells everyone about the ghost that haunts the school grounds. There are no such things as ghosts, right? But secret notes, unusual banging, and a ghostly voice may indicate otherwise. Could this be why Connor and Michael are acting so strange? Is there really a ghost in the school? Buddy is determined to find out!
128 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2012
16 people are currently reading
94 people want to read
About the author
Dori Hillestad Butler
83 books138 followersDori Hillestad Butler is an American author of more than 40 children's books, as well as magazine stories, plays and educational materials. Her first book, The Great Tooth Fairy Rip-Off, was published in 1997. She is known particularly for The Truth about Truman School, a 2008 young adult title focusing on the subject of cyber bullying, and for My Mom's Having a Baby (illustrated by Carol Thompson), which in 2011 appeared on the American Library Association's list of most commonly challenged books in the United States for its portrayal of conception and childbirth. Her 2010 mystery title, Buddy Files: Case of the Last Boy, won the 2011 Edgar Award for the best juvenile mystery published in 2010. Before becoming a children's author, Butler worked for three years as a page at a library.
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
October 31, 2012
My son read this for Halloween. I think there are things which parents may find objectionable, so I will tell the whole story here.
A fourth grade sleepover is planed at the school, but there are rumors of a ghost named Agatha. Three students (and only three) secretly get notes and flashlights. Then at the school they do what they notes tell them to do. The girl is supposed to make a tape recording which says, "Don't go into the basement." which she does, but the tape recorder is found and she confesses. Next the three kids secretly go to the music room. They play with a ouija board, which sends the message, "Go to the furnace room." But when they get to the furnace room, one boy confesses and said he made it seem like the ouija board was saying that, but it really wasn't. The note told him to do it.
Then in the basement, they get a note with a code. They figure out the code, which tells them to crawl through a grate. They do so, and find four fifth graders waiting for them. They are told they were chosen to join the secret club: "The Agatha Society." The mission of the club is to keep the story of the ghost alive. They are told NOT to tell anyone about the club or they will be thrown out. They join. The end.
So frankly I was not too pleased about the parts with the ouija board and the secret club. I felt a ghost story for kids could be done a lot better.
It is narrated by a dog, which is really cute. Buddy is supposed to be a therapy dog, but there is NOTHING about being a therapy dog in the book. So it was not educational at all.
A fourth grade sleepover is planed at the school, but there are rumors of a ghost named Agatha. Three students (and only three) secretly get notes and flashlights. Then at the school they do what they notes tell them to do. The girl is supposed to make a tape recording which says, "Don't go into the basement." which she does, but the tape recorder is found and she confesses. Next the three kids secretly go to the music room. They play with a ouija board, which sends the message, "Go to the furnace room." But when they get to the furnace room, one boy confesses and said he made it seem like the ouija board was saying that, but it really wasn't. The note told him to do it.
Then in the basement, they get a note with a code. They figure out the code, which tells them to crawl through a grate. They do so, and find four fifth graders waiting for them. They are told they were chosen to join the secret club: "The Agatha Society." The mission of the club is to keep the story of the ghost alive. They are told NOT to tell anyone about the club or they will be thrown out. They join. The end.
So frankly I was not too pleased about the parts with the ouija board and the secret club. I felt a ghost story for kids could be done a lot better.
It is narrated by a dog, which is really cute. Buddy is supposed to be a therapy dog, but there is NOTHING about being a therapy dog in the book. So it was not educational at all.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 3, 2017
Not a good book at all. :(((((((((
July 23, 2024
Buddy the therapy dog joins the class of fourth-graders having a sleep over at school. Spooky things happen during the stay, and Buddy and friends try to figure out if the cause is regular mischief makers, or an actual ghost.
As kids' books go, this isn't too bad. Buddy is likable, done with a good voice, and the pacing is good, with some turns in the plot to keep a reader in suspense.
Ultimately, there was a lot I didn't like either. It turns out that there is no ghost, just a secret society of students that keep the legend of the school ghost alive. That society picked out Buddy's owner and the other kids pretty much at random and, except for one code they have to decipher, the main characters don't actually solve any mystery. They get pranked a little, then invited into the club without much effort at all. What irked me more was how often this group of kids got told to "keep our secret" and "don't tell anyone" and "come join our special groups (IF you can keep our secret)". I realize it was written in innocence, but it felt like awful lessons to teach kids. I wish it had been tweaked just a bit, to having the kids trying to figure out the mystery and finding the club would have been so much better. The kids would have been proactive, and would have gotten into the club out of their own interest, not because someone was luring them in, with the gatekeeper of keeping secrets from their friends and parents. That's creepy!
As an alternative, maybe it could have ended with a discussion about appropriate times to keep secrets? I know we don't want every single book to be a depressing object lesson on safety, but when the author opens the door to telling lies and hiding things, they ought to follow up on that in a positive way!
If you are going to let your child read it, I'd definitely recommend following up with a little talk about trust and keeping secrets, because this book certainly dropped the ball.
As kids' books go, this isn't too bad. Buddy is likable, done with a good voice, and the pacing is good, with some turns in the plot to keep a reader in suspense.
Ultimately, there was a lot I didn't like either. It turns out that there is no ghost, just a secret society of students that keep the legend of the school ghost alive. That society picked out Buddy's owner and the other kids pretty much at random and, except for one code they have to decipher, the main characters don't actually solve any mystery. They get pranked a little, then invited into the club without much effort at all. What irked me more was how often this group of kids got told to "keep our secret" and "don't tell anyone" and "come join our special groups (IF you can keep our secret)". I realize it was written in innocence, but it felt like awful lessons to teach kids. I wish it had been tweaked just a bit, to having the kids trying to figure out the mystery and finding the club would have been so much better. The kids would have been proactive, and would have gotten into the club out of their own interest, not because someone was luring them in, with the gatekeeper of keeping secrets from their friends and parents. That's creepy!
As an alternative, maybe it could have ended with a discussion about appropriate times to keep secrets? I know we don't want every single book to be a depressing object lesson on safety, but when the author opens the door to telling lies and hiding things, they ought to follow up on that in a positive way!
If you are going to let your child read it, I'd definitely recommend following up with a little talk about trust and keeping secrets, because this book certainly dropped the ball.
February 20, 2019
This book talks about a dog named Buddy and he is a school dog. One day there was a fourth grader sleepover at school. Buddy, Conner and their mom witch was Mrs.Warner went to the sleepover at the school. Buddy always followed Conner. Conner, Michael and Jillion were invited to a club called the Agatha society. Buddy and the kids went to the furnace room because they got letters from the club that said they had to go there. They unscrambled a message that said: FIND THE SECRET DOOR,”TWIST THE SCREWS,”AND YOU WILL LEARN ALL THE MY SECRETS. -Agatha! When they got to the other side of the secret door they joined the Agatha society club. But Buddy wasn’t part of the club. As the sleepover went everybody were watching a movie except for Buddy, Conner, Michael and Jillion. At last Conner got in trouble.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 11, 2021
There is a sleepover in the school and Jillian, Connor, and Michael get a note saying to meet at 9:15 at the school music room to find a secret gate that will lead them to the ghost of Agatha. They went to the basement where the clue said to go and they found the secret gate because they wanted to meet the ghost. There were three 5th grade kids who were the heads of the Agatha Society pretending to be the ghost. The society was learning about Agatha who was a person who used to go to that school. Mr. Poe the janitor started the club so people could learn more about Agatha. Agatha was interesting because not many people liked her because she was in a fire and had a scar on her face. Everyone searched for Jillian, Connor, Michael, and Buddy the dog because they had been missing for a while.
February 3, 2020
A super cute continuation to The Buddy Files series. Buddy is such an interesting character, his hopeless optimism is very contagious and made reading about his adventures all the more fun. For this installment, the kids go hunting after Agatha the school ghost. I only wished the story ended differently, but even though the ending wasn't what I had expected, it was still an entertaining tale.
June 25, 2020
The book flopped. The first book I read from the series. Not recommended to kids. Sound like children Freemason club.
November 1, 2024
My 6 year old and I were looking for a spooky read aloud and stumbled across this at the library.
Things I liked:
- An adorable dog named buddy is the narrator. He describes everything as a dog would to help us remember things (including how kids smell) He was so cute and funny.
- My son read 90% of it out loud by himself and he understood what he was reading with little explanation from me. The plot was interesting enough but simple enough to follow along
- Fun mystery with clues along the way
Things I didn’t like:
- There was an ouija board scene where kids are trying to speak to ghosts. In my opinion not an appropriate activity for kids.
I think we will possibly explore more from this series because this one was about ghosts. Maybe others will be a little less about the occult 😆
Things I liked:
- An adorable dog named buddy is the narrator. He describes everything as a dog would to help us remember things (including how kids smell) He was so cute and funny.
- My son read 90% of it out loud by himself and he understood what he was reading with little explanation from me. The plot was interesting enough but simple enough to follow along
- Fun mystery with clues along the way
Things I didn’t like:
- There was an ouija board scene where kids are trying to speak to ghosts. In my opinion not an appropriate activity for kids.
I think we will possibly explore more from this series because this one was about ghosts. Maybe others will be a little less about the occult 😆
February 11, 2012
Netgalley copy. Buddy and his human, Connor, are ready to solve another mystery- this time at the 4th grade sleepover at school. Agatha, ghost that haunts the school, was introduced in previous buddy stories. In this story, the children think they see Agatha. Connor, Michael, and Jillian each receive mysterious notes before the sleepover. They each follow the directions which leads to a surprising discovery and a secret society. Buddy narrates the story from his point of view and frequently uses all caps when his friend, Mouse, speaks (because he speaks so loud) and to emphasize when he loves, loves, loves food, activities, etc. A great story for those that love mysteries and or animals.
June 24, 2012
Buddy the school therapy dog has a new case to solve: is there a ghost named Agatha that haunts Four Lakes Elementary? The fourth grade library sleepover should be a perfect opportunity for Buddy to investigate!
This was a great read aloud that I look forward to purchasing and sharing with my library students. I was worried that I’d have to have read every Buddy book in order first (I had read the first two), but that was not the case at all. Thank you Albert Whitman & Company for giving me the privilege of previewing this egalley! I look forward to reading all of the Buddy Files and for any future titles!
This was a great read aloud that I look forward to purchasing and sharing with my library students. I was worried that I’d have to have read every Buddy book in order first (I had read the first two), but that was not the case at all. Thank you Albert Whitman & Company for giving me the privilege of previewing this egalley! I look forward to reading all of the Buddy Files and for any future titles!
July 6, 2014
I love this series, but I was a bit disappointed with 6th book.
The Case of the School Ghost, which started in the 4th book, is solved in this book, but this conclusion is a disappointment to me. It's so weak after all of this.
There might be some spoilers.
The ideas are nice. Ouija board is okay for me. It sounds a bit silly in the story though. It's a childrens' book anyway. But I just hate the conclusion. A ghost story would be much better, even with just a bit touch of it. The last few sentences sound some sort of hint that this matter hasn't ended, so maybe there's Agatha anyway. I hope there is!
The Case of the School Ghost, which started in the 4th book, is solved in this book, but this conclusion is a disappointment to me. It's so weak after all of this.
There might be some spoilers.
The ideas are nice. Ouija board is okay for me. It sounds a bit silly in the story though. It's a childrens' book anyway. But I just hate the conclusion. A ghost story would be much better, even with just a bit touch of it. The last few sentences sound some sort of hint that this matter hasn't ended, so maybe there's Agatha anyway. I hope there is!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 24, 2013
Buddy is a very intelligent family pet. He joins his owner at a sleepover hoping to learn more about the school ghost. Buddy gets a little more than he bargained for when other mysterious things begin happening. As usual Buddy helps solve the case, at least for the moment. His old acquaintance, Cat with No Name, seems to think they haven't heard the last of the school specter. The Buddy Files is a fun intermediate chapter book series that will entertain young readers who like mysteries and animals.
November 29, 2016
I feel it necessary to point out that this series, while I feel they can stand alone, are wonderful in their bits of over-arcing details. In the first few, Buddy is looking for his old family and struggling with his identity (being renamed Buddy from King). In the last few there are plenty of hints dropped about the school being haunted by Agatha and, in this book, we get some resolution to that case. It's wonderful!
March 26, 2012
Mysteries seem to be the genre most difficult to find for young people, so I'm happy for this series. It's written for early chapter readers, with plenty of humor and a character they will love. It's still a mystery, though. The clues are clearly listed and readers are invited to solve along with Buddy. Tail-wagging fun.
January 13, 2012
I am a sucker for this series, I actually liked this one better since they have gotten away from the whole pound thing (I only read the first three). I do think the earlier ones in the series were easier to read, with more repetition, but this is still a very easy read.
March 27, 2013
Cute, but not my favorite in the series. My son and I always get a big kick out of how everything is Buddy's "FAVORITE food!"
November 15, 2013
it's sad when king finally finds kayla at a trailer park and the grandmother says that there are no dogs allowed. kayla has to let king go and he finds his way to his other family.
February 26, 2014
2013.5.16 11494words
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November 8, 2015Good book for children
My son read the whole series in one week. And on Thursday he read 3 of the books. I recommend it for children who like mystery books.
My son read the whole series in one week. And on Thursday he read 3 of the books. I recommend it for children who like mystery books.
December 31, 2015
It was good.
December 31, 2015
Brilliant, amusing, funny, full od suspense, recommended for K5 to G4
Read
March 20, 2016Nice Book. read it and somehow frightened me.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews