The Ghost of P.S. 42

by Frank Asch

After entering Miss Clark's classroom in Public School 42, Molly the mouse decides that she wants to stay, yet when her friend Jake finds out that the class pet, Gino, is a ghost, Molly knows it is going to be a real struggle and a lot of work to convince him to hang around there with her.

Genres: Chapter Books, Childrens

96 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

Frank Asch is an American children's writer, best known for his Moonbear picture books.

Asch published his first picture book, George's Store, in 1968. The following year he graduated from Cooper Union with a BFA. Since then he has taught at a public school in India, as well as at a Montessori school in the United States, conducted numerous creative workshops for children. He has written over 60 books, including Turtle Tale, Mooncake, I Can Blink and Happy Birthday Moon. In 1989 he wrote Here Comes the Cat! in collaboration with Vladimir Vagin. The book was awarded the Russian National Book Award and was considered the first Russian-American collaboration on a children's book.

Asch lived in Somerville, New Jersey where he and his wife home-schooled their son Devin.

He currently lives in Vermont with his wife, Jan.

Reviews

[zapkode · Rating 5 out of 5]

{My thoughts} - Jake and Molly are two mice on a mission. They have left their family nest at Deli Dan’s and are searching for their new home. They are looking for a special place to live that is mostly safe and will keep them well fed and hungry. They have been searching quite a bit and finally come upon P.S. 42, a public elementary school.

Once they located the school they both needed to get inside to look around. Molly got in easily and Jake well he got to go on a crazy adventure, while he was trying to get inside. While Molly is inside the school waiting for Jake she wanders around and eventually comes upon Gino a class pet of the school. Gino and Molly become best friends almost immediately, but there are secrets about Gino that that get revealed throughout the book.

I really enjoyed reading this book and I think that children could enjoy it as well. It is full of adventure with animals and it is face paced for the most part, so it’s a quick read. I also liked how this book was dropping realistic facts within the story so that it can also help to teach the children that read it some new information. It’s always been fun to me to learn new and interesting facts about the world we live in. To this day I am still learning more and more things.

I highly recommend this book for any child that loves animals and are interested on going on a crazy yet, fun adventure with them.

[Duane · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. It's about these two mice that are searching for a new place to call home. After stumbling into a school, one mouse discovers what Class Pets really mean, while the other mouse is still stuck outside avoiding all the predators that want him for a quick meal. Told through the eyes of simple animals, the storyline is fun and entertaining. Nice illustrations keep the story going for reluctant readers. A nice quick read that should keep the attention of most young readers.

[Robin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Solid early chapter book. Nice premise with kid-appeal, decently written, but nothing extraordinary.