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The Peanut Butter Poltergeist
Eleven-year-old M.J. seeks revenge on his obnoxious stepsister by faking evidence of a poltergeist in their summer cottage, only to face the horror of what seems to be a real poltergeist.
Paperback
First published October 22, 1987
About the author
Ellen Leroe
30 books5 followersEllen W. Leroe grew up writing fairy tales in northern New Jersey. After graduating from Elmira College, in New York State, she worked as a fashion buyer. But she soon returned to her original love, writing.
Ellen moved to San Francisco and began working on novels while working at various administrative and editorial positions. When her first Young Adult novel was published in 1983, she became a full-time writer.
Thirty of her children’s books have been published since then, and Ellen has also created a greeting card line, won poetry awards, and lent song lyrics to a jazz CD. Writing continues to be her passion and chief form of entertainment. She lives in San Francisco.
Ellen moved to San Francisco and began working on novels while working at various administrative and editorial positions. When her first Young Adult novel was published in 1983, she became a full-time writer.
Thirty of her children’s books have been published since then, and Ellen has also created a greeting card line, won poetry awards, and lent song lyrics to a jazz CD. Writing continues to be her passion and chief form of entertainment. She lives in San Francisco.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
February 21, 2012
This was one of my favorite books as a child, and I can't remember how many times I read it. It's not a work of art by any means, but it's something I plan to give my children one day.
April 23, 2023
Time for another random read. I had a hard time picking something out and bumped into this. It's short and I wanted something truly random to save "imporant" stuff for later. This is a 1987 book by Ellen Leroe. She's another not super notable author form that period but has a fair share of middle grade stuff, like the series "Fiendly Corners". I will cover that someday but for now, this. She had a website until it got taken down last year, the most recent archive of it on wayback has a 2022 copyright.
11 year old MJ just got a new stepmother and stepsister. He doesn't get along too well with the step sister Ash and they're currently spending two weeks in some cottage for the summer. He gets annoyed with Ash, finding her stuck up so he gets the brilliant idea to pull a big prank to make her tyink there's a poltergeist in the house.
This was fine I enjoyed it a bit more than expected given the obvious drawbacks. The main one is M J himself, who is kind of the worst. He's a dick to MJ even though she's fine. He has this assumption about her being stuck up because she's all athetlic, good at things, and gets along with his friends easily. It's just jealously and she doesn't do anything to warrant this. That's the whole point, we get the arc of him starting to feel guilty and all that.
Doesn't make hm that much better. Doesn't help we have little moments like going "Oh, women!" at stuff she does. She's got this friend we hear about who is man-ish enough for him to say she's a "woman impersonator" once. Yeesh. That wasn't needed, even if it's not unrealistic for someone that age.
Outside of that, it flows fine. It's predictable, I guessed what would happen but for kids, that's okay. The writing had a few clunky bits of dialouge but was better than expected otherwise. A fair amount of vocab words here. I had to look up 2. Yes, that's embarrassing.
I liked the others well enough, like this one woman claiming to be a witch who was fun. The ending is nice enough with how things get patched up with Mj and Ash. I wish MJ got punished more but the ending did work well enough at least.
It's pretty standard for this kind of thing but it was fine. How much anyone likes will depend on how much they tolerate MJ. For my complaints, there was enough charm it to not be too bad especially since that is the point. It's a fine little story that I wouldn't go out of my to read but it was decent for a one off.
That's about it, not much to say for it. Next time should be something more notable I've had on the back burner, hopefully at least. See ya then.
11 year old MJ just got a new stepmother and stepsister. He doesn't get along too well with the step sister Ash and they're currently spending two weeks in some cottage for the summer. He gets annoyed with Ash, finding her stuck up so he gets the brilliant idea to pull a big prank to make her tyink there's a poltergeist in the house.
This was fine I enjoyed it a bit more than expected given the obvious drawbacks. The main one is M J himself, who is kind of the worst. He's a dick to MJ even though she's fine. He has this assumption about her being stuck up because she's all athetlic, good at things, and gets along with his friends easily. It's just jealously and she doesn't do anything to warrant this. That's the whole point, we get the arc of him starting to feel guilty and all that.
Doesn't make hm that much better. Doesn't help we have little moments like going "Oh, women!" at stuff she does. She's got this friend we hear about who is man-ish enough for him to say she's a "woman impersonator" once. Yeesh. That wasn't needed, even if it's not unrealistic for someone that age.
Outside of that, it flows fine. It's predictable, I guessed what would happen but for kids, that's okay. The writing had a few clunky bits of dialouge but was better than expected otherwise. A fair amount of vocab words here. I had to look up 2. Yes, that's embarrassing.
I liked the others well enough, like this one woman claiming to be a witch who was fun. The ending is nice enough with how things get patched up with Mj and Ash. I wish MJ got punished more but the ending did work well enough at least.
It's pretty standard for this kind of thing but it was fine. How much anyone likes will depend on how much they tolerate MJ. For my complaints, there was enough charm it to not be too bad especially since that is the point. It's a fine little story that I wouldn't go out of my to read but it was decent for a one off.
That's about it, not much to say for it. Next time should be something more notable I've had on the back burner, hopefully at least. See ya then.
April 24, 2010
I enjoyed this book when I was younger. Great for the pranksters in your class.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews