The Saturday Boy

If there's one thing I've learned from comic books, it's that everybody has a weakness—something that can totally ruin their day without fail. For the wolfman it's a silver bullet. For Superman it's Kryptonite. For me it was a letter. With one letter, my dad was sent back to Afghanistan to fly Apache helicopters for the U.S. army. Now all I have are his letters. Ninety-one of them to be exact. I keep them in his old plastic lunchbox—the one with the cool black car on it that says Knight Rider underneath. Apart from my comic books, Dad's letters are the only things I read more than once. I know which ones to read when I'm down and need a pick-me-up. I know which ones will make me feel like I can conquer the world. I also know exactly where to go when I forget Mom's birthday. No matter what, each letter always says exactly what I need to hear. But what I want to hear the most is that my dad is coming home.

A spooky, funny mystery with ghost-hunting, useless adults ... and tea Thruppence and Tim don't know what they're getting themselves into when they ring the bell at the house with dusty windows and a tarnished name plate to enquire about the advertised 'Saturday Person'. What could be so difficult about an unspecified Saturday job? Well, had that name plate been properly cleaned, Thruppence and Tim might not have been so keen to enter ... Pressured by the stern Minister Beeston from the Department of Economies, the Ministry of Ghosts has been given three months to prove the existence or non-existence of ghosts, or else it will be shut down! As it seems that children are particularly magnetic to ghosts and supernatural beings, Thruppence and Tim are added to their ghost-catching team. And although neither of them are scared by talk of ghosts or monsters, they couldn't have imagined the truth behind what they will find ...