Johnny and the Dead

Terry Pratchett

Average Rating 9/10 (1 Review)

Sell the cemetery?

Over their dead bodies...

Not many people can see the dead (not many would want to). Twelve-year-old Johnny Maxwell can. And he's got bad news for them: the council want to sell the cemetery as a building site. But the dead have learned a thing or two from Johnny. They're not going to take it lying down... especially since it's Halloween tomorrow.

Besides, they're beginning to find that life is a lot more fun than it was when they were... well.., alive. Particularly if they break a few rules...

'Terry Pratchett uses his wicked sense of humour to hilarious effect in his new fantasy story... anyone over ten can find something to smile about here.'

Review by Chrissi (010602) Rating (9/10)

Review by Chrissi
Rating 9/10
Johnny can see the dead people who 'live' in the local cemetery. He does not mean to see them, he just can, and they have a wish to make their afterlife a little more exciting. Johnny's family's trying times have not improved, and Johnny is having to see a psychologist. The others think that maybe he is a little mad, but only a little. After all, he is their friend.

The cemetery is about to be sold by the local council for a tiny amount of money, but Johnny starts to investigate who is in there, and whether any are, or were, famous. What he finds is that dead people and dead things can have a life of their own.

The thing that I really like about Johnny is that with his really active imagination, he can accept things that would make the rest of us question our sanity. My first glimpse of a ghost in a cemetery would faze me much more than it does Johnny, and the thought of a battery for them to listen to would never occur to me in a million years, even if they cannot turn the pages of a newspaper.

My enduring memory of this book are the dead tearing around the world riding on radio waves, in the ghost of a ford Capri and of the Blackbury Volunteers. I also found out the origin of the name Tommies that was used to describe British soldiers during the world wars. You can learn something new every day…
Chrissi (1st June 2002)