Author: Laura Ruby Her book, Lily’s Ghosts, was nominated for an Edgar Writes books for adults, teens, and children She lives in Chicago with her two step-children and husband She has a degree in English Literature from Rutgers University

Setting: Time The time of the story is around the 2000s. I think this because the dialogue is more like our present slang than the past’s. Also, the characters use very few electronics. If the story was taken more in the future, the characters and the environment would have many more electronic devices. Based on the cover of the book, the clothing looks like what people currently wear as well.

Setting: Place This story takes place in Cape May, New Jersey (around fall and winter). The characters are mostly found in the protagonist’s (Lily’s) haunted house and the cold beach. Sometimes, the story takes place in the library and the protagonist’s mom’s jewelry shop. The most important events in the story are in the house and the beach.

Setting: Mood The mood of this story is a mixture of creepy and funny. It seems creepy because there are ghosts involved with the story who haunt the protagonist. The funny parts involve some of the pranks the ghosts do to the humans. There are some parts of this book where you might get the chills, while others will leave you with a grin on your face. It’s very suspenseful; it always leaves you wanting more.

Characters: Protagonist The protagonist in Lily’s Ghosts is Lily. Lily is a curious, but normal 13-year-old girl who lives in a house of ghosts. She’s curious because she wants to know who died in her house. In most of the book, she’s trying to figure out the history of her house; she wants to get an idea of which ghosts died in her house. Based on her clothing style, you can make an inference that she’s just a normal teenager because she wears plain t-shirts and blue jeans.

Characters: Antagonist The antagonist in this story is Uncle Wes. Uncle Wes starts out in the story as a nice old uncle. He was kind and polite to Lily and her mom until something happened in the end that had him reveal his real personality - abusive and scary. He was scary and abusive because he ended up hitting Lily, knocking her out cold. He’s very short- tempered because if he told Lily to do something and she refused, he’d get very angry. To keep a long story short, Uncle Wes is not a very good person because he injures his family members on purpose.

Plot: Conflict The conflict of this story is that Lily wants to know which ghosts live in the house that she just moved into. She believes it’s her Uncle Max who died in a fire in the attic, but she’s not completely sure. She spends a lot of time going to the library to research information about her family and the house.

Plot: Climax The climax of this story is very complicated and bizarre because it comes out of nowhere. Uncle Wes accuses Lily of knowing about a treasure. He makes her show him where it’s hidden, but she really doesn’t know. Somehow, she finds a map located inside a stuffed bear and Uncle Wes forces her to go to the beach and dig for the treasure. He ties her mom up so she doesn’t object to the plan or help her daughter get out of that mess. When Lily eventually found the treasure chest in the sand, but refused to take it out, her uncle hit her and knocked her out cold. When she was unconscious, she saw her Uncle Max who died in a fire in her attic. Meeting Max, she figured out that he didn’t start the fire. It turned out that Uncle Wes started the fire and blamed Max.

Plot: Resolution The resolution of this story is that an invisible ghost puts a fishing net over top of Uncle Wes and ties his legs together. This makes it harder for him to breathe and he falls over. After this, he doesn’t get back up so everybody else just goes on with their lives. The same ghost unties Lily’s mom and she goes out to the beach to be with her daughter again. Lily and her mother then have a wonderful life.

Theme The theme of this story is to never judge a book by its cover. In the book, Lily thought that Uncle Wes was a nice old uncle that you could trust. He came over for dinner a couple times and he was pretty polite. This made her get a good impression of him. Towards the end, though, he was very rude and violent. He was threatening Lily with a gun because she didn’t do what he told her to do. This tells you that you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover because the person on the inside could have a completely different personality than the person showing on the outside.

References: ww.wow-womenonwriting.com/38-How2-UseTechnologyInYA.html&docid=GlpRnGe9qDyFRM&imgurl ww.wow-womenonwriting.com/38-How2-UseTechnologyInYA.html&docid=GlpRnGe9qDyFRM&imgurl tp:// tp:// 4CwCg&zoom=1&iact=rc&dur=350&sig= &page=1&tbnh=153&tbnw=192&start=0&ndsp=20&ved=1 t:429,r:1,s:0,i:75&tx=70&ty=66 4CwCg&zoom=1&iact=rc&dur=350&sig= &page=1&tbnh=153&tbnw=192&start=0&ndsp=20&ved=1 t:429,r:1,s:0,i:75&tx=70&ty=66 H3wTwM:&imgrefurl= shirts/&docid=aFEEVGOemqaUPM&imgurl= shirt.jpg&w=280&h=280&ei=vGx8UImlC4X42gWFpIHQCQ&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=874&vpy=270&dur=734&hovh=224&hovw =224&tx=100&ty=116&sig= &page=2&tbnh=142&tbnw=158&start=15&ndsp=28&ved=1t:429,r:0,s:2 0,i:180 H3wTwM:&imgrefurl= shirts/&docid=aFEEVGOemqaUPM&imgurl= shirt.jpg&w=280&h=280&ei=vGx8UImlC4X42gWFpIHQCQ&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=874&vpy=270&dur=734&hovh=224&hovw =224&tx=100&ty=116&sig= &page=2&tbnh=142&tbnw=158&start=15&ndsp=28&ved=1t:429,r:0,s:2 0,i:180 MM9109.jpg&w=1200&h=1600&ei=BGt8UOPIDOGg2AXdxYHYBQ&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=823&vpy=203&dur=3200&hovh=25 9&hovw=194&tx=104&ty=118&sig= &page=7&tbnh=141&tbnw=108&ndsp=28&ved=1t:429,r:89,s:1 00,i:271 MM9109.jpg&w=1200&h=1600&ei=BGt8UOPIDOGg2AXdxYHYBQ&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=823&vpy=203&dur=3200&hovh=25 9&hovw=194&tx=104&ty=118&sig= &page=7&tbnh=141&tbnw=108&ndsp=28&ved=1t:429,r:89,s:1 00,i: /?link=ibaf&q=&imgurl= xlarge.jpeg /?link=ibaf&q=&imgurl= xlarge.jpeg

Biography My name is Brynn Jacobs. I enjoyed Lily’s Ghosts because it was very suspenseful. Every time a chapter ended, it led you on the edge of your seat yearning to read more. For example: when one of the ghosts in Lily’s house put jelly in her shoes, it didn’t say what Lily did or said until the next chapter. I also liked this book because I love to read books that have something to do with ghosts. Ghosts always fascinate me, and it’s always interesting to read about them.