Confessions of an Eleven-Year Old Ghost

After 11 years as an only child, Todd Benson resents his new infant sister. Not only must he be ultra-quiet around the house, but his parents can't afford to send him to summer camp. The resultant stress brings on periodic fugue states, during which Todd imitates a baby unerringly. Worried and confused, he enlists the proffered help of Sara Freud, age 10, a neighbor and amateur therapist. Todd's case becomes more complex, however, when he later incorporates other personages--Napoleon and Abraham Lincoln among them. Miller brings an innovative slant to a common theme, though the fatuous story line goes too far. There's an all-in-good-fun spirit here, yet the attempts at humor, in the dialogue and Todd's first-person narrative, fail resoundingly. Further, the title is misleading: this isn't the ghost story readers may expect. Ages 8-12. (Oct.)