The Gift from Obadiah's Ghost

Tommy won't be going trick-or-treating--he's afraid of the dark. When a cat lures him into a nearby abandoned house, however, he meets Obadiah, who is doomed to spend his days as a ghost until he helps someone ``learn that courage is stronger than fear.'' Obadiah gives Tommy a pair of magic glasses that allow him to see in the dark, and the boy joins his friends on Halloween. While rescuing a dog, Tommy loses the glasses and is forced to be brave on his own. His courage, of course, frees Obadiah. Although well-meaning, this is a humorless, treacly tale served up in the classic Elsie Dinsmore tradition. Poorly edited to boot, it contains numerous grammatical and punctuation errors. The illustrations add a little zest. Ages 5-10. (July)