Ghost of the Mill House

By Margriet Ruurs and Claudia Dávila

Just when Josh starts to think his break from school is going to be all chores and no cheer, his best friend, Mark, invites him to spend their break helping restore a historic home and mill in Oregon. With the help of their friends Angela and Mary Jane, and under the watchful eye of Aunt Sue and Uncle Doug, the kids spend weeks fixing up the grounds, basking in the freedom of country life and learning about the surrounding area. Not to mention eating bugs, domesticating feral cats and starring in a movie! But it's not all fun and filming. The mill is in financial trouble, and the kids have to figure out a way to help Aunt Sue and Uncle Doug keep it running, in spite of it being haunted.

Ghost of the Mill House follows Bus to the Badlands, where we first met Josh and his classmates.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Orca Book Publishers
• Release date: Sep 24, 2019
• ISBN: 9781459820371

Margriet Ruurs

Margriet Ruurs is the author of many award-winning books for children. She enjoys speaking about reading and writing to students at schools around the world. Her adventures have taken her to such countries as Myanmar, Pakistan, Laos, Tanzania and many others. Margriet was born in the Netherlands but has been a Canadian for most of her life. She lives with her family on Salt Spring Island, British Columbia.

Book preview

Nine

Chapter One

If only my parents had let me have my own cell phone, I would have heard the news sooner. They keep telling me I can’t have my own phone until I go to high school. But if I’d had my own phone, Mark could have texted me.

I didn’t find out until I came home and Mom told me that he’d called.

I love summer holidays. The last few weeks at school seemed to drag on forever, although they were mostly fun. My class had a waterslide day, and the whole school had an Olympic Games day. We cleaned out our desks and took home our art, including some nearly life-size dinosaurs we’d made during the year. I got to bring home two spider plants for the summer. My mom wasn’t impressed, but I told her they were easier than having Bacon, our class hamster.

My first day off was awesome. I didn’t get out of bed until nine thirty. Mom let me sleep in for the first day only—she said I’ll get lazy if I sleep in every day. And then she gave me a long list of chores, but after I took out the garbage and cleaned my room, I was allowed to go to the pool. Half my class was there, including Mark, Dudley, Jesse and Angela. We took turns diving off the high board, and the guard let us have a blow-up mattress that we floated on until someone swam underneath and tipped us all off.

Day two started off slowly. I looked after my little sister, Angie, while Mom changed the beds. Then she made me clean the shed. I ended up taking a big bag of empty pop cans to the recycle depot and was allowed to keep the money. When I came home Mom said Mark had phoned and that I had to call him back as soon as possible.

I called him back, but at first I couldn’t quite figure out what he was saying. His words all tumbled out.

Josh! My aunt and uncle…they live in Oregon…we get to go down there… in a park…you and me and maybe two more friends…this summer.

Whoa, dude, take a deep breath! I said. I don’t know what you’re talking about.

Never mind! Mark yelled. Just come over! Now.

So I told my mom I was going to Mark’s house and jumped on my bike. He only lives three streets over from us.

When I rang the bell his mom opened the door and pointed me up the stairs. I took them two at a time and opened Mark’s bedroom door. He was on the floor with a big pile of comic books.

So tell me again, I said. "What is this about your uncle and aunt