Product Description

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 aren't 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 ...

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #10143 in Books
• Published on: 2004-04-29
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 199 pages

From the Back Cover
Sell the cemetery? Over their dead bodies ...

Not many people can see the dead (not many would want too). 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 aren't going to take it lying down ... especially since its 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 ...

Shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal
A writers' Guild Award Winner

'Marvellous story ... funny, poignant, angry, outrageous and moving ... Terry Pratchett is simply the best there is' Vector

From the author of the phenomenally successful Discworld series and The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents, which won the 2001 Carnegie Medal.

About the Author
Terry Pratchett:
Terry Pratchett is one of the most popular authors writing today. He lives behind a keyboard in Wiltshire and says he 'doesn't want to get a life, because it feels as though he's trying to lead three already'. He was appointed OBE in 1998. He is the author of the phenomenally successful Discworld series and his trilogy for young readers, The Bromeliad, is scheduled to be adapted into a spectacular animated movie. His first Discworld novel for children, THE AMAZING MAURICE AND HIS EDUCATED RODENTS, was awarded the 2001 Carnegie Medal.

Customer Reviews

Living it up with the dead
Johnny and his band of quirky pals are back in "Johnny and the Dead," the second book of Terry Pratchett's "Johnny Maxwell" trilogy. Pratchett was surer this time around, endowing this hilarious sequel with quirkier dialogue and stories, and snappier writing.

Johnny Maxwell sees dead people. (Yes, like the little boy in "Sixth Sense.") For whatever reason, he sees the dead in their graveyard -- not really ghosts, but not alive either: a crabby former soldier, a distant relative of Einstein, a sprightly suffragette who died in a freak mishap, and a staunch Communist who STILL doesn't believe in life after death. All in all, they are a fairly harmless bunch.

But a massive, mercenary, progress-obsessed corporation has just bought the graveyard for fivepence, and it will soon be razed for new construction. The only people more dismayed than the living inhabitants of Blackbury are the dead ones. So as the dead break their bonds to "unlive," Johnny and his friends will try to save the graveyard from... a fate worse than death?

Yes, it's the sort of bizarre, slightly twisted plot that only Terry Pratchett could cook up, and then pull off. And yes, the same could be said of "Only You Can Save Mankind." But by the time he wrote this -- pre-Discworld -- Pratchett had obviously grown into his skills.

In particular, the Big Message in this book is more subtle -- that money and progress aren't worth anything if they destroy the past. Despite that heavy moral, the handling of it is light and entertatining, such as when the dead Communist calls up a radio talk show host and speaks frankly about being "vertically challenged."

Despite half a dozen amusing dead people, the star of the piece is Johnny himself -- smart, quiet unless he has a reason to speak out, and inexplicably able to see the dead. He also plays straight man to the quirkier pals, like peculiar Wobbler, intellectual Yo-less, and perpetually hungry Bigmac. Although you'll need to have read "Mankind" to know who they are.

"Johnny and the Dead" is not just a sequel that surpasses the first book of this trilogy, but probably the best pre-Discworld work that Pratchett did. Funny, twisted and very well-done.

johnny books from pratchett are a must
if you like pratchett you will like the johnny books, although written with children in mind, they still are a good read for adults as well. johnny adventures in this book let him alone see the dead and he has to save a cemetary from getting distroid. a little spooky for the kids but not enough to give them night mares. well worth getting

Dead Good
Johnny is a down to earth young boy who likes hanging out with his friends after school. But his life takes a definite change in direction when he realises, to his horror, that he can see and talk with the dead. As a cold-hearted council planning department is looking to build on top of the cemetery, it seems that Johnny's new-found `gift' couldn't have come at a better time, as he and his friends - dead and alive - try to find ways of keeping the cemetery open.

As Pratchett has made another humorous take on one of the ultimate taboos, this book can be used as a means to boost children's confidence and also unpack those common fears of ghosts and the supernatural. Through referencing various cultural values, the book is convincing and funny, but is unlikely to win any `non-believers' of this author's work.

This is clearly for higher Key Stage 2 readers, but would make a great end of year show that all ages could enjoy and gain something from.