Here are stories of everyday life, as familiar as a piece of rope and

... as haunting as fear: Mike knows that he can't swing over the river on the knotted rope, but with everyone watching him, he has to try. ... as haunting as a stranger: Who is the frightened-looking girl stealing plums from Nicky's grandparents' precious tree?

... as haunting as cruelty: How can Joe escape from his mean cousin Dicky during a family reunion?

And here are stories with a supernatural twist, as haunting as the eerie whistling from the hill above Burnt House in the middle of the night and

... as familiar as guilt: A boy forgets the mysterious bottle his cousin loaned him, but when he sneaks out at night to retrieve it, the shadowy whistlers close in on him.

... as familiar as loneliness: A ghost who's unbearably lonesome makes his neighbors suffer until a girl with a sense of the absurd shows him how things could be different.

... as familiar as love: The ghost of a boy comes back to save his father from dying in a ferocious storm.

Peopled with vivid, unforgettable characters, this collection of thirty-seven stories is by turns mysterious, humorous, strange, and sad, but it is always familiar, always haunting, and always surprising.