The Spirit House

Fifteen-year-old Julie Kamen isn't too thrilled about the new Thai exchange student (Thamrongsak Tan-ngarmtrong) who's coming to live with them for the school year. For starters, he sounds like a total nerd from his letter--he loves math and foreign languages and doesn't waste his time on entertainment since he's always studying. Plus, he's a little odd-looking with his bald, misshapen head and big ears.Yet when the family picks him up from the airport, he doesn't look anything like his picture; he's much more attractive. He also isn't interested in any of the subjects he mentioned before in his letter. In fact, he's terrible in school, loves to smoke and watch TV, and can barely speak English well. He's also extremely superstitious.When Dominic, Julie's 11-year-old brother, builds a spirit house for Bia (the exchange student's nickname), a lot of weird things start to happen. And they all lead back to Bia. What horrible secret is he hiding, and why has Julie's luck turned bad ever since he's arrived?"The Spirit House" is a pretty good book for teens. It's very short (134 pages), which will probably appeal to more lax readers. As for the supernatural element in the book, it wasn't very suspenseful. The story is more about superstitions than evidence of any evil spirit. The cryptic ending is also ok, but not very satisfying. However, if you're 12+ years-old and like supernatural mysteries, you'll probably really like this one.

I'm 10 years old and I think that The Spirit House was the best book that I've ever read. This book is about a girl that lives with her family. In this book the girl's family is leting a boy named Bia, a forign exchange student from Thailand live with them when the girl begins to notice that Bia has been acting very strange ever scince her brother biult Bia a spirit house as a gift to make him feel at home. The girl begins to think that maybe Bia isn't the real boy that's saposed th be there. This book is brutal at times but that's what makes this book so inteteresting. I would recomend this book for a kid who likes reading exciting books such as the Harry Potter books. Thankyou for reading my review. Enjoy!

Julie doesn't want Thamrongsak to come to America, but when he does she kind of likes him. Everything changes when Dominic builds a spirit house, Bia starts acting strange and Julie is beginning to think maybe Bia isn't who he says he is. This is a great book, at the beginning it might not be to interesting, but don't put the book down!