The House on the Gulf

From School Library Journal Grade 5-8–Twelve-year-old Britt's older brother has helped watch over the family for as long as she can remember. So when Bran tells Britt and her mother that he's convinced a family to let them house-sit for the summer, no one questions the arrangement. This house-sitting job will give their mother the chance to go to school full time and try to get a scholarship to finish. However, when they move in, Bran starts acting strange, and Britt discovers that the owners really didn't give them permission to live there, only for Bran to mow their lawn. She also learns that they are her maternal grandparents, estranged from her mother. Bran explains that because their grandparents disowned her when she eloped, using their house is simply a long overdue payback. Britt isn't sure that she buys this, but goes along until they are discovered. Lo and behold, the owners of the house aren't their grandparents at all, and they are all in deep trouble. This novel starts out as an interesting and lightly suspenseful mystery but becomes too far-fetched to be believed with the "happy ever after" ending. Britt's character is the only one with depth; the supporting characters, especially the mother, are rather shallow. Not a bad read, but for books with more character depth try Avi's