Kim Ventrella

The day twelve-year-old Stanly finds a finger bone growing into a skeleton in his yard everything changes--his seven-year-old sister Miren adopts the skeleton, which only children can see, as a friend and playmate, and as her health continues to deteriorate Stanly blames the skeleton and tries to drive it away, although it is the only thing that seems to give Miren any joy.

Gabe was on top of his guardian's roof, trying to rescue her prize chicken and worrying about his dog, Ollie, when the tornado struck, and after that he was dead, though it takes some time for him to realize it; but somehow he is still tied to this world and generally only those who are close to death can actually see him (although there is a bit of a panic when he shows up at his own funeral)--and in that he discovers his new mission in "life:" helping...