240 pages
English language
Published May 16, 2018 by Penguin Random House.
Johnny and the Dead (1993) is the second novel by Terry Pratchett to feature the character Johnny Maxwell. The other novels in the Johnny Maxwell Trilogy are Only You Can Save Mankind (1992) and Johnny and the Bomb (1996). In this story, Johnny sees and speaks with the spirits (they object to the term "ghost") of those interred in his local cemetery and tries to help them when their home is threatened. Johnny and the Dead is a feature of some schools' English curriculum.
Reading Pratchett's philosophy set in our world instead of the Discworld is an interesting experience.
Johnny and the Dead is about a young teen learning about his town's early 20th century history.
Set in the early 1990s it is also a glimpse into life before the web and cellphones.
Audiobook with nephew.
Not as compelling as only you can save mankind, but does well in terms of being a kids book that takes seriously that kids can understand big ideas.
Now quite dated, feels very 1990s with some awful clangers re: race/sex/sexuality.
The community meeting scene with the squash balls was epic on the audiobook.
