Title: The House on Blister Hill
Author: KT Gannon
Release Date: October 20, 2015
Publisher: Spencer Hill Middle Grade
Twelve-year-old Neddy Puddy's greatest desire is to settle the score with Delores Shrumm, her arch-enemy and former best friend. But one summer night, a strange snow falls over Neddy's hometown of Heaven's Peak, North Carolina, and nothing will ever be the same again.
Neddy touches the snow, and it burns, leaving blisters on her hand. But where did the burny snow come from, and what does it portend? The next morning the snow is gone, but when Grandpa Joe dons his bowler hat, sets out with Old Jim Flint on a secret errand, and ends up dead, Neddy has more than a broken heart to deal with. She has a mystery on her hands.
Why did Grandpa Joe go to that awful, abandoned house on Blister Hill? And why has a carnival pitched its tents on Blister Hill's front lawn? The Carnival of Shivers is no ordinary carnival either. Dead dogs with shining red eyes patrol the carnival's perimeter, and with attractions like Bash the Banshee, The Diabolical Dunking Tank, and the Tent of Pickled Punks, the place seems designed to make kids squirm.
To make matters worse, all the adults in Heaven's Peak have come down with the floating flu, and can no longer protect their children. When BD Lamb threatens to eliminate each and every bugsnot kid west of the Dismal Swamp, Neddy knows that everyone she loves might disappear with the last fold of the carnival's tents.
But Neddy is not alone. Despite being dead, Grandpa Joe is still doling out advice from beyond the grave, because Grandpa Joe's spirit is stuck inside his bowler that now rests on top of Neddy's head. With a posse of misfit kids and Old Jim Flint by her side, Neddy will have to face her worst fear and worst heartache, and live to tell the tale.
In Heaven's Peak, dead things own the world, and darkness has eyes.
But darkness doesn't last forever...or does it?
KT Gannon was born in Queens, New York. She studied writing at Columbia University and then received her MSW from New York University. KT worked with victims of violent crime in New York City for years before returning to writing. Now she lives in Arlington, VA with her stuntman-turned-lawyer husband and her three amazing daughters: Ava, Cate and Syd. When KT isn't writing she can be found in the bleachers at Ava's softball game, answering (inadequately) Cate's questions regarding human existence, and reveling in Syd's quiet triumphs.
