On the verge of her thirteenth birthday, Tess’s life is falling apart. Her mother is dead. Her father is like a zombie. And now her beloved cat, Alice, has started rushing into the street when cars go by, trying to get run over. The only thing Tess can think of that might help? Running away.

As she ventures from home, Tess stumbles upon a crew of manga-loving goth kids hiding out in the local haunted house performing séances. There, she discovers that the house’s ghostly entity desperately wants a cat to care for in the afterlife, and it has its sights set on Alice. With the help of an unexpected friend and the brilliant, adorkable kid who has a huge crush on her, Tess will do whatever it takes to save Alice the cat, help the ghost, heal her dad, and survive the summer in one piece.

This book is considered upper middle grade and is ideal for readers aged 11-14.

Author Bio:

Tim Cummings was born and raised in New York and currently lives in Los Angeles. He earned his BFA from NYU/Tisch School of the Arts. He has performed in nearly 200 projects across theatre, dance, film, TV, commercials, voice-over, and is the recipient of several awards for his work on the stages of NY and LA. He earned his MFA in Writing for Young People from Antioch University Los Angeles. Recent publications include works in F(r)iction, Scare Street, Lunch Ticket, Meow Meow Pow Pow, From Whispers to Roars, Drunk Monkeys, Hare’s Paw, and Critical Read/RAFT, for which he won the “Origins” essay contest. He runs several Writing Workshops per year and teaches writing for UCLA Extension Writers' Program.