The Ghosts of Rathburn Park — Zilpha Keatley Snyder

Eleven-year-old Matt Hamilton -- aka the Hamster -- is new in town, and just about the first thing he does is get lost in the woods of Rathburn Park. It's a typically boneheaded thing to do, and Matt is pondering whether starvation is preferable to the embarrassment of a rescue party when a little dog trots past him. Matt follows the dog out of the woods, but as soon as they emerge from the trees, it disappears. Could the dog be a ghost?

Matt is still wondering about the mysterious dog when he sees an even stranger apparition. This time it's a girl wearing an old-fashioned frilly dress and a big floppy hat. She tells Matt that her name is Amelia Rathburn and she lives in the Palace, an old mansion set deep in the woods. And she knows a lot of fascinating stuff about the ruins of the old town that burned down long ago. Despite her odd clothing, Amelia seems real enough, at least until Matt learns that the only Rathburn still living in the Palace is nearly a hundred years old! Could Matt have two ghosts on his hands?

One unearthly dog and one outlandish girl get Matt into and out of trouble, and help him learn to trust himself in the world beyond his daydreams, in Zilpha Keatley Snyder's atmospheric mystery.