The Barking Ghost

Summary
Scared of his own shadow. That's what everyone says about Cooper Holmes. But when the Holmeses move into a new house deep in the woods, scary things really do start happening. Problem is, no one believes a scaredy-cat like Cooper. But then no one else heard the bone-chilling barking late at night. Or ran into two evil-looking dogs who disappeared into thin air...

Synopsis
Cooper Holmes is an easy-to-scare 12 year old boy. He and his family have just moved into a new house. Cooper's family has moved from an urban dwelling in Boston to a house in the middle of the woods in rural Maine because of Cooper's mother's job. Cooper is something of a scaredy-cat.

Cooper is so afraid of his new surroundings that he stays up all night thinking he sees strange, unexplainable things through his window, like a snake (garden hose) and a horrible monster (bunny rabbit). He hears some scuffling below his bed and when he goes to investigate, someone tries to choke him. It's only his older 16 year old brother, Mickey who was wearing a Half-dog, Half-Dragon mask to frighten and choke poor Copper. This then leads to the two boys fighting in Copper's Bedroom, only to be interrupted by their father, who tell them that fighting is inappropriate behavior for the first night in a new house. Mickey gets into more trouble and his father told him to either leave little Copper alone or he will start at his new school grounded.

Once Mickey leaves, Cooper hears two dark shadowy ghost dogs barking outside his window. Cooper thinks it could be Mickey again. Still, Cooper believes it could be real dogs, and this scares him. The next morning, Cooper investigates his back yard and the surrounding woods for any evidence of the two ghost dogs, but finds none. He decides to be brave and go into the woods.

While in the woods, he meets a strange red-haired girl (no riding hood) named Fergie who knows Cooper's name and warns him that he and his family must move away, that their house is haunted. Cooper rushes away to go tell his parents that they have to move. On the way back to his house, two Labradors appear out of nowhere and chase Cooper all the way home. He tries to convince his family of the dog's existence, but they think he's lying. Cooper spends the rest of the day pouting in his room, unpacking his snow dome collection. That night, Cooper hears barking from the living room. When he goes down to investigate, he sees a bag of potato chips torn open and scattered all over the floor. Mickey shows up and makes fun of Cooper. Cooper picks up and throws the gutted potato chip bag at Mickey.

The next morning, Cooper runs into Fergie and she apologizes and admits that the chips in the living room were part of Mickey's scheme to scare Cooper. Mickey had asked Fergie to tell Cooper that their house was haunted. But once she saw how scared Cooper was getting, she felt bad.

He asks her if she believes him about the dogs and she says yes and they become friends and then Mickey shows up in the woods, his clothing torn open and blood all over. He laughs when they freak out and mocks Cooper by saying "You always fall for fake blood."

Fergie and Cooper decide that they're going to come up with the perfect plan to get Mickey back. Fergie's family is leaving for Vermont so she stays with the Holmes for a few days. At midnight, the two prepare to deliver revenge on Mickey with their genius plan. Cooper and Fergie plan to tie a fake rat to a string and dangle it in Mickey's bed. Mickey fools them by hiding in the closet.

Cooper and Fergie see the two dogs running around the house and Cooper insists that the two go out and investigate. This leads to the two ghost dogs holding them captive outside their house, and then dragging them to a shack out in the woods. Fergie thinks they should go ahead and see whatever it is that the dogs want to show them. The two dogs shove the two kids into the shack, where they fall down a well. Then the dogs start speaking to them. See, the ghost dogs were originally humans who were turned into dogs and so they've been waiting for two humans to trick into going into the Changing Room so they can take over their human form.

Fergie and Cooper turn into dogs. The dogs turn into Cooper and Fergie. As dogs, Cooper and Fergie communicate telepathically and try to find a way to tell Cooper's parents that they're not really dogs. Cooper tries telling them directly, but it comes out as, "Woof woof woof woof woof." The two dogs then try running around and barking some more, which only frustrates the Holmes. The ghost dogs then re-break into the Holmes’ house and Cooper tries to write a letter to his parents but discovers that dogs can't write. The parents show up and ask the dogs "Didn't we just tell you to get out?" In a final act of desperation, Cooper hears the fake-Cooper telling his parents that he hates liver, when in fact actual Cooper loves liver. Realizing that this is his chance to convince them that he's the real Cooper, Cooper-Dog runs into the house and eats the liver from the plate.

Finally, Cooper and Fergie decide the only way to get the two humans back into the Changing Room is to drag them there. So they do, and the parents follow behind the two kids getting dragged away by giant dogs, calmly noting that it should be interesting to see what the dogs want to show Fergie and Cooper.

The dogs throw the humans into the Changing Room and two humans and two dogs exit but still not the real Fergie and Cooper. Seems there were two squirrels in the Changing Room, so their dog bodies switched places with the squirrel bodies.

Characters

 * Cooper Holmes - the protagonist/narrator


 * Margaret "Fergie" Ferguson - Cooper's new friend


 * Mickey Holmes - Cooper's annoying older brother


 * Sam Holmes - Cooper and Mickey's dad


 * Mrs. Holmes - Cooper and Mickey's mom


 * Gary and Todd - Cooper's best friends. Even though they do not actually appear in the book, they are mentioned. Note: Gary's name is also spelled as "Garry" and "Gaty"

Memorable Quotes

 * Cooper (Chapter 3/4): "For the zillionth and third time, I gazed out the window. But for the first time, I couldn't believe what I saw."....."Nothing."