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Several bizarre occurrences at the Ziffel Fair are popularly attributed to Amazing Marvin the Magician, but Jeffrey Clark and his friend Laura Lane know the real culprit--Bradford, a two-hundred-year-old ghost

Gr 2-4 This is a slight mystery story that capitalizes on children's attractions to ghosts and magic. Bradford, the ghost of a 10-year-old boy who lived 200 years ago (he was killed by a kicking horse), makes magic things happen. There's cheating going on in the egg-spoon race, the potato-sack race, and the pie-eating contest at the Ziffel Fair, but Bradford exposes the culprits by his funny magic, and all ends as it should. Short sentences, short chapters, easy reading and a lot of action make this a reachable story for some readers; at the same time, the mediocre writing and the lack of character development make it a marginal piece of literature. Carolyn K. Jenks, Oyster River Elementary School, Durham, N.H. Copyright 1987 Cahners Business Information.