this is a great book about a few neighborhood kids who start a new business - they're giving pet funerals. :) easy reading and pretty funny.

Do you have about 90 minutes some afternoon to read this delightful juvenile fiction? My daughter, Eden, recommended this one and it's a gem!

It's about the hilarious and highly spirited Ernie Castellano who creates a thriving pet burial business complete with artistic custom-made coffins and a crier-for-hirer.

It's a gentle story about dealing with death and some of life's other disappointments. It's about friends learning how to be REAL friends.

For Crying Out Loud,

Twelve-year-old Ernie had a brilliant idea, he was going to sell MacDonald's hamburgers to the students in his lunch room. It was working well until the principal got ahold of him and called his father. Ernie's father told him if he ever started another business, he would be grounded.

While talking to his father about the cost of his mother's funeral, an idea popped into Ernie's head, he would go into the funeral business. Kids were always losing pets.

Ernie hired an artistic kid, named Dusty, to make the pet-size caskets. He hired Tony, the boy with the shovel, to dig the graves. Something was missing. He needed some emotion to get the mourners going. Dusty suggested a tomboy named Swimming Pool.

Ernie interviewed Swimming Pool, trying to find a soft spot. "Have you ever lost a pet."
"No".
"Had a bad report card?"
"No."
"Had someone leave and not know if you'd ever see them again?"
Finally a tear threatened, as Swimming Pool thought of her older brother leaving home.

The day of the first funeral, Swimming Pool, wearing her red sneakers and an awful purple dress, tried everything to bring about tears. She pinched herself, punched herself in the eye and still no tears. But, finally the tears came.

Ernie ran funerals for pets including rabbits, turtles, and an iguana, but he drew the line when it came to an earth worm. He was a hard boss, who would rather lose his business than to give his crew a raise.

Will his dad stumble upon his funeral business? If Ernie is grounded, who will run the business? Will he be able to make his partners happy? Will the pets keep dying?

This is a fun book about friendship and smart business sense.

Jill Ammon Vanderwood
author: Through the Rug
Through The Rug: Follow That Dog (Through the Rug)

I loved this book about a young boy who really has business sense. He is always trying to make money, so he comes up with the idea of providing funeral services for his friends' pet. It's a booming business, and the vacant lot is filling up fast. This fun story becomes the catalyst for addressing more serious themes like friendship, including those who are different, and dealing with the death of a parent. Great book!

This was an absolutely adorable story with characters, dialogue and settings that leaped off the page. Quote: "Since the talk had turned to cookies, instead of the business, it was a safe bet that this company had turned into a circle of friends."

Very well done. Crisp, quick-paced, funny, and original. Fleshed out characters with depth and ambitions of their own. Not something you see often in middle grade, but something their should be more of-- a book that neither dumbs down or hides adult complexities, but instead clarifies them and lets them be understood as they stand.

This book was laugh-out-loud funny!

Read it in one night so I could help Zack with his book report (:

I had this book when I was young and really enjoyed it. I lent it but was not able to get it back. I remember loving the cover art and was not aware that it's Mr. Tony. I really love his art style and I'm now collecting his art books and then I see this on his list. I hope I get to see another copy of this book, it'll be great to add to my collection.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It is about a twelve year old boy named Earnie who loves to make money. It is a very heartwarming story that addresses death, friendship, individual talents, and more. The story gave me many laughs, but also had me near tears at certain points that were very emotionally touching. The story touched on family situations such as older siblings moving out, a parent dying and overal family dynamics. The kids learned many lessons that would be good lessons for our students to learn as well. I look forward to reading the next in the series, I Know Who Likes You.

The description of this story is much better than the execution. Ernie really annoyed me and all the other characters felt flat and underdeveloped, except Swimming Pool. Admittedly I'm not the target audience but I can't imagine I would have loved it as a child either. 2.5 stars.

I loved this book as a kid and I have been searching for it ever since. It only took becoming an elementary librarian for me to finally find this book again! Whenever I searched online for what I remembered as a book about a pet cemetery, well, you know what comes up. But I'm so glad I finally found this again while randomly browsing my shelf!