From 'Charlie Bone and the Hidden King'

Mrs. Torsson wasn't the only mother to wish that she and her family were far away from the city. Charlie Bone's mother longed to escape her dreary life in a house that didn't belong to her, in a place that echoed with the whispers of its terrible past, and where her son had been forced to attend a school run by a malevolent old man.

But Amy Bone had no money and nowhere to run to. Besides, Charlie was perfectly happy. Nothing ever seemed to get him down. He was an extraordinarily optimistic boy. Nothing could shake his conviction that his father was still alive and that, one day, Charlie would find him. It was something that Amy had given up counting on.

Reprinted with permission of the publisher, Scholastic.