The Wish List

by Eoin Colfer

Meg is feisty. Her mother died, so now she just lives with her demented, couch-potato stepdad who couldn't care less about her well-being. All he cares about is TV and smoking.

Since she needed to borrow a video camera from Belch for a clever plan, she has to repay the favour, and finds herself breaking into old Lowrie McCall's house with Belch and his dog Raptor. The break-in goes wrong, though, and she takes a wrong turn in her race to escape from Belch. Belch has a gun, and Meg is backed up against an old gas tank. Being an idiot, Belch decides to shoot at her, just to scare her. However, his shot misses and hits the tank. Both Belch and Meg find themselves blown to kingdom come--literally.

Funny things happen to you when you're dead. You find yourself in a blue tunnel, with two options: up or down, Heaven or Hell. Meg didn't go either way. While Belch was sucked down into a fiery red abyss, Meg ran slap-bang into the tunnel wall. She was too good for Hell and too bad for Heaven, so she had to go back and try to fix what she did wrong.

Two years (Earth time) after the explosion that killed Meg and Belch, Meg returns as a sort of ghost... a wandering spirit, more like. She ends up helping Lowrie fulfill his wish list, a list of things he wished he'd done in his life. Originally it was really long, but he narrowed it down to four that could still be done. Meg and Lowrie end up going all over Ireland to complete Lowrie's list before Meg's time runs out. Oh, and did I mention that Belch was back on Meg's tail, sent by the devil to make sure Meg failed? Needless to say, that complicated things.

THIS IS A MUST-READ. It may be a children's book, but people of all ages can appreciate it. I think that everyone in the world should read this book at least once because it's so awesome.