I liked the way the boy interacted with the Gypsy girl, but for once Vande Velde disappointed me.  The father said all the right things - what went wrong? ( )

Spooky. Terse. Ben and Anabelle are children of town sheriff in 1877. Jake Bartlett, an outlaw who is hanged curses them, saying he'll return and get judge, sheriff, deputy, and the jury foreman. Meanwhile gypsies arrive in town, upsetting the balance and predicting doom: drowned people, water everywhere, people in boxes. Zandra, a gypsy girl tells Ben and Anabelle their fortunes and they're not very good either, leading to the malaise in their hearts. The rains begin, the river floods, and the graveyard begins to belch coffins from flooded earth, including the empty one of the hanged outlaw. One by one, the men he cursed begin to turn up dead. Jake returns to reap Sheriff Springer's family too, almost succeeding. But the ghost of the children's dead mother returns to drive the dead man's spirit back underground, trailing the scent of cedar from her pale blue dress. Skillfully told in less than 100 pages. ( )