"From the Dust Returned" Ray Bradbury.

I've always loved Bradbury's style of writing. Fahrenheit isn't my favorite book or anything, but I certainly enjoy him as a linguist and as a story teller.

From the Dust is a perfect example of Bradbury's poetic abilities, with a narration that is almost theatric, with all the Oh!'s and Ah!'s of a Broadway production.

The basic premise is a family of ghouls and gaunts that have adopted a human boy, Timothy, and who live in a haunted house in Massachusetts. With people in the modern world no longer believing in magic, ghosts and other unseen things, the family is depleting in vigor, and fight fruitlessly to survive in a world that just doesn't have room for silly ghost stories anymore.

A captivating story featuring some of Bradbury's oldest friends (I believe there have been previous short stories). Timothy, merely a lad, is faced with the daunting task of pulling the family together and in many ways holds their fates in his tiny hands.

A must read for Bradbury fans and dabblers alike.