A Season of Gifts by Richard Peck

Bob's family has just moved in, and his little sister Ruth Ann thinks the house next door is haunted. His older sister Phyllis is worried about starting high school as the new kid, and his parents are worried about how they will start up a new church in the ramshackle shell of a building they have to work with. Bob, not the bravest kid in any circumstance, is plagued by the town bullies. That seems like a lot for Mrs. Dowdel to handle--but if you think that, you don't know Mrs. Dowdel! Set in 1958, This sequel to A Long Way from Chicago and A Year Down Yonder gives us another hilarious tale of Grandma Dowdel and her unusual methods of making sure everything turns out exactly as it should.