Thirteen-year-old Kit Watson and his family move to the English mining town of Stoneygate to help care for his recently widowed Grandfather. Kit`s nervous about starting at a new school, but he soon makes friends with an artistic yet bullying outcast named John Askew. When John invites Kit to play a new game he`s invented, Kit agrees but then learns that the game is called Death--and it is played in the abandoned mines. Later, while playing the game, Kit encounters the ghosts of his ancestors who died in mining accidents--and learns he has more in common with John than he ever imagined. Named one of the Best Children`s Books 2000 by Publishers Weekly. Winner of the 2001 Michael L. Printz Award for Excellence in Literature for Young Adults.