I definitely have to check the book out. The reading Ross did was so very creepy to me. It reminded me of an infamous episode of Webster (yes the short African American child who was an adorable little scamp) that scarred me for life. Webster is with his dad in some mansion. He starts sneaking around and finds a secret passage that leads to a room with a little girl sitting in a chair facing a window. He talks with her the whole episode because the man that owned the mansion was supposed to have a daughter. At the end of the episode, Webster goes up to the girl and turns the chair around and it's a life-sized doll of a little girl that is fashioned after the guy's daughter. I literally never watched that show again.
It wasn't until college that I searched the interwebs to make sure I wasn't crazy and dreamed up that episode. There were several message boards and forums that had people commiserating about how horrifying that episode was. It probably has a lot to do with me hating puppets and dolls so much now. They're creepy little things.