I Can See

The new Cassidy Blake series being very popular.  It's middle grade, it's scary, not MDH scary but scary and it's not a tough read and short.  For what it is intended to be, it hits all of the marks.  I probably will read the second one if it is as short as this one.  I know nothing about Scotland and don't have any interest at all in the UK, in fact it is probably the only place in the world that I have zero interest in, and this is set in Edinburgh, but I get the feeling that Cassidy's parents who are ghost hunters will be taking her to other places in the world and anywhere would be more appealing to me than the UK, so we will see!

Unusual!

Denis Ever After has a really different description of the afterlife!  It doesn't jibe with my view, but I wasn't offended or anything.  I found it to be really intriguing and different and it didn't take me long to get sucked in to this book.  Grief on both sides of the Jordan.  And a mystery.  And the book made me cry and laugh.  I loved the brother-brother relationship.  Tony Abbott has written a book that will keep the interest, I think, of reluctant readers and mystery lovers and at the same time create some really interesting discussion.  I really liked this. 

Was the Ghost Real?

First of all, let me say that I loved Invisible Ghosts.  I thought it was beautiful and tragic and hopeful.  And the characters were so well developed.  I just saw a patron checking out this book tonight at work and I went on and on and on and on....I know she will love it, too.  I also encouraged her to read others by Robyn Schneider as I think she just gets better and better. 
The one thing I am wondering is, was the ghost of Logan real?  I don't know!  But it doesn't matter.  I think that since Jamie could see him, too, he probably was real, but then I don't know.  I just loved this book!  And I will be thinking about it and recommending it for a long time to come. 

So Maybe

one of the reasons why Stephen King's books are SO LONG is that he truly is unable to write anything even half way interesting with fewer words.  Well, I can't say that.  No, I forgot that I have liked a lot of his short stories, but man.  Riding the Bullet was just very uninspired.  I admired the love between mother and son, and that was surprising, given that from what I have read about King he isn't really in to tenderness or kindness or anything like that.  In fact, even as the son was talking about his mother, I had the creep-tastic worry that his love for his mom was going to turn into something unhealthy, but it didn't.  But with King there is always that worry.  Still, this was more like one of the ghost stories that wouldn't even make a good addition in a kids collection of short stories.  Just pretty boring. 
It did make me think though...what would I, what would most people say if death or death's messenger said that they would take you or your mom (or dad, or husband or wife or whomever).  What would you or I or most people choose? 

Crows

Crows.  as I have mentioned before, some people have a thing about crows.  One for Sorrow has this poem, called Counting Crows. One for sorrow, two for joy, three for a girl, four for a boy, five for silver, six for gold, seven for a secret, never to be told, eight for a wish, nine for a kiss, ten for a time of joyous bliss.  
Is it weird that a really creepy ghost story from Mary Downing Hahn is a joyous blissful thing for me?  I don't know, but it is!  MDH is one of the most talented, creep-tastic, excellent writers ever.  And this new one is no exception.  Not for someone looking for a joke ending or assurances that creepiness is not real.  Great, great, great.

"I was listening to NPR..."

When I hear someone say that I know I am outta my league.  But the thing is...some of the shows that folks say they heard on NPR, really aren't on NPR!  For example, On Being- that's American Public Media, right? So is Prairie Home Companion.  And Freakonomics Radio is WNYC.  And Fresh Air is on WBEZ.  But I digress. Shocking.  Regardless, most people who listen to NPR or WNYC or APM or PRX are smart people. Intellectual people.  And I am none of those things.  Regardless, I DID find Ghostland:  An American History in Haunted Places on NPR's website!  While Stoned explained some great history through the use of stories about famous jewels and the like, and Far and Away looked at some massively important historical events through the travels of Andrew Solomon, Ghostland looks at historical times through tales of haunted places and ghosts.

I found this book to be awesome.  Having a great love of ghost stories and haunted places and a strong like for history and an even stronger like of American history in particular, this was a fascinating way to look at some of the most horrible events and institutions country's past.   I love the way this guy thinks.  Excellent book.  

Dead Dead Dead

this is just a great song.  School of the Dead was good.  And I could recommend it.  But it didn't WOW me like Seer of Shadows.  But that was a WOW book!  A REALLY WOW book!  It is hard to like the main character. Well, not hard to like him, but hard to really, really like him.  Hard to really like him.  Yeah, not even one "really."  But that doesn't mean I didn't want to find out what happens.  I was guessing until the end, just not really sure what was true and what was not true, so that was a good sign.  And personally, I felt great satisfaction with the way in which Uncle Charlie's character played out in the book.  I know some people might have a different opinion, but it made sense to me and it just seemed to make the whole book work together in a better way!

Spooky Stories

I know it is early September, but I do love a good ghost story.  I love spooky stuff.  I do.  And the fall, well, it just makes me think of spooky things.  And so when I saw Guys Read:  Terrifying Tales, I just had to have a listen.  And I am so glad I did.  I have listened to a few of these.  This is the sixth one in the series.  Last year when I was keeping track, I guess.  I know I did the sports one, which I really did enjoy!
This one was really good.  Some fantastic authors here like Dav Pilkey, and Nikki Loftin. I LOVED some of the stories.  Like Mr. Shocky by Michael Buckley and Don't Eat the Baby by Kelly Barnhill.  This is a very strong collection of great spooky stories!

What I Loved

about The Ninth Ward was that it wasn't just a book about Hurricane Katrina. This was a book about a person who happened to be involved in Hurricane Katrina.  A lot of times books about an "event" have a main character, but the main character doesn't seem to have existed before the "event" and we can't surely know how the main character will continue to live after the "event" because all we know about him or her is what she or he was like during the "event."  Jewell Parker Rhodes characters in both Towers Falling and in Ninth Ward have lives before and we learn about them and we seem to get an understanding of how they will continue on after the book/"event" ends.  That seems like it would be a tricky thing to do.  But wow, Jewell Parker Rhodes just has that ability to make me care so much about Deja and Lenesha and I am so glad I got to "know" them as people.
AND this is totally cool- I just wrote to her because I found out she is from Pittsburgh!  Can you believe it!  And she wrote me back!  Even though she was on a plane headed to New York.  Totally cool!  She is from Manchester, where I met the Robinsons when I was in seminary school.  So like a big dork, I asked her if she knew them!  Dork!
I am off on a tangent.
Anyway...a great book, a must-read.  And now I will be listening to Sugar and Bayou Magic!

Guys and Dolls

There aren't really any guys in The Doll in the Garden, except for the brother of Kristi, the little girl who lives next door to the place where Ashley and her mother have just moved.  Oh and the cats!  Both cats in the books are dudes.
As I always tell kids who choose a MDH book, this isn't like Scooby Doo where the "ghost" turns out to be Uncle Joe, so there is a real element of paranormal and scare here.  Doll in the Garden wasn't super scary, but the ghost is real.  This also addresses this issue of the death of a parent (Ashley's dad dies before the story begins) and the death of a friend.  Really good book!

Good Ghost Story, Great Hollywood Connection

I like everything about Famous Last Words.  The setting, the look back into the Golden Age of Hollywood, the mystery, the step-father issues, the ghost stuff.  It was just really, really well done. Kate Alendar is a really good teen horror writer.  Just a really good horror writer in general, just a really good writer!  She wrote the Bad Girls Don't Die series, which I just ripped right through.

Peg Kerhert

is one of those authors that I never got around to reading, but I always wanted to, just because she has so many books!  And the other thing is, I never knew how to pronounce Kerhert.  I mean, Peg, sure, I can pronounce that.  In fact, this was a great song!

The Ghost's Grave was very, very good and what's more, I listened to it, so now I know how to pronounce Kerhert.  It is kinda like "carrot."

It is realistic, but of course, there is a ghost and all...but the character of Josh is likable and real and dealing with a new step-father and feeling bad his mom and step-dad have left him with his step-dad's great aunt in a town so small and remote that there isn't even any internet while they have gone to another country for his step-father's job.

The ghost is pretty cool, too!

Last Year...

I read One Day More and I really enjoyed it and I thought, man, I can't wait to read Life After Theft!  But when I saw it on the shelf at the library, it just looked so so so so so long!  And I do get lazy!  But then a lovely gal I know, the daughter of my friend Theresa, told me that she loved LAT so I looked and there it was, able to be downloaded for free from the library!  So even though it was a year later, I remembered how much I enjoyed One Day More and I started in on LAT.  Man.  I blew through the first 6 1/2 of 8 sections of the audio.  It was so so so good!  I loved it so much!  But my enthusiasm faded a little bit.  I am not sure why.  The cover is totally deceiving.  Like The Disenchantments the cover will most likely turn away guys, but the narrator is a guy!  What a shame!  This is definitely a "good for dudes" but can you honestly see a teen dude carrying this book around?  If I were Aprilynne Pike I would be kinda mad!
It was cool to learn more about Santa Monica, which I have driven through but not spent any time.  Now I know though, that if I had a ton of bucks and any fashion sense, Montana Avenue is the only place to shop.
Jeff is the new kid in super-rich town.  His dad did very well in the whole dot.com thing, so he is new to this world of riches, but it isn't the prep school or the new wealth that are causing him problems, its a ghost.  The ghost of Kimberlee, who was super-rich in life and went to Jeff's prep school, but she had a big problem, she was a kleptomaniac.  Big time.  She hid all of the things that she stole, from her teachers, classmates, stores, in a cave on her private beach.  She's been haunting the school halls for a year now and no one can see her, until Jeff starts school.  She enlists his help to return all of the things that she stole so that her soul can have peace and maybe she won't have to float around in limbo.
I really did like this book, I guess I just wanted it to have a little more meaning.  It could have.  Jeff is an agnostic and I thought maybe he would be moved by his experience with Kimberlee or something, you know?  I don't know...I just thought that this could be a good part of the book, not that it would have to be Christian or preachy or anything.  Or even if his whole experience affirmed his agnosticism (is that possible, given the nature of agnosticism, I don't know!) or something!  But it just didn't seem to impact him at all, for more belief or for less belief, and I found that not very believable.  Interacting with a ghost would impact you in a big way, I think!  It just had a chance to be something deeper, like a Sara Zarr book, but it didn't go that way.  And that's okay!  I mean, I am the gal who loves Stone Barrington and The Fame Game!  I just wanted a little more from this.  Still, I would recommend it.  

Greetings! It's the SIXTH book and still just as awesome!

Olive, Seymour, Iggy, they are all back.  And there aren't enough good words in the world to describe how wonderful 43 Old Cemetery Road is.  These books are always, always a hit.  The three friends are now writing greeting cards for sticky situations, which is hilarious.  And there is a husband-wife team of robbers on the lose.  Fanastic.  Hilarious.  Wonderful.  Read them in order though, for maximum awesomeness!  Greetings from the Graveyard is another winner!

Literary Fiction

Graven Images by Paul Fleischman is another one of those books that will be enjoyed by folks of all ages.  Fleischman is such a creative, thoughtful and original writer.  I have never fully understood the distinction between literary fiction and genre fiction, but after reading a couple Fleischman books, I would have to put him in the literary fiction camp.
This little book contains three short stories and the audio edition, and maybe the printed one, not sure, has a not from the author which explains how the idea evolved.  All three stories were so different but all involved a graven image, something carved in wood or stone or marble.  Great, great book.

Once Again

I was totally creeped out by another Mary Downing Hahn book!  Wait Till Helen Comes is a great ghost story and the ghost is an evil child.  There is nothing scarier than an evil child.  I think back to the time I was chased mercilessly through Freddy's Haunts by a child with a chainsaw.  And then there was the pretty tasteless but truly frightening room at the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum full of children.  I still have nightmares. This book was published in 1987 but it isn't dated at all and all of Hahn's books are worth reading and wonderful! 

Another Yet-to-be-Published

Great book I got from netgalley.com.  Listening for Lucca is a deeply moving story of Sienna and her family and a ghost from the past.  Lucca has stopped talking and her family has made a move with the hopes that he will start speaking again.  The move from Brooklyn to Maine isn't easy and Sienna seems to be possessed or obsessed with a brother and sister who lived in the house decades before her family moved in.  Somehow the brother and sister from the past are tied to Sienna and Lucca in the present day.  This is a very different, very original and real story, despite the supernatural elements.  Great stuff.  Introspective, but a decent amount of action and a good mystery that will keep you turning the pages.

Another One!

Oh man!  How I jump for joy when I see a new 43 Old Cemetery Road book!  And I sure did when I saw Hollywood, Dead Ahead!  What a great addition to this seriously funny series that makes my heart so happy!  A big Hollywood producer wants to make a movie out of I.B., Seymour and Olive's series!  It is so so so great! 

Once Again...

After I finish a MDH book, I think, "man, these are creepy!" and I think that kids should know that if they scare easy, they might want to take it slow.  The deal is, with a book like Deep and Dark and Dangerous, the scares aren't cheap and cheesy.  The danger is real, the crimes are real.  Na, ghosts aren't real, but this issues dealt with in D and D and D are disturbing!  A little girl died many years ago, drowning in the lake.  Ali's mom and aunt know more about her death than they are letting on.  The adults aren't always good guys in MDH books, they are realistic.  Creepy ghost story.  I loved it.

Creep Sisters

In Beyond:  a ghost story, by Graham McNamee, Jane and her best friend, Lexi, call themselves the Creep Sisters because they are obsessed with the dark side of life.  Jane is more than obsessed though, she is haunted by the dark side.  There is a ghost stuck to her, see, and he wants her to die so that she can be with him forever.  I really enjoyed this very dark book for many reasons.  It was quick, for one.  Second, it was original.  Third, the parents are good people.  I feel like too many books just highlight rotten parents.  I like that Park's parents in Eleanor and Park were super cool, and liked Jane's parents in this book.  McNamee is the author of Acceleration, which was also dark and great!