Posts Tagged ‘ghost stories’

Asylum by Madeleine Roux

imageDaniel Crawford has always been a bit of a loner, not fitting in at his high school, but now that he is at a summer program for gifted students on a college campus, he hopes to make friends at last.  Things are looking up when he meets Abbi and Jordan.

Since the regular dorms are undergoing renovations, the summer students are staying in Brookline, a former psychiatric hospital with a dark and secret past.  Dan and his new friends explore the twisting tunnels and dusty rooms underneath Brookline, and in so doing, stir up ghosts that do not want to rest in peace.

Asylum (Harper 2013) by Madeleine Roux is the kind of book that gives me nightmares, but I know I will have students who will enjoy it.  If you like the kinds of movies where you want to scream at the main characters for entering into the deserted house or dark woods where the killer is lurking, you will enjoy the fear these pages dredge up.  It’s not too gory, but the mind games and bizarre occurrences are chilling.

Friends with Boys by Faith Erin Hicks

imageEvery year graphic novels become more and more more popular with my students.  Or maybe I’ve grown to enjoy them more and promote them more.  Whichever is the case, I cannot stock my room with nearly enough of them.  I’m glad to have another one to add to my collection–Friends with Boys by Faith Erin Hicks–especially one that will appeal to a wide variety of readers.

Maggie is not only starting with her first day of high school.  It is also her first day of public school because she has been homeschooled for years before.  She does have three older brothers to watch out for her, but she struggles to find her own place and her own friends in the huge school.  She’s also missing her mother, who left for some unknown reason.  Maggie eventually meets Lucy and Alistair, who eat lunch with her and join her in small town adventures.  Of course, there is past high school drama issues to deal with–and not just on the stage with a musical about zombies.  Oh yeah, one more thing–Maggie is haunted by a ghost from the old cemetery.

I have a couple of students in mind for this book already, and I think it won’t sit on the shelf for long with it’s mix of real-life drama and hint of spooky ghosts.  For those who are into the art and story, Friends with Boys started as a webcomic.  You can still read a preview of the beginning of the book and go back to read the blog posts that Hicks wrote as she created the story as a serialized comic for the web.

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I am taking part in the Slice of Live Challenge sponsored by Two Writing Teachers,  where teachers write and share every Tuesday through the year and every day during the month of March.  Join yourself or head over to check out what’s going on with the other slicers.  If you are taking part in SOF, leave a link to your blog.  I’d love to read it.

Anya’s Ghost by Vera Brosgol

imageI am always excited when the Young Hoosier Award list contains a graphic novel because I always looking for new titles to add to my graphic novel collection.  I can’t wait to share Anya’s Ghost (First Second 2011) by Vera Brosgol with my students in the fall.  It has something for almost every reader:  teen angst, a helpful ghost, a dark secret, and even a troubled romance.  The black and white pictures add to the spookiness.

Anya is a bit of an outcast at school.  She wants desperately to fit in, but she’s embarrassed by her immigrant family and self-conscious about her appearance.  When she falls down an old well, she doesn’t expect to make a new friend.  The ghost of Emily, a murdered girl, follows Anya out of the well and helps her navigate–and even improve–her barely tolerable life.  But Emily has plans of her own that she needs Anya’s help to complete.  Can Anya uncover the truth about Emily’s life and death before it’s too late?

 

Ghost Stories Galore

Every year I have students who ask me to recommend ghost stories to read.  After showing them the Mary Downing Hahn and Elaine Marie Alphin books in the library, I don’t have many other places to turn. I’m not sure why I haven’t read more ghost stories.  They combine many of my favorite things in books:  mystery (Why is the ghost haunting a particular place or person?  Who caused the death?  What would give the ghost peace?) and history (Ghosts tend to be from times past for some reason.).  Now I have another author and two more books to recommend:  Ruined and Dark Souls by New Zealand writer Paula Morris.

Ruined (Scholastic 2009)

Rebecca struggles to find a place to belong as she adjusts to life in New Orleans after being sent to live with a family friend while her dad is on a long business trip to  China.  The girls at the snooty prep school ignore her.  Gorgeous Anton Grey flirts with her when he’s not ignoring her.  Her aunt Claudia reads tarot cards for a living and warns Rebecca to avoid Anton as well as the queen bees at school–Helena and Marianne.  The only person who is friendly to Rebecca is Lisette, who haunts the nearby Lafayette Cemetery.  Everyone is keeping secrets that Rebecca is determined to uncover as she explores layers of the city’s past.  Will Rebecca learn the truth and break the family curse before it is too late?

Dark Souls (Scholastic 2011)

Miranda travels to York, England, with her family, where they hope to put a tragic accident behind them and get on with their lives.  How can Rebecca let go of the past when she sees ghosts around every corner?  After all, York is one of the most haunted cities in the world.  Meeting Nick provides a welcome distraction, even if he is intense and brooding.  Then a gorgeous boy in the boarded up house next door seems desperate to communicate with her.  Is he one of York’s famous ghosts?  As Miranda explores the city’s past and present, she discovers a deadly plot that could put them all in danger.

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In both of these books, I loved how the ghostly elements wove in the history of the New Orleans and York.  Because they can see ghosts, Rebecca and Miranda are able to peel back the modern facade and see traces of the past that have long since been covered up.  New Orleans ghosts are tied to places connected to their lives and deaths, even when progress paves a highway over their homes.  In York, Roman ghosts still march along old roads that are now underground.  I’m excited to learn that Rebecca’s story continues in another book, Unbroken, where different New Orleans ghosts ask for her help.

What are your favorite ghost stories?

The Haunting of Derek Stone by Tony Abbott

imageThe Haunting of Derek Stone by Tony Abbot includes two books in one cover:  City of the Dead and Bayou Dogs.  It’s a good thing the two books are packaged together since the action doesn’t stop between them.  The only bad news is that there are two more books to complete the series, and now I’m left hanging until I can find The Red House and The Ghost Road.

Derek Stone survived a train crash in Bordelon Gap.  His dad and brother are missing and presumed dead.  Then when Derek’s older brother Ronny shows up days after the crash, things really start getting weird.  Derek can now hear the voices of the dead calling to him, but only in his bad ear.  As Derek searches for answers to what is going on, he discovers an nearly identical train crash at the same gap in 1938, receives help from an old blues musician who survived that earlier crash, and finds himself on the run from the dead who are returning in droves.  For some reason, they want Derek and will stop at nothing to get him.  Somehow, Derek knows or has something they want because of his near-drowning in the bayou when he was four years old.

I’m not normally a fan of scary ghost stories (I get nightmares), but I got caught up in the heart-pounding action of these books.  I am most definitely intrigued by the mystery raised with Derek’s haunting.  Just who saved him so long ago in that bayou and just what did he see that night?  What is going on with his dad who pops in and out of the story. I’m even growing to like Ronny–or Virgil–or whoever he is mixed up in one body.