By Mary Downing Hahn
This is a very thought provoking story. I picked it up by happenstance one day subbing in a classroom. I had just finished a book and this happened to be laying around, once I started reading I was hooked. The new girl in town inadvertently becomes friends with a very unlikable person. Annie quickly regrets becoming acquainted with Elsie and wants to extract herself from the relationship, but Elsie will not let her go. Annie gets her chance to remove herself from Elsie's grasp, when Elsie is absent for a week, and quickly shifts her friendship to Rosie's group. Unfortunately, Rosie and her gang are "Mean Girls" and belittle and bully Elsie.
It seems like overnight that Annie has a new friend group and begins to bully Elsie, and Elsie is left once again friendless. Things quickly change, however, when a deadly Spanish Influenza hits Mount Pleasant and people begin to die at an alarming rate. As schools are cancelled and the kids are left to their own devices, Rosie comes up with a plan to get free sweets, why not visit some of the wakes, and pretend to know the individual in the coffin? They even learn to peruse the obituaries the night before and garner information about the deceased. On one of these ventures, they happen to run upon Elsie alone in the park. Elsie is wearing a flue mask, in an attempt to protect her from contracting the flue bug. Rosie decides it would be fun to harass Elsie and chase her down. After surrounding her and singing about her getting influenza, stealing her mask, Elsie is left crying in the park; Annie and the rest of her friends feel bad,yet vow to never speak of this again. The secret is kept until, they visit one wake with out forewarning and it happens to be Elsie... Annie believes she is truly done with the worries of Elsie, but is she?
An accident that results in a concussion while sledding in the cemetery, another secret and somehow Elsie returns to haunt Annie from the grave. Elsie is out for revenge! She wants Annie back as her one true friend and she wants Rosie and the gang to pay for her death. suffice it to say Elsie is a very angry ghost. She coerces Annie to do her evil work, and puts words in her mouth that Annie would never say. Annie's behavior and outbursts reach such a point that she is sent to a convalescent care home, so she can get the rest that she needs to recuperate. Elsie follows her and continues to make her mind miserable. Fortunately, there is help in the guise of another patient. One who claims to be able to see and communicate with ghosts, one who says she can help Elsie transition to her afterlife. Step one is to get Elsie's friendship, Elsie must believe that her and Annie are best friends. Will Annie be able to help Elsie move on and reconnect with her mother? Will Annie be able to return home and be able to get her friends back.
This book is very entertaining to read, a fairly quick read. I think that it would be appropriate for fifth grade and up and even though the main character is female, the content is available to both genders. I am giving this book a 4.5 out of 5 stars and think that if you like books about the supernatural you would love this book.
Links
No comments:
Post a Comment