Barbara's Meanderings: middle grade fiction

Launching Galaxy Games Blog Tour 2011!!!

galaxy games: the challengers Saturday, October 01, 2011

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Meet Lori Z. Scott, A Much Published Author!

lori z. scott Friday, March 11, 2011

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Are Ghosts Real? A Review of Ghost for Rent by Penny Ehrenkranz

Angela's Ashes Monday, July 20, 2009

Last Thursday my guest author was Penny Ehrenkranz (Lockwood). At that time I told you I would review her book. Unfortunately, the events of the past week including the bombings in Jakarta and the death of Walter Cronkite took up almost all of the week.

Then we also lost Frank McCo urt, who more than anyone brought the events that were happening in Ireland to life for the rest of the world. Mr. McCourt was an educator as well as an author and his wit and humor will be missed. Though he was a native New Yorker, his parents moved back to Ireland, since they they couldn't find a job in America. Angela's Ashes which won a Pulitzer Prize and was made into a movie starring Emily Watson as his mother, is the story of his existence and what it was like to live in Ireland and be poor. Frank McCourt became a celebrity late in life and was part of the New York literary scene. He taught for 30 years before his book was published. Then in 1996 he became an instant hit and his career flourished. He also wrote a memoir about teaching, Teacher Man, which shows the daily grind of being a teacher in New York.

So that is why this review is a little late.:) But here it is as promised. Also anyone who comments on the interview will be in the drawing for a free book. Please go and leave your comment to be in the drawing. You have until Monday, July 20 to leave your comment.

Review of Ghost for Rent

by Penny Lockwood (Ehrenkranz)

What happens when a city girl has to move to the country? How will she survive leaving her familiar apartment for an old farmhouse on the outskirts of a tiny town? To add to her troubles the house seems to be haunted. Is it possible that the ghosts are trying to tell the new inhabitants something?

In Ghost for Rent by Penny Ehrenkranz, Wendy and her older brother Mike are forced to move to a farmhouse her mother has rented when her mother asks her Dad for a divorce. Soon she finds herself in the country. When her new friend, Jennifer, tells Wendy how she thinks her new house is haunted, Wendy doesn’t want to believe it. But soon, events change her beliefs and start her and her friend Jennifer on a quest to discover the mystery behind all the strange ghostly sightings at her new place.

The author involves the reader in the mystery as she puts you in the terrifying situations that the children face as they confront the apparitions that are desperately trying to find a way to communicate their message to the new inhabitants of the house. As each strange occurrence happens the reader can feel the same goose bumps the children feel as they encounter these ghostly presences.

Told in Wendy’s point of view the reader encounters the ghosts at the same time as she does, and as the real life story of the ghosts comes to light it is evident that this is not your usual ghost story. Intertwined with the ghost story is the uncomfortable experience of separation from Wendy’s Dad and her mother’s assimilation into a small town existence. The author writes of small towns with tenderness and makes the one in the story very inviting.

How do you find the answer to a mystery that is almost a hundred years old? Will the research unearth the answer? What is it like to see a ghost and be part of that experience? To find out you will need to read the book. You will find it a very fast and enjoyable read. Though it is written with younger characters, the story, which delves into teen age issues, should appeal to older readers as well.

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