Scholastic Canada, 2011
From
the Book Jacket:
Where’s Michael? Has his body been taken by the sea?
What have you done, robber of the dead?
Kevin gagged with fear, his heart pounding in his throat. The girl was close enough for him to see her pale face, her wide, searching eyes. She was blaming him. Her arms reached out towards him. She wanted to punish him, to drag him under . . .
What was her connection to the Titanic? And how could he escape from a ghost?
Summary:
Kevin isn’t happy that he has to go and
live in Halifax, just because his father has inherited a house from a
mysterious man named Angus Seaton. As Kevin copes with living in a new place
and dealing with his father’s criticisms, he becomes more and more interested
in the mystery of Angus Seaton. Especially after Kevin starts to suspect he’s
being haunted. Meanwhile, a second, intertwined story tells of Angus Seaton, a
crewman on the Mackay-Bennett, who helped retrieve bodies and identify bodies after
the Titantic went down. In the end, Kevin pieces together the story of the
inheritance and how it’s connected to Seaton, the Titantic and a young female
ghost.
My Take:
I enjoyed the mystery of how the
different pieces of the story fit together. It was interesting to read the
historical details of the Titantic sinking and how the bodies were retrieved. Although
the ghost and ending of the story seemed a bit contrived, I liked the way Kevin
tried to figure out the mystery of how the house and ghost were connected to
him. There were some spooky moments with the ghost to keep up the suspense!
Other Info:
Julie Lawson says that writing a
book is like travelling: “When I start out with my
characters, I never know what's going to happen. I explore and make discoveries.”
This book is nominated for the
Ontario Library Association’s Forest of Reading in the Silver Birch (Fiction)
category for 2012. I’ve profiled some of the
other nominated books: Neil Flambe and the Aztec Abduction, That Boy Red, The
Glory Wind, Ghost
Messages, and Undergrounders.
Other books by this
author include:
White Jade Tiger
Fires Burning
Danger Game
Destination Gold
The Gold Stone Trilogy:
GoldstoneTurns on a Dime
The Ghost of Avalanche Mountain
Books in the Dear Canada series:
A Ribbon of
Shining SteelNo Safe Harbour
Where the River Takes Me
A Christmas to Remember
A Season for Miracles
And many picture books, such as The Klondike Cat, Kate’s
Castle, Bear on the Train and My Grandfather Loved the Stars.
For more, go to Julie Lawson’s website.
Joanne Fritz @ My Brain
on Books
Shannon Messenger
@ Ramblings of a Wannabe
Scribe
Shannon O'Donnell @
Book Dreaming
Sherrie Petersen @ Write
About Now
Brooke Favero @ Somewhere
in the Middle
Myrna Foster @ Night
Writer
Ally Beecher
@ Kid
Lit Frenzy
Barbara Watson
@ Novel and Nouveau
Deb Marshall
@ Just Deb!
Anita Laydon Miller's Middle Grade Blog
Michael G-G
@ Middle Grade Mafioso
Natalie
Aguirre @ Literary Rambles
Ms. Yingling @
Ms.
Yingling Reads
Jennifer
Rumberger
Pam Torres @
So I'm
Fifty
Mary @ Writer's Butt Does Not Apply to Me
The Accidental Novelist
G.S.
Prendergast @ Angelhorn
Gina Carey
Nye Louwen -
My Spirit
Looking for more MMGM? Check
out these links:
Big bonus points to this one for including the Titanic camp song! I've read so many Titanic books recently, and this is the only one that addressed that really sad, vulgar bit of my youth! My children didn't believe me that we really sang it at camp and didn't find it morbid!
ReplyDeleteThis seems quite intriguing :) I wanna read it now.
ReplyDeleteSounds like an interesting read. Thanks for sharing it. I hadn't heard of it.
ReplyDeleteI have a copy of this one its way to me even as I type--I'm looking forward to it!
ReplyDeleteWe have this on our Titanic display table at the bookstore (yeah, it's kind of morbid to remember something that dreadful -- but the 100th anniversary is coming up..). Of course, I haven't had a chance to read it yet. So thanks for the recommendation!
ReplyDeleteI've probably said this before here when you've chosen a book tied to history, but I LOVE books that piece history with a new twist on the story. Sounds like a good one!
ReplyDeleteI was going to say, "What's with all these Titanic books?" but Joanne answered it for me. The centenary!
ReplyDeleteNonetheless, I love books with ghosts, so will have to track this one down. Thanks, Andrea.
I haven't heard of this book, but my 9 yo might be interested in it. He's fascinated with the Titanic.
ReplyDelete