Ghosts I Have Been
Ghosts I Have Been by Richard Peck
Ghosts I Have Been by Richard Peck
originally published 1977
Puffin Books, 12th edition, 2001
214 pages
Genre: Young adult
Synopsis & Review: Blossom Culp: fourteen-year-old girl, outcast, troublemaker, Gypsy, psychic? Living on the edge of Bluff City’s society, in a tiny dwelling furnished with whatever they can scrounge or with what mama’s skills as a Seer can earn, Blossom Culp is a bit of a misfit. After events on Halloween Night cause an uproar at school the next day, Lizzie finds herself embraced by some of those in Bluff City “who have already arrived,” as she delicately puts it. To the great distress of the stuck-up Letty Shambaugh, Blossom makes an appearance at the former’s little after school girl’s club. When Bluff City’s mean girls try to embarrass Blossom with a seance, she turns the table on them with aplomb—until the Universe turns the tables on Blossom herself. Suddenly burdened with the Sight, Blossom saves Letty’s brother’s life and gains a patroness, the eccentric Anglophile spinster Miss Dabney.
With Miss Dabney’s support and interest, Blossom explores her abilities, soon freeing Miss Dabney’s own ghost hired girl Minerva from her eternal torment. As a rousing second act, Blossom first appropriates then discredits the act of a traveling spiritualist, gaining widespread notoriety in the process. But it is when she is called to the carpet by her principal Miss Spaulding, and interviewed by a local newspaperman, that Blossom really gets going. When asked by Miss Spaulding and Mr Seaforth for a demonstration of her Powers—with the idea of disproving them, natch—Blossom sinks into a trance that takes her to a small boy named Julian, left by his parents to drown in Arctic waters. Coming to again, Blossom is soaked with icy salt water, and clutching a blanket embroidered, Royal Steamship Titanic.
When reading Shelf Discovery, I experienced several of those HOW ON EARTH DID I NEVER READ THIS moments, and none were so intense at the one I had reading about Ghosts I Have Been, Richard Peck’s marvelous ghost story featuring the inimitable Blossom Culp. Seriously, how is it that I never read this?! I know I saw it in book orders and at the library, probably countless times and who could resist that evocative title? Plus, I have loved several Peck (haha, peck) books to distraction, especially Princess Ashley and Voices After Midnight. So how was this possible? I want to know whom to blame for this grievous error. Read the rest of this entry »
Aloha!
Aloha, darlings!
I have been lax in my updates and posting so far this year, but I promise you that I have been reading and taking notes on everything that I read! (In fact, I can hardly just read a book without thinking about what I’ll be writing about it. I need to start writing things down, though, because I often forget. Especially when I’m drunk and reading. Argh.)
BUT! We just returned from our honeymoon in Hawai’i, and not only did I read some fun books there, but I also have some fun pictures of … LIBRARIES! Yeah, we toured some of the important Libraries I Have Known on our honeymoon. Cuz that’s how I roll.
So, look forward to my getting all caught up on reviews, and also library stories–and to leave you with something to reflect upon, here is part of what my wedding bouquet looked like, constructed out fo pages from my Jane Austen omnibus that tragically (and providentially) fell apart a few months ago:
Mostly pages from Pride & Prejudice, Emma, and Persuasion, with a few from Northanger Abbey and a smattering of Sense & Sensibility. Learn to make your own at Offbeat Bride!
Shelf Discovery: The Teen Classics We Never Stopped Reading
Shelf Discovery by Lizzie Skurnik
Shelf Discovery: The Teen Classics We Never Stopped Reading (A Reading Memoir) by Lizzie Skurnik
Avon, 1st printing, 2009
424 pages
Genre: Memoir, YA
Synopsis & Review: Sometime in the Sixties, says Lizzie Skurnik, YA literature for girls underwent a sea change, from wholesome entertainment into something rich and strange. Out of this marvelous transformation came Judy Blume and Lois Duncan, and then others followed suit: Katherine Paterson, Richard Peck, Robert Cormier, Scott O’Dell, Paula Danziger, Norma Klein, and Willo Davis Roberts, among others. Skurnik declares that this is when writers began dealing with “the lives and dramas of adolescent girls on their own terms, in their own worlds.” Her reading memoir Shelf Discovery is an epic odyssey through YA lit of a certain time, from the late Sixties to the late Eighties, and nearly all of the books will be recognizable to readers (women?) of a certain age. Shelf Discovery sprang forth from Skurnik’s Jezebel column Fine Lines, and spurred on by the enthusiastic response of readers, Skurnik gathered, categorized, and dissected a number of the classics of the genre. From Alcott and Burnett to L’Engle and Blume, Shelf Discovery features essays not only by Skurnik, but also popular authors like Meg Cabot and Cecily von Ziegesar.
The book is divided into chapters categorizing books nominally by theme, with the exception of Chapter One, Still Checked Out/YA Heroines We’ll Never Return. After these classics come She’s at that Age/Girls on the Verge; Danger Girls/I Know What You Did Last Summer (Reading); Read ‘em and Weep/Tearing Up the Pages; You Heard it Here First/Very Afterschool Specials; Girls Gone Wild/Runaways, Left Behinds, and Ladies Living off the Fat of the Land; She Comes by It Supernaturally/Girls Who are Gifted and Talented; Him She Loves/Romanced, Rejected, Affianced, Dejected; Old-Fashioned Girls/They Wear Bonnets, Don’t They?; and Panty Lines/I Can’t Believe They Let Us Read This. Essays vary from full-length Book Reports with synopsis and analysis, to the much shorter Overdue and Extra Credit selections, which were usually all-too brief.
At a Christmas Eve party, my friend Matt asked me why exactly all the girls in intermediate school were reading Flowers in the Attic and Clan of the Cave Bear all the damn time. (I have no idea how the topic came up; I was a little tipsy.) Though Matt is about a decade older than I am, I immediately had the answers for him, being part of the tail of that YA movement that flourished in the late Sixties up through the Eighties (when I got my greasy little mitts on them). So I began expounding on V.C. Andrews and Jean M. Auel at length, declaiming the narratives of the Dollanganger and Earth’s Children sagas (with brief forays into the Casteels and Adares during the former), while Matt and Josh listened raptly, dazzled by the secret lives of girls. I can’t even remember the last time I read FitA or CotCB, but I remembered everything about the books, including how much I had loved them and why. Read the rest of this entry »
BSC revived and revised
Have you seen this article in the New York Times? Ann M. Martin’s seminal series The Baby-Sitter’s Club is being resuscitated by Scholastic with not only a reprint and a prequel, but also a revision to update the books. No more perms and no more cassettes!
Like a lot of my peers, I read a fair number of BSC books in their heyday. It was never my favorite series, but I liked it better than the wholly ridiculous Sweet Valley High (and far better than the loathsome younger reader spinoffs of that) for featuring somewhat realistic girls doing well, everyday activities. And while there are far better books out there for young readers, I do not mind them reading stuff like the BSC. But is a revision to update the books really necessary? When I was in that same age group, I inherited some of the books that had originally belonged to my two older sisters, ten and twelve years older than me. Among these were several Judy Blume books, the requisite horse books like Marguerite O’Henry’s Misty books, and also the Amy and Laura books. The latter series was about a pair of sisters, different as different can be (and I suspect that difference is why my sisters had them; they had a very difficult relationship till they were adults), living in the Bronx in the–well, to this day I’m not entirely sure when they lived. Their lives were drastically different from my own, and though I wanted a malted, I wasn’t entirely sure what one was. But there were many similarities besides the complicated relationship between Amy and Laura, which echoed the one I witnessed between my own siblings. Like Laura, I checked out the Lang Fairy Books (I remember her interest in finally acquiring the Olive volume), and like Amy, I enjoyed riding my bike around the neighborhood. I really don’t think any small difference between my technology and theirs impeded my interest in their lives in the slightest.
The same goes for many classics of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries; though my mother had to explain segregation and belts for pads (when I read Iggie’s House and Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret, respectively), that hardly lessened my enjoyment or understanding of the books. But I suppose there may be an argument that since the BSC books are of less err, literary merit, shall we say, then they do need updating to remain relevant to children. I don’t know. But I may have to take a trip thrifting soon, and try to stock up on those original volumes just in case I ever have some girls interested in Stoneybrook.
Also: I first saw this article on the second of January, when the comments were already closed (really, NYT? Really?), but I MUST respond to this comment by Adrienne of New York (who is more than welcome to rebut):
This whole generation of girls who had grown up reading ‘The Baby-Sitters Club’ were now teachers, librarians or mothers,” Mr. Levithan said.
…Does Mr. Levithan really believe that little girls can only grow up to be teachers, librarians or mothers?? These books were about strong, entrepreneurial women. Mr. Levithan just robbed all women of the childhood joy they derived from these books. Thanks.
Ummm, yeah. Pretty sure Levithan is entirely aware of the fact that the women most in the position of recommending books to young readers are, well, mothers, teachers, and librarians. Ya think?
Chunkster Reading Challenge
Definition of a Chunkster:
* A chunkster is 450 pages or more of ADULT literature (fiction or nonfiction) … A chunkster should be a challenge.
* If you read large type books your book will need to be 525 pages or more … The average large type book is 10-15% longer or more so I think that was a fair estimate.
The Rules:
* No Audio books in the chunkster. It just doesn’t seem right. Words on paper for this one folks.
* No e-Books allowed – we are reading traditional, fat books for this challenge.
* Short Stories and Essay collections will not be counted.
* Books may crossover with other challenges
* Anyone may join. If you don’t have a blog, just leave me a comment on this post with your progress (and to let me know you are playing)
* You don’t need to list your books ahead of time.
* Once you pick a level, that’s it…you’re committed to that level!
You must pick a level of participation:
1. The Chubby Chunkster – this option is for the reader who has a couple of large tomes on their TBR list, but really doesn’t want to commit to much more than that. 3 books is all you need to finish this challenge.
2. Do These Books Make my Butt Look Big? – this option is for the slightly heavier reader who wants to commit to 4 Chunksters over the next twelve months.
3. Mor-book-ly Obese – This is for the truly out of control chunkster. For this level of challenge you must commit to 6 or more chunksters OR three tomes of 750 pages or more. You know you want to…..go on and give in to your cravings.
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The way I see it is, I’m going to do it anyways, so why not gratify myself with a challenge? Because of my particular reading habits, I’m going to go ahead and do the Mor-book-ly Obese level of the challenge. Perhaps Tom Jones will finally make it onto my read list!
Chunkster Reading Challenge: Mor-book-ly Obese Level
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18th and 19th Century Women Writers Reading Challenge
18th and 19th Women Writers Reading Challenge
Hosted by Becky of Becky’s Book Reviews
Minimum 2 books;
All of 2010
Read books written by women authors that were written and/or published between 1700 and 1900. Contemporary historical books set in this time period do not count towards this challenge! The challenge is to encourage you to read some classics.
Here is a place where you can get ideas, but be careful, the list includes some authors who won’t count. (The site lists authors based on when they were born. So on the 1801-1900 list, for example, you might find women authors who were born in this time but didn’t begin writing and publishing their books until the twentieth century.)
Celebration of Women Writers 1801-1900
Celebration of Women Writers 1701-1800
Overlaps with other challenges allowed.
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Well, so much for taking it easy! It does coincide with my interests, so I’m just going to have to do this challenge, too! There’s still an Austen or two I haven’t yet read, and I’ve been meaning to try that Elizabeth Gaskell who has been so popular of late. And I still have George Eliot to do, too. So there is plenty to choose from.
18th & 19th Century Women Writers Reading Challenge
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