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 »
the stacks my destination 