Wednesday, April 8, 2015

A to Z April: G Review - The Ghost Belonged to Me/Ghosts I Have Been by Richard Peck


Today I've picked two books that are in the same series.  A series that I loved as a kid and read over and over.  I have always been a fan of both ghost stories, as well as things about the Titanic.  And these books both had ghosts, awesome funny characters and dialogue, and the Titanic.

The first one is The Ghost Belonged to Me.  This is the first book in the series and is told from a boy's point of view, Alexander, even though it introduces Blossom Culp, the girl who will really be the main character of the next two books in the series.  Here is the blurb from Goodreads for this one:
"More death! More, if you do not stop it. Others lost, like me in the black water. Save them!"
When Alexander first sees the eerie glow in the dormer window of the barn, it sets his heart pounding. And when he ventures into the barn in the dark of night, his breath catches in his throat. Suddenly Blossom Culp's words come back to him: "You can make contact with the Unseen...." Now there's a girl ghost standing right in front of him, telling him of great danger ahead. But is there time for Alexander to act on her warning?






The second one is called Ghosts I Have Been, and as I mentioned in the last book's info, it is told from Blossom's point of view.  Blossom is an interesting character, an outcast in the town, and just an all around quirky character, but you kind of have to fall in love with her, at least I did.  Here is the blurb for the 2nd book from Goodreads:
Many's the ignorant person who claims that spirits and haunts have forsaken the modern age in this new twentieth century. But what they do not know would fill a book. And this is the book.

Blossom Culp, spunky, devious, a bit of a female chauvinist—soon to be the most famous girl in two countries—is the outspoken outcast of Bluff City, Mid-America. But she begins a climb to fame one Halloween night when she deliberately puts the blame on Letty Shambaugh for squelching Alexander Armsworth's conspiracy to overturn Old Man Leverette's outhouse.

Always resourceful, Blossom manages to foil Letty's plan for revenge by suddenly developing a spurious gift for second sight—which unexpectedly misfires. It turns out that Blossom indeed has the Gift for Seeing the Unseen.

Nothing daunted, Blossom goes on to put herself and her town on the map. She tames the ghost of a suicidal servant and caps her career with a lunatic odyssey to London.

In the midst of her adventures, however, Blossom comes to understand the serious side of her flickering Second Sight. In ghostly form she witnesses the terrible last minutes of the sinking of the Titanic and learns the sad truth that whether one glimpses the future or travels into the past, one is powerless to alter history.

Low comedy and high tragedy are beautifully blended by a master comfortably at home in the perhaps more innocent era already happily familiar to readers of The Ghost Belonged to Me.


So have you read this series?  Or any books by Richard Peck, he's got a lot out there!  While you're here, make sure you enter my giveaway below.


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