One of my favorite Christmas traditions is either reading or going to a production of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. Scrooge is one of the greatest names in literature, and the ghosts who teach him a lesson totally rock.
I've always had a soft spot for specters (in fact, my current ms has a couple of them.) In the spirit of the season, therefore, I'm giving away a couple of my fave phantom tomes. Here's a bit about them:
Thirteen-year-old Jon and his eleven-year-old sister, Tania, are typical kids—except Tania can communicate with ghosts. Their parents also happen to be the producers of a ghost-hunter television show—and have no idea one of their own kids can see ghosts. In The Ghost on the Stairs, the brother-sister duo join forces to help reunite a newlywed couple from beyond the grave.
When twelve-year-old Florence boards the crowded horse-drawn coach in London, she looks forward to a new life with her great uncle and aunt at Crutchfield Hall, an old manor house in the English countryside. Anything will be better, she thinks, than the grim London orphanage where she has lived since her parents' death. But Florence doesn't expect the ghost of her cousin Sophia, who haunts the cavernous rooms and dimly lit hallways of Crutchfield and concocts a plan to use Florence to help her achieve her murderous goals. Will Florence be able to convince the others in the household of the imminent danger and stop Sophia before it's too late?
I'm trying a Rafflecoptor giveway--feeling so brave and modern here. Hopefully it will work as planned. If not, just leave a comment to enter, and let me know if you tweet etc. for an extra entry. The giveaway will end on Friday the 20th, and I'll attempt to ship the books out to the winner so they can be "Epiphany" presents. (Yet another tradition in my gift-loving family--read all about it here: All About Epiphany)
Question: What are your favorite books starring ghosts, phantoms, and specters?
a Rafflecopter giveaway
P.S. Our winner, drawn by Rafflecoptor, was LORI EASTEP. Congratulations to you, Lori--the books are on their way.
I love The Graveyard Book.
ReplyDeleteJpetroroy at gmail dot com
I don't read many ghost stories, but The Graveyard Book was great. Angie Sage also has a ghost series, but I can't remember the title.
ReplyDeleteCan't be the third person in a row to say The Graveyard Book (although I LOVED it!). Of course The Harry Potter books did a wonderful job integrating the afterlife with the book's living characters. I recently finished Maureen Johnson's The Madness Underneath and thought she did an excellent job with her ghost realm.
ReplyDeleteMy new favorite is The Screaming Staircase by Johnathan Stroud, creepy but very good.
ReplyDeleteRafflecopter worked for me (don't count my entry, I was just testing it)!
ReplyDeleteThese look really fun! Thanks for the suggestions. I'm always so bad at answering questions about my favorite anything. The answer will occur to me in a week or so.
ReplyDeleteTerrific giveaway. I'll Tweet it to get the word out to my kid lit pals.
ReplyDeleteGreat post, Michael. Hooray for Chris!
ReplyDeleteI just reviewed my "reading list" of favorite books on my website. Curiously, while I have a whole list of fantasy titles and mysteries, I don't think any of them contain ghosts. But you can see that list, and learn more about my Haunted series: http://www.chriseboch.com/disc.htm
ReplyDeleteI'm a sucker for a good ghost story. My favorites growing up were the Bruce Coville books... The Ghost in the Third Row... The Ghost Wore Gray...
ReplyDeleteI've grown up loving Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, I read it every single year so I'm going to have to say that one is my absolute favorite ghost story!
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