Ghost Girl: A Blue Ridge Mountain Story

by Delia Ray

Book Overview

Eleven-year-old April Sloane has never set foot in a school before, and now that President Hoover and his wife are building a one-room schoolhouse in the hollow of the Blue Ridge Mountains where April lives, she is eager to attend it. But these are the Depression years, and Mama, who has been grieving ever since the accidental death of her seven-year-old son, wants April to stay home and do the chores around their dilapidated farm. With her grandmother's...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0618333770
• ISBN13: 9780618333776
• Release Date: September 2003
• Publisher: Clarion Books
• Length: 216 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.5" x 8.3"
• Age Range: 10 to 12 years
• Grade Range: Grades 5 to 7

Customer Reviews

Wow!

A great story! Quick fun read but the images stay with you. I read this book not long after it was published and it is still with me 2 years later. I highly recommend it.

A marvelous door to the past

I first read the book after my husband picked it up at the library. He placed it at my chair and said, "You will like this book". Growing up near the Blueridge Mountains, I grew to admire the Mountain people and their struggle to make a living high up on the mountains. The author did an outstanding job researching the material. She gave life to a fiction preteen girl that never had one easy day of living. April is burdened by a dark secret that will alter her life for the better.

Engaging Story

I know this book was not written for women in their 70's, but I enjoyed it just as much as if I'd been 12 again! Not only is it an absorbing story, it is a snapshot of the real history of that period and what life was like then.

Hillary Bramells Book Review

The book was awesome! Its about a girl named April who want to go to school but her mom wont let here because her brother died and they need more help around the house. April lies to her family about how here brother died. On Christmas Eve Aprils grandma (Auntie Birdy) talks to her mom about going to school. Her mom finally says yes. She is in school for a while when Poke and Dewy gets into a fight. April tries to move away but somehow she gets thrown into a tree and breaks her arm. Ms. Vest, the teacher, has Dewy go tell her mom that she broke her arm and she is staying the night with her. In the morning her mom comes and gets her and wont let here come back to school. A few months pass by and her dad comes home with a lot of chestnutsso they have a roast and invite people to come over. Ms. Vest comes and at first April tries to ignore her. Then tords the end they bump into each other. So April takes her to her room and the start talking, then April tells Ms. Vest what really happened to Riely. Ms. Vest promised not to tell anyone, but, Aprils mom had been listening to them the whole time and blamed April for Rielys death. So April had to go live with Ms. Vest. Two years passed and no sign of her mom or dad. Ms. Vest and April go to Washington to see the Priesdent and to get her arm fixed cuz it still bothered her, she finds out that Aunt Birdy is sick and so April moves in with her to take care of her. To find out the rest read the book bcuz it is really, really good!!!

great book

After her brothers death, April Sloane's mother pays less and less attention to her and mopes around the house. When President Hoover decides to build a school for the kids in the mountains April is excited but her mother does not want her to go. With the help of Aunt Birdy (aprils grandmother) and Christine Vest, the teacher of the new school, April's mother gives in and allows her to go. Even when she has to face harsh problems in the next year, she doesnt give up. But when Aunt Birdy turns ill April has to do something...now im not going to ruin the surprise but i have to say this is a great book!!!!!!