The Battlefield Ghost - Softcover

Cuyler, Margery

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0590108492 ISBN 13: 9780590108492

Publisher: Scholastic Paperbacks, 2002

Synopsis

An easy to read ghost novel intertwined with historical elements.

Eight-year-old John Perkins's family moves into an old farmhouse. From the first day, John is convinced the house is haunted. His twelve-year old sister Lisa soon senses a spooky presence as well

When John and Lisa meet the ghost. They learn that the ghost, is a Revolutionary War soldier, who needs their help in solveing a mystery surrounding his horse, who was separated from him during a bloody battle. The ghost cannot rest until the mystery is solved. John and Lisa must unravel the mystery by investigating their home town, in the process discovering more about themselves.

About this title

About the Author:

MARGERY CUYLER is the author of many children's books, including the first Little Nell story, The Biggest, Best Snowman; Please Say Please!: Penguin's Guide to Manners; and 100th Day Worries. She lives in Princeton, New Jersey.

From Publishers Weekly:

This patriotic mystery, inspired by legends surrounding the Battle of Princeton on January 3, 1777, stars a brother and sister who move into a historic haunted house near the battlefield. Some initial phantasmal encounters effectively build suspense as an unseen presence strokes John's fingers while he plays the piano, shoves the boy and his sister into a horse stall and even feeds the horse carrots. The siblings discover that the amiable ghost is a Hessian mercenary who fought for the British and whose horse died with him in combat, and by the close of the novel, they reunite the man and his steed. Cuyler (Invisible in the Third Grade) construes the mystery primarily to convey, successfully, the historical events; all other plotting (e.g., John's family erecting a Christmas tree, a visit from the grandparents) feels superfluous. Howard's black-and-white illustrations occasionally seem at odds with the mood of the text but, at their best, deliver a spine-tingling effect, especially in the opening views of the children settling into their eerie home and the portrait of the ghost himself. A comprehensive concluding note fills in historical details of the decisive battle, and readers are rewarded with a final vivid, ghostly reenactment on the battlefield. Ages 7-10.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Scholastic Paperbacks
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0590108492
• ISBN 13: 9780590108492
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 112