Blue Lightning - Hardcover

Russell, Barbara Timberlake

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0670870234 ISBN 13: 9780670870233

Publisher: Viking Juvenile, 1997

Synopsis

After being hit by lightning and suspended between worlds, Calvin returns to his body and back to the world he knows, but he brings with him the spirit of Rory, the ghost of a troublesome boy, who soon makes Calvin's life very difficult with his violent pranks.

About this title

From Kirkus Reviews

A novel that aspires to the same spirituality that drove Field of Dreams, equating unfinished affairs in life with an unfinished game of baseball, and making the father-son bond paramount. When Calvin is hit by lightning he is clinically dead when he reaches the hospital, but comes out of it. His textbook near-death experience, however, leads to unforeseen consequences. A crash victim, Rory, is in the hospital at the same time as Calvin, and dies; his mischief-making spirit attaches itself to the boy. When Calvin returns home, Rory as a ghost emerges from his stomach. Rory is a nasty piece of work: He's mean and destructive, getting Calvin into trouble wherever he goes. Calvin figures that he has to send Rory back to wherever it is he belongs, but that becomes possible only when Calvin discovers that they share a deep love for baseball and were both slated to play on a special team before their accidents. In the course of events he reunites his long-widowed mother with a former sweetheart and new widower, Rory's aloof father, who lost his son and wife in the same crash. The logic that attends the spectral encounters is never clear, and Rory's sneering malevolence is unlikely to draw readers in. As was true in Russell's Last Left Standing (p. 1473), the writing is very good and often poetic. The plotting, however, is wobbly and confusing. (Fiction. 10+) -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

From School Library Journal

Grade 4-8. In a lively opening chapter, Calvin Doogan gets struck by lightning while swinging an aluminum baseball bat. When his spirit leaves his body, he spots the ghost of another boy who has just been killed. Then he sees his dead father's spirit. Before he can join his father, though, he is drawn back into his body, still alive. After Calvin returns home, he finds that the ghost of the other boy, Rory, has followed him and won't leave him alone. Like Calvin, Rory had been a baseball player. Both had been selected to play in the county all-star game. There's also a mysterious connection between the boys' fathers. The ghost plays minor pranks at first, but the tricks get more and more serious. Meanwhile, Calvin tries to excel during baseball practices, and is inspired by his father's spiritual presence but hindered by Rory's ghost. These complications are neatly resolved in the climactic game. Calvin has a fairly dull and predictable personality, and the minor characters are undeveloped. But because of the extraordinary events that occur, the novel is still engaging. The combination of the supernatural and baseball is attractive, while the family drama adds some depth. Though not always thoroughly satisfying, Blue Lightning has enough action and plot twists to engage some readers.?Steven Engelfried, West Linn Public Library, OR
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Viking Juvenile
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0670870234
• ISBN 13: 9780670870233
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 128