Rating: 4.5 stars
Cover Rating: 5 stars (Very interesting and I love Anya's expression.)
Genre:Young Adult
Publication Date: June 7, 2011
Publisher: First Second
Page Count: 221 p.
Buy it: Book Depository / Amazon
Anya's is a Russian immigrant. One of two at her private school. All she wants to do is fit in and get a boyfriend. One day when she is walking home from school, she accidentally falls down a well. While down there she notices a skeleton and along with the bones is a ghost. When Anya gets out of the well she winds up taking the ghost, Emily, with her. The ghost helps her do quizzes and flirt with boys. Anya does not know a whole lot about Emily and when the ghost starts getting pushy, Anya wants to find out what happened to her so she will leave. What she finds though is more than she expected and now she might be in danger.
This was a fabulous story. If you have read Persepolis this is probably right up your alley. Anya is a typical teen angst-filled character, except she's an immigrant. Through years of ESL she has lost her accent and is completely fluent in English. The other Russian is not so fortunate and gets harassed everyday. This was a little eerie at times and a fantastic read. Emily was a bizarre character, which made her like-able but also really intense. The illustrations of Emily and Siobhan are a little androgynous, and if it weren't for Siobhan's name and Emily's dress (before you find out her name) I would have thought they were boys. In general I did enjoy the illustrations. This was a nice little mystery and not at all what I was expecting from this book. You should definitely pick this up if you have any inkling of desire to read it.
First Line:
"What's for breakfast?"Anya's is a Russian immigrant. One of two at her private school. All she wants to do is fit in and get a boyfriend. One day when she is walking home from school, she accidentally falls down a well. While down there she notices a skeleton and along with the bones is a ghost. When Anya gets out of the well she winds up taking the ghost, Emily, with her. The ghost helps her do quizzes and flirt with boys. Anya does not know a whole lot about Emily and when the ghost starts getting pushy, Anya wants to find out what happened to her so she will leave. What she finds though is more than she expected and now she might be in danger.
This was a fabulous story. If you have read Persepolis this is probably right up your alley. Anya is a typical teen angst-filled character, except she's an immigrant. Through years of ESL she has lost her accent and is completely fluent in English. The other Russian is not so fortunate and gets harassed everyday. This was a little eerie at times and a fantastic read. Emily was a bizarre character, which made her like-able but also really intense. The illustrations of Emily and Siobhan are a little androgynous, and if it weren't for Siobhan's name and Emily's dress (before you find out her name) I would have thought they were boys. In general I did enjoy the illustrations. This was a nice little mystery and not at all what I was expecting from this book. You should definitely pick this up if you have any inkling of desire to read it.
First Line:
Favorite Line:
"Oy...bleen...my leg!"
ooh sounds interesting. I had no idea this was somewhat of a ghost story even though it's in the title. It just seemed like it was about something else entirely. I recognized the illustrations right away. Really nicely done.
ReplyDeletei have this at home in my tbr pile. glad you liked it.
ReplyDelete