Review:
Miss McAllister's Ghost by Elizabeth Fensham
UQP,
2008
When Wilf comes home scared out of his wits, talking about a ghost, his
siblings decide to investigate. Hardly missed at home, it is an
opportunity to go off together. What they find, an elderly woman living
by herself in a forgotten part of the neighbourhood, untouched by the
twentieth century, is at first, unsettling, but as the children get to
know her, they become involved in the routines of Miss McAllister's
life.
The children take on the tasks around her house, gardening, chopping
wood, cleaning, and cooking, all the while asking questions and
learning about life in the past. When Michael spots a face at the
window of the stable, then they investigate further and so are
more completely drawn into her world, protective and helpful.
This is a most unusual read, partly because it does not go down the
path expected when reading about a ghost story, and because it gives so
much detail about how people lived a century ago, it seems like a
social history book, and I found myself less interested in the story,
although I am sure middle school readers will not be so easily strayed
from the path. The religious touches too, make it different, and they
underline the dissimilarity between the life Miss McAllister led as a
child, and that of the protagonists. I enjoyed the read immensely and
it will be a winner in schools, but I found the lack of resolution of
the cruelty of the children's father a small niggle.
Fran Knight
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Consulting, 2007