Oakhaven School for Ghosts: Observations and Deductions About...

Set in turn-of-the-20th-century Baltimore, Maryland, Oakhaven School for Ghosts is the story of the Chatham family and particularly of Molly Chatham, a young girl who discovers she has atypical powers. Very early in her life, she realizes she has the ability to see and communicate with the ghosts of children. While this gift is initially not well received by her very proper family, Molly persists in becoming the woman she was always intended to be.As she continues to meet and befriend the ghosts whom she encounters, Molly decides to start a school to educate these young ghosts. Her dreams are challenged when she loses the only two people who believed in her. Molly must summon the strength to keep her promise to find and educate ghosts and, most importantly, find out the purpose of ghosts.Through the lens of Molly’s growth and maturation, we get a picture of a changing United States and how these changes affect all facets of her life. Along the way, readers are introduced to a variety of lost ghosts and humans though a robust living cast of characters—including several generations of the Chatham family. By the end of the novel, which takes readers from Baltimore to Europe and back again, readers will have fallen in love with this delightful group of outcasts who have finally found a place to belong in their afterlives. Oakhaven’s gentle but confident tone will have something for readers of all ages, from middle school students to adults who want to inhabit a historical world of kindness, humor, and warmth.

Reviews

News