  | Riley's ghost Author: Anderson, John David | |
| Price: $16.79 | ||
Summary:
Riley Flynn is smart, sensitive, and on her own since sixth grade, when her best friend ditched her for the cool kids. Kids who, on this particular day at the end of seventh grade, decide it might be fun to lock Riley in the science closet after hours, after everyone else has gone home. Once she escapes and wanders the halls to exit the school, strange things happen that make her start to believe she isn't alone after all.
| Accelerated Reader Information: Interest Level: MG Reading Level: 5.50 Points: 11.0 Quiz: 514961 |
Reviews:
Kirkus Reviews (11/01/21)
School Library Journal (+) (01/21/22)
Booklist (+) (12/01/21)
The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books (A) (00/12/21)
The Hornbook (00/01/22)
Full Text Reviews:
Booklist - 12/01/2021 *Starred Review* In this terrifying, gut-wrenching, profoundly poignant vision of middle school, a seventh-grade outsider is trapped in the dark with two ghostly graduates. As if seeing her best and only friend Emily hanging out with the bullies who have locked her into a supply closet isn’t disturbing enough, Riley soon finds herself in a dark, empty building where the clocks have stopped and none of the doors or windows will open, and she is caught up in a conflict between Max and Heather, two once very close students who died decades before with unfinished business between them. Parts of this are really creepy, and parts are really gross (particularly those involving a possessed, half-dissected frog from science class). And that's not just the supernatural elements either, considering the whisper campaigns, covert harassment, and soul-sucking pressure to conform that is Riley’s—and, it turns out, Heather’s—experience of middle school. It’s Riley’s eventual realization that everyone deserves to be seen and heard by someone, to be remembered, that both provides the key to her escape and allows Anderson to pull off an unexpectedly upbeat, and reassuring, ending. A tale to test the nerve of all fifth-graders who are looking ahead to junior high and finding themselves anxious about what’s in store. - Copyright 2021 Booklist.
School Library Journal - 01/21/2022 Gr 5 Up—"Sadists. Barbarians. Seventh graders." Riley Flynn (who appears white) is locked inside her middle school after the last bell rings along with a possessed lab frog, the malevolent ghost of a former student, and memories of classmates who tease her mercilessly. As Riley tries to break out, her thoughts drift to daily life. She fights back against the bullies, but that's done more to cement her reputation as a misanthrope than it's done to slow the jeers. After school she comes home to lonely TV dinners while her parents work long shifts, and sometimes she lays in bed imagining what it feels like to die. Though she doesn't see it at first, Riley's parents show love, support, teach responsibility, encourage grit, and see her for who she truly is. As she uncovers who the ghost is and what it wants from her, what she learns shifts her perspective on her own life and helps her glimpse a future that might be better. Riley's feelings of fear, anger, sadness, frustration and hopelessness will resonate with early teen readers who are feeling high levels of stress, or who feel like outsiders. Like Ms. Bixby's Last Day, this book has a quiet pace and centers on the importance of friendship, the transformative power of being seen, and the gentle miracles they create when combined. It's also filled with the messiness of personal growth, the pain of adolescent friendships, a nuanced portrayal of being bullied/being the bully, and a sensitive look at adolescent mental health. VERDICT Lots of humor, a little horror, and a dash of the bizarre round things out. Highly recommended.—Amy Fellows - Copyright 2022 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.
