Ghost Girl: A Blue Ridge Mountain Story

By Delia Ray

Eleven-year-old April Sloane has never set foot in a school before, and now that President Hoover and his wife are building a one-room schoolhouse in the hollow of the Blue Ridge Mountains where April lives, she is eager to attend it. But these are the Depression years, and Mama, who has been grieving ever since the accidental death of her seven-year-old son, wants April to stay home and do the chores around their dilapidated farm. With her grandmother's intercession, April is grudgingly allowed to go. The kind teacher encourages her apt pupil, who finds a new world opening up to her. But at home, April cannot repair the relationship with her mother, and worse, her mother overhears the dark secret April confesses to her teacher regarding the true cause of her brother's death, for which April feels responsible. The author has used her own experience growing up in a rural area of northern Virginia to create the vivid characters and authentic dialogue and background detail that characterize this finely honed debut novel. She has based the one-room schoolhouse on papers in the Hoover Presidential Library in West Branch, Iowa, which include letters between the White House and the young teacher who taught at the school.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Release date: Jun 7, 2016
• ISBN: 9780547533650

Delia Ray

Delia Ray's novel GHOST GIRL: A BLUE RIDGE MOUNTAIN STORY has been nominated on state lists in Oklahoma, Kansas, South Carolina, Missouri, Indiana, and New Hampshire. Ms. Ray is also the author of three young-adult nonfiction books about American history. Her novel SINGING HANDS is based on her mother's experiences growing up as a hearing child with deaf parents. Ms. Ray lives with her family in Iowa City, Iowa.

Reviews for Ghost Girl

[gi142984 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book takes place during the great depression when Hebert Hoover was president. A girl name April is a hard working young girl who does nothing more than do chores for her mother. Living in the Blue Ridge Mountains is what all the families do; work just to make it. President Hoover decided to build a school for the children of Blue Ridge and April is just ecstatic about attending, only if she is allowed. Her mother is not all for the idea since her brother’s death her mother prefers her home doing chores but April’s grandmother Aunt Birdie knows better for April. April finds a friend in their new teacher Miss Vest but the relationship with her mother grows dark after her mother hears the truth of death of April’s brother. The book just describes the lifestyle of people during the depression and the adversities a young girl had to over come. I enjoyed reading this book it was very touching. I story line was so surprising I just didn’t know what was going to happen. The fact this was based on a true story just makes it that much more interesting. The author was so descriptive and I could just see the images in my head as I read. This would be a great book to have students read when discussion the great depression and how children then had to live. Students could also draw a scene from the story to show what they believed to see when reading.