Ophie's Ghosts

 

On the night that Ophie's dad tells her to get out of the house and hide she doesn't realize that he is already dead and she is seeing his ghost.  After escaping the men who killed her father and set their house on fire, Ophie and her mother move to Pittsburgh where they find work in an old lady's house.  But though Ophie is told to keep her ability to see ghosts a secret and to leave them be, she is drawn to their stories.  She feels especially bad for Clara, a former servant who, even though the staff say she ran off, the presence of her ghost says otherwise.  Can Ophie bring closure for Clara and other ghosts without endangering herself?

I can't wait to get this into my student's hands - great historical mystery with some edge to it.

Linked

 

I don't know when I started reading books about the Holocaust.  It may have started with The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom in 6th or 7th grade.  Since then I have read many, many books.  At times I have felt weird about it - it's not that I "like" them or 'enjoy" them - it's just that the stories of survival are so powerful and the rest is so horrifying.  Maybe it's that in reading about it I honor the memory and in my own small way keep it alive with the thought of Never Again!  Because there are those who deny it happened...  those who think we shouldn't talk about it - and that is while we still have survivors among us, what happens when they are gone.  And I will say I am proud that the stories of other people impacted are being told as well - intolerance of any kind is wrong.

On the surface this may seem silly - the cover certainly doesn't reveal the depth and power of this.  I love how the book was inspired by the paper clip project in Tennessee and that it also went in a different direction.  I strongly encourage readers to journey with Link, Dana and the others in this unique story.