The Red Ghost

by Marion Dane Bauer, Peter Ferguson (Illustrator)

Overview

Have you ever had the feeling a doll was watching you?

Jenna finds the perfect gift for her sister at a neighbor’s garage sale—a beautiful old doll dressed all in red velvet. Jenna can’t believe her luck. Not only does Mrs. Tate seem happy to be rid of the doll, she even gives it to Jenna for free! But when Jenna takes the doll home, trouble begins. First her best friend gets a creepy feeling whenever she’s around it. Then the family cat hisses at the doll, and at night, Jenna thinks she can hear it moving around in her closet. Finally, when Jenna gives the doll to her sister, she won’t take it. Could the red velvet doll be haunted? And if it is, what can Jenna do?

In this companion book to The Blue Ghost, Newbery Honor winner Marion Dane Bauer masterfully tells a doll story full of suspense and shivers.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780375840821
Publisher:	Random House Children's Books
Publication date:	07/28/2009
Series:	A Stepping Stone Book(TM): A Stepping Stone Book Mystery
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	96
Product dimensions:	3.08(w) x 6.38(h) x 0.32(d)
Lexile:	400L (what's this?)
Age Range:	6 - 9 Years

About the Author

Marion Dane Bauer is the author of more than forty books for children. The companion to The Red Ghost, The Blue Ghost was named to the Texas Bluebonnet Master List. Her Stepping Stones mystery, The Secret of the Painted House, was named a CCBC Choices Book. She lives in Eden Prairie, Minnesota.

Editorial Reviews

Gr 2-4- In this companion to Bauer's The Blue Ghost (Random, 2005), fourth-grader Jenna and a friend find a doll at Miss Tate's garage sale that would be a perfect birthday present for Jenna's little sister. However, there is something about its eyes that makes the girls uneasy, and they're suspicious when Miss Tate gives it to them for free. Jenna's cat furiously spits and strikes at the wrapped gift, and in the middle of the night, Jenna is wakened by rustling and crying sounds. When she gives the doll to her sister, Quinn refuses to keep it, saying "she's full." The easy-to-follow plot involves the ghost of a child who died from scarlet fever years earlier and has a happy ending. Ferguson's expressive, humorously spooky pencil illustrations accompany the text. Readers moving into chapter books will find this eerily entertaining.-Debbie S. Hoskins, Grand Rapids Public Library, MI

School Library Journal

Known for her ghostly tales, Bauer has successfully opened a trap door for transitional readers who want a scary-but not too scary-story. This companion to The Blue Ghost (2005), part of the Stepping Stones series, features an old doll dressed in red velvet that Jenna finds at a neighbor's garage sale. It's just the gift she needs for her younger sister's birthday, and the neighbor even gives it to her for free! But when Jenna's cat hisses and attacks the doll, and strange sounds come from it in her closet, she tries to get rid of it, even putting it in a garbage can. Is the muted voice calling for help coming from the doll? Why won't Mrs. Tate take the doll back? Is the doll haunted or haunting? Ferguson's sketchy black-and-white drawings decorate the text, but it's the eerie plot that will have girls racing to the end, and even looking at old dolls with widened eyes. Bauer's hit on a perfect formula, and like Andrew Lang with his Fairy Books, she has many more colors to go. (Fiction. 7-10)

Kirkus Reviews