Ghost Letters [Hardcover]

Stephen Alter (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 8, 2008 | Age Level: 9 and up | Grade Level: 4 and up

When two modern-day kids discover a grotesque secret in an abandoned mailbox, they have no idea they are about to be drawn into a mystery that began on the other side of the world. Through the help of an English genie and a phantom postman, the two children begin to communicate with a young calligrapher’s apprentice who lived 125 years ago in a small, Himalayan village.  Writing back and forth, across continents and centuries, the three children eventually realize the possibility of changing history by delivering three letters that were never received.  The first is a love letter that could have drawn a broken-hearted Yankee trader back from his lonely exile in the east.  The second is a ransom note, and the third, a cryptic missive in a bottle.  If the three can make sure these lost letters reach those for whom they were intended, love may be restored, the life of a kidnapped child could be saved, and a secret agent might be able to prevent a pointless war. 

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 4–7—Gil, 14, has been expelled from school and sent to the Massachusetts coast to reside with his poetry-loving, eccentric grandfather. The old man doesn't own a television, uses a typewriter, drives a beat-up Volkswagen, and can only offer his grandson a 30-year-old bicycle as transportation. While walking his grandfather's dog, Gil decides to explore Rattle Beach. A curious-looking bottle floating in the water attracts his attention. For a joke, he pens a distress call, places it inside the empty container, and throws it back into the water. Returning later, he finds the bottle again and discovers an urgent message inside it. It is from Sikander, a boy from India who is living 100 years in the past, when a war is brewing. As the two boys continue to correspond, Sikander's family gets into a deadly situation and he begs Gil for help. Other paranormal events include a ghostly mailman, a skeletal hand, a djinn (or genie), and a love affair that spans the centuries. It appears that the events are interrelated, but the teen is not sure how. Readers will empathize with the plight of the characters, but a favorite of many kids, the genie, is not well developed. Also, a few of the plot threads are not fleshed out, but even so, readers will find the book scary enough to thrill and clever enough to challenge their deductive reasoning.—Robyn Gioia, Bolles School, Ponte Vedra, FL
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Alter’s multistranded tale offers something for almost every fan of nonheroic fantasy—from magic and time travel to a ghost, buried treasure, and a grisly severed hand with an agenda. Staying temporarily with his grandfather in a Massachusetts coastal town, Gil and new friend Nargis, a local age-mate of Indian descent, find an antique bottle that carries messages back and forth through time. Soon they are corresponding with a nineteenth-century calligrapher’s apprentice in India, whose own friend has been nabbed by deserters from a threatening British force. Enter a ghostly Massachusetts postman, wearily carrying never-delivered letters that can save the kidnapped lad, avert the battle, and rekindle a century-old romance on Gil’s side of the world. So much is going on here that when a bureaucratic British genie wheels in toward the end to deliver the old letters at Gil’s command, it’s hardly suprising. Nonetheless, Alter juggles the elements (and more besides!) with reasonable expertise, and readers who can readily suspend their disbelief will enjoy the show. Grades 5-8. --John Peters

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 9 and up
  
• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Bloomsbury USA Childrens; 1st edition (January 8, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1582347395
• ISBN-13: 978-1582347394
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.8 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,297,380 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars A refreshing novel for middle-grade readers who enjoy out-of-the-ordinary books, August 11, 2008

By 

KidsReads (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ghost Letters (Hardcover)

After Gilbert (Gil) Mendelson-Finch is expelled from an exclusive prep school, his career-focused, jet-setting parents send him to live with his grandfather in a sleepy town on the southern Massachusetts shore. While they decide how to discipline him and plan for his future, 14-year-old Gil is "as bored as a bear in a zoo." With no television or computer, Gil and his poet-grandfather play Scrabble for entertainment.

One afternoon, while Gil is beachcombing with Kip --- his grandfather's old and ailing dog --- Gil discovers an ancient bottle floating at the water's edge. The bottle is a dazzling blue and sealed with a cork. Molded on the front of it are the words: "A.K. Jaddoowalla's Finest Indian Gripe Water."

On an impulse, Gil pulls from his pocket a pencil and a library book overdue notice. He scribbles a message on the back, stuffs the paper in the bottle, reseals it with the cork, tosses it in the water and watches it disappear in the waves.

Later, as Gil and Kip head home, Kip follows a stray scent that leads them to the decaying town dump, which the police have declared off-limits. Standing on top of a mound of trash, the dog gives out a high-pitched alarm and stays still, with one paw raised. The aged animal is "quivering with excitement" because of a mysterious scent he has detected.

Kip is pointing at a rusty old mailbox. While Gil tries to retrieve Kip, a black-haired girl with dark brown skin approaches. Nargis, who is Gil's age, has ridden her bike to the dump to investigate the source of the barking dog. Together, Nargis and Gil decide to find out what's inside the mailbox. What they discover both repels and entrances them --- a skeleton's hand, cut off at the wrist, and smelling "like a combination of lilacs and rancid cheese."

Alarmed, they race home to tell Gil's grandfather, who is skeptical at first but decides to drive back to the dump to check out their story.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the world and in another century, Sikander Kahn notices the same brilliant blue bottle sealed with a cork. The apprentice calligrapher spots it floating in a river in India and is curious after he reads the note he finds inside. The message is from Gil, and it is dated more than 100 years in the future. Sikander pens a response and hurls the bottle back into the water.

As the story unfolds --- through Gil's grandfather's tales and the messages in the bottle that crisscross time and space --- Gil learns about a war being waged over tea, a kidnapping plot that threatens the life of a boy, and a lost love letter addressed to one of his ancestors. Gil has the opportunity to help save a life, prevent a war and reunite two lovers. But is he up to the challenge?

Stephen Alter's creative plot, engaging characters, unusual settings and gentle lessons about second chances and self-discovery make GHOST LETTERS a refreshing novel for middle-grade readers who enjoy out-of-the-ordinary books.

--- Reviewed by Donna Volkenannt

5.0 out of 5 stars Courtesy of Teens Read Too, July 3, 2008

By 

TeensReadToo "Eat. Drink. Read. Be Merrier." (All Over the US & Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ghost Letters (Hardcover)

After being expelled from McCauley Prep School, Gil's parents send him to live with his poet grandfather in a small, oceanside town in Massachusetts. While exploring the beach one afternoon, Gil finds a blue bottle bobbing on the ocean waves, and, on a whim, writes a note that reads, "Help! I'm stranded on a desert island. Save me!" He puts the note in the bottle, sends it back to the sea, and thinks nothing else of it.

A hundred years earlier, a young calligrapher's apprentice in Ajeebgarh, India, finds the bottle floating in the Magor River...with Gil's message inside! He decides to send back a reply, and the two begin a strange correspondence.

As Gil's grandfather teaches him about the history of their home and the ancestor who built it, Gil befriends a girl named Nargis. The two bond over the eerie appearances of a ghostly hand and letters that were never delivered to their original destinations. Meanwhile, war with the British threatens Ajeebgarh, and Sikander, the apprentice, is desperate to find a way to save his friend, who was kidnapped by British soldiers. Through the help of the mysterious hand, a roving ghost postman, and an English genie sealed in a letter for a hundred years, Gil must find a way to deliver the lost letters and stop the war.

Readers who enjoyed Louis Sachar's HOLES will find a similar format here, with the story hopping between two different time periods and clues scattered throughout. A great read with just the right amount of creepy chill to go with it.

Reviewed by: Allison Fraclose