Scan barcode
daarta17's review
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
aliciasirois's review against another edition
5.0
I found this in Leavitt's library. I am trying to read more from the Leavitt collection so I can make more recommendations to my students. I am really glad I found this book and I can't wait to recommend it to a student! I didn't know it would be a fable and I didn't figure that out until I was halfway through the book. There were some parts that were slow while I was reading it, but I am glad I got through it because I just love the message I got at the end, and I love Hartnett's voice and style!
oreolover15's review against another edition
2.0
brookejeansbooks.blogspot.com/2011/10/ghosts-child.html
akublik's review against another edition
2.0
This fable was well written, but I just couldn't bring myself to like it. I kept wondering who its audience is - I'm not sure this book would appeal to many teens.
themermaddie's review against another edition
4.0
Matilda Adelaide Victoria, or “Maddy”, is an old woman living alone, when she is one day greeted by the sight of a little boy waiting on her front porch when she gets home. He proceeds to be nosy and impatient as all little boys are, and asks her about her life, and why she lives alone surrounded by foreign objects. Thus, Maddy begins her tale, starting from when she was a little girl.
With a nearly always absent father and a mother who wanted a doll for a daughter, Maddy spends her childhood in solitude. The day she finishes school, her father asks her what she thinks is the most beautiful thing in the world. After some deliberation, she answers, “I think that sea-eagles are the world’s most beautiful things.”
Her parents laugh at her, and Maddy’s father decides she needs a bit more education, and for the next two years, he and Maddy travel the globe, in search for the world’s most beautiful things. That’s what the bulk of this book is about, really; the discovery of new experiences, and new beauty.
Maddy meets a boy, once she’s come back from globe-trotting, who sits by the water and watches the horizon. He goes by the name of Feather. She asks him the same question her father asked two years ago, and his answer? “Sea-eagles.”
Maddy falls in love.
Sadly, while their romance is deep beyond words and Maddy does everything she can to love him as they both are, their happiness is short-lived. Feather spends more and more time at the beach away from home, and he begins to remind Maddy of the beautiful creatures she’d seen chained down in zoos.
He leaves her.
She begins a search for him, for his answers to her questions. Maddy is a young woman now, and a sailor, and an adventurer. And with help from the animals of the sea (feat. Zephyrus the West Wind), she finds Feather, who tells her…
Well, I’m not going to tell you. Really, I swear.
Read the rest of the review here
With a nearly always absent father and a mother who wanted a doll for a daughter, Maddy spends her childhood in solitude. The day she finishes school, her father asks her what she thinks is the most beautiful thing in the world. After some deliberation, she answers, “I think that sea-eagles are the world’s most beautiful things.”
Her parents laugh at her, and Maddy’s father decides she needs a bit more education, and for the next two years, he and Maddy travel the globe, in search for the world’s most beautiful things. That’s what the bulk of this book is about, really; the discovery of new experiences, and new beauty.
Maddy meets a boy, once she’s come back from globe-trotting, who sits by the water and watches the horizon. He goes by the name of Feather. She asks him the same question her father asked two years ago, and his answer? “Sea-eagles.”
Maddy falls in love.
Sadly, while their romance is deep beyond words and Maddy does everything she can to love him as they both are, their happiness is short-lived. Feather spends more and more time at the beach away from home, and he begins to remind Maddy of the beautiful creatures she’d seen chained down in zoos.
He leaves her.
She begins a search for him, for his answers to her questions. Maddy is a young woman now, and a sailor, and an adventurer. And with help from the animals of the sea (feat. Zephyrus the West Wind), she finds Feather, who tells her…
Well, I’m not going to tell you. Really, I swear.
Read the rest of the review here
carole888's review against another edition
5.0
A gentle and beautifully written tale about life, loss and moving on.
(The Conversation) The Case for The Ghost’s Child by Victoria Flanagan
The Ghost’s Child by Christopher Bantick (The Age)
Author’s website. Discussion guide & teaching notes by Pam Mcintyre found here.
(The Conversation) The Case for The Ghost’s Child by Victoria Flanagan
The Ghost’s Child by Christopher Bantick (The Age)
Author’s website. Discussion guide & teaching notes by Pam Mcintyre found here.
k8s's review against another edition
4.0
Lovely, heartbreaking, fable-like story about beauty and love.
readermeetsbook's review against another edition
4.0
Sonya Hartnett’s The Ghost’s Child is a story of love and loss. Told in beautiful prose, the novel starts with an aging Matilda (Maddy) as she recounts her life story to a young boy that suddenly appeared on her doorstep. Maddy starts with her story about growing up in a well-to-do family with an “iron man” of a father who was more concerned with earning money and an absent mother who spent her time with her friends and charities than with Maddy. An only child, Maddy grew up in solitude becoming a quiet, observant child. When she was not in boarding school, she spent her time by the shore watching the water and the birds. After she finished school and traveled the world with her father, Maddy unexpectedly met a young man “tousled and tameless as a flash of lightning” who she calls Feather. She falls madly in love with mysterious Feather and they go off to live happily in a cottage by the sea. One day, Feather does not come home and Maddy goes off searching for him, searching for an answer to a question.
My first Sonya Hartnett book and I am hooked. Her writing style and prose is so unbelievably beautiful and enchanting, especially her descriptions. “Overhead, the sky was mottling cobalt and ruby. The earliest stars came out to glitter on the waves. The moon hung frostily, close to the water, a skating rink for fireflies.” Her story was very much character driven as the plot follows Maddy’s growth and journey of love and loss. Poignant and enchanting.
My first Sonya Hartnett book and I am hooked. Her writing style and prose is so unbelievably beautiful and enchanting, especially her descriptions. “Overhead, the sky was mottling cobalt and ruby. The earliest stars came out to glitter on the waves. The moon hung frostily, close to the water, a skating rink for fireflies.” Her story was very much character driven as the plot follows Maddy’s growth and journey of love and loss. Poignant and enchanting.
laura_here's review
emotional
inspiring
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0