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bickie 's review for:
Ghost Roast
by Shawneé Gibbs, Shawnelle Gibbs
Chelsea is a Black girl who attends a presumably predominantly white independent school. Her parents are divorced, and her dad works as a ghost buster (or ghost roaster, as it is called in the book). Chelsea is trying to fit in with some mean white girls who have kind of adopted her, pulling her out of "untouchable" status. Unfortunately, the night school gets out for the summer, they pressure her into breaking into a cemetery and drinking, which gets all of them jailed for the evening. Chelsea's parents are livid, and instead of having a fun summer, Chelsea gets to work with her dad. They get a job at an old plantation, and Chelsea discovers that she can actually see ghosts, making her reluctant to pulverize them. With help from an elderly woman who owns the place and two resident ghosts, Chelsea investigates the family, reviewing microfilm of old newspapers at the historical archive where her mom works. What she finds helps bring some hidden history to light.
Some of the action is a little hard to follow, especially at the beginning. There is also mention of the plantation family's patriarch's being born in 1785 in Toledo, OH, and "emigrating" to Louisiana "following the Louisiana Purchases of 1803." Based on the history of Toledo provided on Toledo.com, Toledo was not founded until 1833, and there were not any villages of white people there until at 1817. There do not appear to be any European settlers there at all until 1790. With so much interesting historical detail rooted in fact, this piece of the story clangs.
Some of the action is a little hard to follow, especially at the beginning. There is also mention of the plantation family's patriarch's being born in 1785 in Toledo, OH, and "emigrating" to Louisiana "following the Louisiana Purchases of 1803." Based on the history of Toledo provided on Toledo.com, Toledo was not founded until 1833, and there were not any villages of white people there until at 1817. There do not appear to be any European settlers there at all until 1790. With so much interesting historical detail rooted in fact, this piece of the story clangs.