In this buoyant graphic novel, Raina Telgemeier (Smile; Drama; Sisters) invites her readers to a town that resembles northern California's Half Moon Bay (where she grew up) and tells a story inspired by her 13-year-old cousin who died from cancer. Like Ghost's irresistibly openhearted character Maya Allende-Delmar, Telgemeier's cousin was a Latina girl who was, as described in the author's note, "spirited, joyful, and not interested in letting her illness define her or slow her down."Maya's older sister Catrina, or "Cat," doesn't want to move from southern California to the foggy coastal town of Bahía de la Luna because her friends aren't there... and they don't even have Double-Back Burger. There's absolutely nothing she can do or say about it, though, because Maya has cystic fibrosis and the doctor has said the cool ocean air will be better for her lungs.
There's more than moisture in the air in Bahía... there are ghosts. Real ghosts. And the ghosts--who look like transparent vertical gummy worms with eyes--are as much a part of the fabric of the community as the fog. On their first day in town, when Cat and Maya are exploring an old boardwalk arcade, they meet a boy named Carlos Calaveras. "You're early," he says. "The ghost tour doesn't start until three." Maya, who is wonderfully receptive to life in general, is thrilled by the idea of seeing a real live ghost. And, given her diagnosis, she has a few questions to ask the dead about death. Ever-protective Cat, on the other hand, wants to keep the ghosts as far away from her little sister as possible.
Ghost-spotting is easy in Bahía, especially as the months march forward to November 1, Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), a festival the whole town embraces. The Allende-Delmar family gets into the action, too, as Maya builds an "ofreda," or small altar, to her late Mexican American grandmother, and Cat works on her "La Catrina" costume, that of a fashionable lady skeleton. Telgemeier skillfully, lovingly, paints a world where death is an active part of life... which no one knows better than young Maya herself.
As ever, Telgemeier's comic-strip-style paneled illustrations are expressive and expertly paced. Dramatic scenes capture the whoosh of the coastal wind; Cat's classic preteen eye rolls and reluctantly fond feelings for Carlos; Maya's wince-inducing cough and her no-holds-barred smile; and the benign, leech-shaped, orange soda-drinking spirits that laugh and cry with the living. Ghosts is a fun, riveting, inventive and heartfelt look at the bonds of family love, the challenge of caring for an ailing family member (even one as heartbreakingly charming as Maya), the Mexican tradition of Día de los Muertos, and the nature of life and death itself. Telgemeier's light touch lets her story breathe and, ultimately, sing. --Karin Snelson, children's & YA editor, Shelf Awareness
Shelf Talker: In Raina Telgemeier's graphic novel, a young Latina girl with cystic fibrosis moves to a northern California town and befriends the ghosts.