The Ghost Collector

by Allison Mills

Overview

Ghosts aren’t meant to stick around forever…

Shelly and her grandmother catch ghosts. In their hair.

Just like all the women in their family, they can see souls who haven’t transitioned yet; it’s their job to help the ghosts along their journey. When Shelly’s mom dies suddenly, Shelly’s relationship to ghosts—and death—changes. Instead of helping spirits move on, Shelly starts hoarding them. But no matter how many ghost cats, dogs, or people she hides in her room, Shelly can’t ignore the one ghost that’s missing. Why hasn’t her mom’s ghost come home yet?

Rooted in a Cree worldview and inspired by stories about the author’s great-grandmother’s life, The Ghost Collector delves into questions of grief and loss, and introduces an exciting new voice in tween fiction that will appeal to fans of Kate DiCamillo’s Louisiana’s Way Home and Patrick Ness’s A Monster Calls.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781773212951
Publisher:	Annick Press, Limited
Publication date:	09/10/2019
Pages:	200
Sales rank:	151,154
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 7.40(h) x 0.70(d)
Age Range:	10 - 14 Years

About the Author

Allison Mills (Ililiw/Cree and settler) is a writer, archivist, and librarian who loves all things ghost-related. The Ghost Collector is her first novel. She lives in Vancouver. Follow Allison on Twitter at @sometimesal.

Editorial Reviews

★ 08/01/2019

Gr 5 Up—Sixth grader Shelly and her grandmother collect ghosts in their hair, and then help them pass over into the afterlife. Together, they rid neighbors' houses of the ghosts of small animals, lead human spirits to rest, and visit those who are not ready to pass on in the graveyard. Shelly's grandmother even helps the police find dead bodies. It feels fun and important until Shelly's mother—who doesn't like ghosts and has never approved of ghost collecting—dies suddenly in a car accident and can't be found. Shelly's world is horribly, abruptly divided into before and after the accident, and she starts to hang out in the graveyard, looking for her mother and bringing the ghosts that she does find home to her room rather than letting them pass on. Though the premise may sound spooky, the ghosts Shelly finds are more often sad or confused—the book never goes for shock value or evil poltergeists. Shelly's and her grandmother's Cree identity is a quiet thread throughout the story: it is valuable and significant to their characters, and Cree lore provides the basis upon which the story is set. VERDICT Mills has created a gentle, understated story about grief and loss through a paranormal lens. This is a necessary book that is sure to have readers. Highly recommended.—Kelsey Socha, Ventress Memorial Library, Marshfield, MA

School Library Journal

2019-05-22
When people need to rid their homes of pesky ghosts, Shelly is right by her Ililiw/Cree grandmother's side to learn how to help the lingering spirits of the dead get to the other side.

Once she and her grandmother identify a ghost, whether of a person, a pet, or even household vermin, they allow it to attach itself to their hair before releasing it to dissipate from the earthly plane. Though this ability is matrilineal, Shelly's mother objects to her daughter's taking up the practice; she'd rather Shelly not spend so much time with the dead. When a sudden loss hits the family, Shelly sinks into a depression, spending time in the graveyard with her ghostly friends and desperately seeking to reconcile her grief. Mills (who's of Ililiw/Cree and settler descent) mentions Shelly's First Nations heritage at the outset and includes brief references to the ceremonial use of burning sweet grass, but that heritage is very much just a backdrop to the story. Most of the living people Shelly encounters, as well as the ghosts in the graveyard that she befriends, are not Indigenous, and the story centers on the ghost-hunting business and Shelly's grief rather than exploring death as it relates to Cree culture. But that cultural identity raises questions. When Shelly's grandmother gives music-loving ghost Joseph a new cassette tape, for instance, is she interacting with the dead teenager within a Cree paradigm or a mainstream paranormal one? Readers can only speculate.

Unclear cultural connections muddy the waters of this original paranormal tale. (Paranormal fiction. 10-14)

Kirkus Reviews