Ghost Cats - Softcover

Grade 5-8-Since birth, sixth-grader Peter Hall has lived in a dozen different places around the globe. Of the six members in his family, he likes change the most. In fact, he relishes each new move and the way their vagabond life brings him and his siblings together, "thick as thieves." Therefore, when his parents tell him they will be living in Boston for a long, long time, his whole world is thrown into chaos. While his younger brother and sisters begin making new friends and having sleepovers and play dates, Peter refuses to fit in. His only friends are the family's six cats. And now, two of the cats have died and one has run away. Told as a flashback, Shreve's story is compelling; however, it is also complex and difficult to follow, and the ghost cats make their appearance only at the end of the book. Though their "visit" gives way to the cathartic resolution of Peter's struggle to embrace his new life, their presence in the title seems deceptive. Rather than a true ghost story, this is actually an insightful, realistic treatment about trying to adapt to change. Peter is a well-drawn character, and his first-person narration will grip readers. His gradual acceptance of his new life rings true. He is not immediately accepted into the school cliques, and it takes work on his part to make friends. A well-written story with lyrical prose that may be lost on all but the most sophisticated readers.
Elaine Baran, Gwinnett County Public Library, Lawrenceville, GA
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Rich in cats and ill of temper, this sketchy tale from Shreve (Jonah, The Whale, 1998, etc.) is narrated by a sixth grader who is not taking a change in family life well. It's an unusual sort of change: after more than a decade of moving from country to country, Peter's family has settled at last in a Boston townhouse, and he doesn't like the prospects of going to the same school for years, seeing his mother absorbed in law school studies, or watching his younger siblings exchange their old closeness for outside friendships. In flashbacks and snatches of dialogue, Peter angrily introduces each member of his household, including the six cats, as he recounts domestic tempests and incidents, family ties and rituals, plus an ambiguous subplot in which three cats die or disappear, then show up again in the final scene as ghosts. With parents who know when to pay attention and when to back off, Peter adjusts by school year's end, but the story is rescued from outright conventionality only by Peter's uncommon yen for the peripatetic life. Amy Goldman Koss's Ashwater Experiment (p. 723 ) is a livelier take on a similar theme, and Shreve's supernatural climax, despite the title, drops into the story like a stone. (Fiction. 10-12) -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.