Misadventures in Ghosthunting

Written by Melissa Yue

HarperCollins

978-1-4434-7091-9

367 pp.

Ages 8-12

Releases August 27, 2024

 

Life had done nothing to prepare me for what to do if a ghost was trying to burn your house down. Even worse, I'd got no advice on what to do if your entire family didn't believe you could see ghosts but Grandma snuck you protective talismans like it was a black market dealing. (p. 19)

Emma Wong thought her greatest worry was the D she got on her Grade 9 math exam. But when a ghost of a young man shows up, calling her Lin Wai–her Chinese name is actually Yan Ling–and threatening to expose her exam if she didn't go with him, things get a little dicey. When she doesn't, Ghost Boy uses a calligraphy brush to write something in the air and starts a fire on the family's ancestral altar. She tells her family about the ghost-like boy but, for a family who doesn't believe in ghosts, she gets no support. Fortunately, best friend Michelle Zhang knows that Emma can see ghosts and wants to help. 

 

It's also fortunate–or is it?–that Emma meets Leon, a boy in a long peacoat with a messenger bag who claims to be a guardian whose job it is to help maintain stability in the world by monitoring ghosts in the Mortal Realm and he's there to help her. He confirms that she has the Sight i.e., the ability to sense ghosts, seeing them and getting physical sensations like headaches and nausea when they are near. He warns her about geoi hau gwai or hungry ghosts who were ungenerous mortals who search the Mortal Realm for offerings to sustain themselves. When Ghost Boy returns–his name is Henry–Emma unwittingly sends him back to the Underworld by striking him with a paper talisman her Mah Mah had always given her. Surprisingly Leon confirms that Emma is using a ghosthunting tool. 

Emma is so confused. Her family does not believe in ghosts and yet her grandmother always gave her protective talismans to ward off evil at entrances to buildings. Now she has Leon who is trying to protect her from Henry, a ghost hunter of the Underworld who works for one the Ten Lords there and whose job it is to rein in unruly ghosts who cause trouble. But why pick on Emma?

With Leon's protection and direction, Emma learns more about her family history and her own abilities, all with the objective of helping her much-loved grandmother and ultimately making things right for spirits in the Underworld.

 

I wish I could tell you everything that happens in Melissa Yue's debut novel but Misadventures in Ghosthunting is a big story. It's a story of family, familial expectations, and a grandmother-granddaughter relationship. It's one of Chinese culture and superstitions and the Ghost Festival and magic and glorious food. It's one of history, including a love story. And it's about making things right, even when you aren't responsible for making them wrong. Oh, and there's a splattering of robotics too. As I said, it's a big story, with layers in the present and in the past, in the Mortal Realm and in the Underworld, in the mundane teen world of school and parental expectations and in one of needle-mouth ghosts and immortals. And Melissa Yue tells it with humour, cultural respect, and familial devotion. 

A family is built from shared memories. (p. 342)

Through all her characters, mortal and not, Melissa Yue embeds us in their stories, finding goodness in some that might appear evil and flaws in some that are generally good. All her characters are fully developed. They make mistakes, take chances, have weakness and lack in confidence. They also do their jobs, even unusual ones, make connections with others, have pasts, and always look for something more. They are human, even if they're immortal.

 

It's hard to parse out everything in Misadventures in Ghosthunting because there is so much but Melissa Yue gives middle-grade readers a story that is full and intricate with characters and subplots and history and that little bit of magic. Whether you believe in ghosts or not, you'll cheer for Emma and her allies in their attempts at righteousness and for the defeat of evil. I don't know if anyone was celebrating the Ghost Festival just over a week ago but honouring the dead with offerings sounds like a wise rite to observe, especially when the consequences of not doing so could be overwhelming. Emma knows.

• • • • • • •

 

Look for my interview with author Melissa Yue tomorrow here on CanLit for LittleCanadians. She reveals much about her writing and the story, as well as some important background about the cultural traditions and framework used as a basis for Misadventures in Ghosthunting.

Norman, Speak!

by Caroline Adderson

Illustrated by Qin Leng

Groundwood Books

978-1-55498-322-3

32 pp.

Ages 4-7

Release April, 2014

It takes a big heart to adopt a stray at a shelter because he's been there the longest.  And the joy he exudes, wagging his whole rump, is so clear that the young boy and his parents are sure that they've made a good choice.  Norman is funny, he's friendly, and he's happy.  However, his lack of responsiveness to their commands have them thinking that, "He just wasn't very smart."

But an incident in the park reveals that smartness isn't what Norman lacks: it's English.  His language of understanding is Chinese!  Admirably, mom, dad and son sign up for Chinese classes at the local church.  Surprisingly, "We didn't feel very smart the next Saturday morning in the basement of the church.  Or the Saturday after that.  All the other kids were smart."

Fortunately, Norman loves them anyway.

With Norman, Speak!, award-winning author Caroline Adderson has expanded her repertoire from early readers (Very Serious Children, Scholastic Canada, 2007), middle-grade fiction (Middle of Nowhere, Groundwood, 2012), young adult fiction (Film Studies, Annick, 2010) and adult fiction (The Sky is Falling, Thomas Allen Publishers, 2010) into picture books and we're so glad she has.  Her versatility has provided her the skills to tell important stories in age-appropriate media.  And with Qin Leng's familiar colourful, but never bold, fountain brush and ink illustrations, the message of "smartness" not being equal to understanding is told without judgement or fear.

This message is an important one for children to learn, especially if they perceive that they themselves are not regarded as smart.  This would be especially hard to deal with if that impression is given by a parent or teacher or other respected individual.  Too often, we misjudge and attribute lack of comprehension to lack of intelligence.  Wrong!  Caroline Adderson brings this revelation to Norman's people slowly but they get it in the end. They may have been quick to judge Norman but they learn soon enough that understanding has nothing to do with "smarts" but rather familiarity and regular opportunities for practice. Thankfully Norman doesn't hold their lack of Chinese against them.  Ultimately they are a perfect match, like Caroline Adderson's text and Qin Leng's illustrations, but one based in acceptance, not achievement.

The Geomancer's Compass

by Melissa Hardy
Tundra Books
978-1-77049-292-9
254 pp.
Ages 11-15
2012

When the past no longer illuminates the future, the spirit walks in darkness.  Alexis de Tocqueville

It's 2018 when thirteen-year-old Miranda's great-great-grandfather Charlie Liu, respectfully called The Grandfather, dies (choking on a moon cake!) and she first hears that her family has been cursed.  Her maternal grandmother, A-Ma, takes all the misfortunes that have befallen the Lius as evidence that evil spirits are plaguing the family.  And the evidence is striking: Miranda's father is debilitated after being struck by lightning; her mother suffers from excruciating muscle pain; her little brother Liam has life-threatening respiratory problems; her brother Sebastian is going blind; her Auntie Ev is now wheelchair-bound; her cousin Brian deals with ADHD and dyslexia; her Uncle Phil was killed when an icicle fell and pierced his jugular; her cousin Oliver suffers from agoraphobia and is at a private clinic; and her cousin Aubrey had an eating disorder that has put her in hospital again.

Three years later, germaphobic Miranda is attending St. Izzy's school for computer geniuses and interning at CanBoard, a company involved with augmented reality (AR) in Calgary when she is summoned home to Vancouver with the news that her dying A-Ma needs to see her.  A-Ma gives Miranda The Grandfather's geomancer's compass, known as a lo p'an, which is used by geomancers to identify and balance subtle energies in people's lives.  Miranda is instructed to safeguard the compass and to lift the curse from the family.  It seems that in the early 1900's The Grandfather's twin brother, Qianfu, was beaten to death in Moose Jaw for falling in love with a white waitress, Violet McNabb.  After burial, his bones went missing and were undoubtedly buried in a place with bad feng shui, resulting in Qianfu's rebirth as an e gui, a hungry ghost filled with pain and craving.  Miranda's mission is to travel with her cousin Brian (who can drive, is strong, is appreciative of the old ways, and can handle things Miranda is paranoid to touch) to Moose Jaw and help find Qianfu's bones.

So begins the mission of the two Liu cousins as they seek a part of their family's past while employing the futuristic tools of Miranda's techie passions.  In Moose Jaw, they take the tours of the underground tunnels, one focusing on the bootlegging gangsters and the other on the experiences of the Chinese immigrants such as The Grandfather and Qianfu.  Using a feng shui network and I-spex (to see computer-generated imagery), Miranda and Brian make contact with an avatar who is unquestionably The Grandfather.  The avatar elaborates on the tour guide's commentary about his business, the Azure Dragon Tea and Herb Sanatorium (still owned by the Lius because no one wants to buy a haunted property), and the prejudices leveled against the Chinese. Finally Miranda has an appreciation for The Grandfather and what he and his family endured.

"My life was incredibly easy compared to theirs; I owed them everything, especially The Grandfather.  Where I had seen a slightly smelly, possibly senile Yoda action doll, way past his expiry date, there had been nothing less than a giant." (pg. 116)

But it still takes some crafty problem-solving, a little golfing, and a porta-potty debacle, along with a little help from The Grandfather avatar and a homeless man, before Miranda and Brian can fulfill their destinies, even if circumstances are not as they expect.

Melissa Hardy melds the past and the future into an unexpected storyline in The Geomancer's Compass while enlightening readers about some Chinese traditions and concepts, including those unmindfully adopted by others, such as feng shui and chi.  While I had been under the mistaken belief that The Geomancer's Compass was a tool from medieval times (okay, I was wrong), I was delighted to realize the book bridged Canadian history (even if it isn't all flattering) with science and fantasy.  While many readers may not be as enamoured with history as I am, I was engrossed with details about Moose Jaw's underground tunnels, about the gangsters who established business in Canada during Prohibition and how Chinese immigrants braved their mistreatment.  Sadly, this is the history that "illuminates the future" (see the quote from Alexis de Tocqueville above).  Luckily Miranda is able to use her tech skills to help right the wrongs of the past, which consequently allows her to see beyond herself (her germaphobic nature definitely reflects her self-absorption) and appreciate her valuable heritage.  Just as a lo p'an is used to balance energies, The Geomancer's Compass capably balances the past and the future while harmonizing the Miranda's rich essences.