A Little Fear, A Little Fright

  "Zachary Jennings will not less us down."  A  blast from the past.  Remembering the good old days of reading R.L. Stine and "Fear Street".  It even brings me back to episodes of "Are you Afraid of the Dark" and even some of "Touched by an Angel".   Ghosts.  Its a topic that many people love, but teachers tend not to talk about unless it is the week of Halloween.  Kids LOVE reading and scaring each other with ghost stories, and The Crossroads by Chris Grabenstein does exactly that- scare you with a ghost story.

   Zach is a pretty normal kid who an unusual circumstance.  Haunted by his mother, he accepts the change his father has presented to moving back to his hometown in Connecticut.  It would be a new start for Zach and his new step-mom, Judy.  Since his mom's death, he has blamed himself for her illness.  Her attitude towards Zach had made his guilt eat away at him for so long, that the move was a good idea.
  Judy is not portrayed as the "wicked stepmother" and I am glad to see modern times have relinquished  this ideal.  Step moms have had a poor image in the movie/ literature eye, stemming from fairy tales.  They are wicked and mean, and do not care for children that are not theres.  However, this deems appropriate to our times.  Judy really appreciates Zach, and makes it clear that she is very receptive to having him in her life.  She is a witty character, but Zach appreciates her.

   I think Gerta's role in this book is to have students foreshadow purpose and suspense.  Readers can identify she knows more than what she expels, and the boys, Davy and Zach, are  suspicious to find out.  It isn't until the tree is struck with lightning that the spirit is released to cause harm in town.  The fact that over forty people were killed from the accident is excitement enough to want to know "Why?" and "What will come of them?"
  The thrill and excitement of this story will keep readers intrigued.  The excitement of "What will happen next" keeps readers wanting more, including myself.  This is a great book to incorporate in October for independent reading or teaching students about mystery, suspense, and foreshadow.
  One theme I picked up on (and it could be a stretch) is power.  Zach has the power to stop the ghost from further harming residents of the town after his spirit is released.  Students and I can discuss power and how it changes characters/people for the good and for the bad.  Conversations on power is great in the middle school age group because this is something they are independently experiencing for the first time; they want to talk about power they have, want to have, and do not want to have.
  In addition to power, the author had good "power" keeping the students intrigued and interested.  I would stem this right into a conversation about how he kept their attention. (Attention Getter's).  Perhaps we would visit various points in the story where Grabenstein started the chapter intensely, including the first page ("Have you ever seen a face within a tree...."

Overall, it is a fun read for kids.  Kids need to remember that all reads don't need to be serious and deep, but can be fun and thrilling, too.