THE GHOST OF DROWNED MEADOW https://ift.tt/82Syeuv

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Morgan Calvino just moved to Long Island from Brooklyn and is having a hard time adjusting. She’s obsessed with a series of Japanese novels, doesn’t know how to wakeboard like the other kids, and also just moved into a notorious haunted house. She reluctantly joins forces with Joel Applebaum, who is described as creepy and weird by the girls Morgan tries to befriend, to unravel mysteries surrounding the child-sized Nazi uniform she finds in the attic, the Hitler Youth camp that existed nearby during the 1930s, and how to send a restless spirit to its resting place (answer: a mix of kindness and the Indigenous practice of smudging with sage). The chills are creepy and well executed, as is the awkwardness of being a new kid in a new environment. However, in a book grappling with the legacy of the Nazi Party in suburban White America, the Nazi characters, children and adults alike, are given more interior life and character development than the single Jewish character. Through flashbacks and one encounter with a friend’s great-grandfather, readers are given multiple opportunities to empathize with and feel sorry for Nazi youth, who are presented as either generic bullies or victims of circumstance with no investment in their shared ideology, a troubling conclusion to present. Characters are cued as White except for one friend who is Black.



from Kirkus Reviews https://ift.tt/JN5C01H

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