The Shade.

Cathy currently works as a Programs Coordinator for the Centre for Teaching Support & Innovation at the University of Toronto.  She holds a BA from York University and is currently a graduate student in Theory and Policy Studies at OISE/UT, working towards her M.Ed.  Cathy lives in Scarborough with her husband, 10 year old son, her Cat, Buddy and her Boston Terrier, Max.  In her spare time, she enjoys reading and spending time with her family.

Safira is a preteen girl who is visited by a ghost while she is away at a summer swim camp. When she returns home, the experience of this vision continues to haunt her mind and engages Safira’s to find out more about the ghost in the stripped pajamas. While Safira’s family is preoccupied with planning her sister Mya’s wedding, her best friend Trinity, who studies all things occult, is more than enthusiastic about solving the mystery of this ghostly visitor. Through the use of an Ouija board and the local newspaper archives, the two begin to unravel possible explanations for the ghost’s appearance. However, the answer to why this spirit came to visit Safira is closer to home than either of them imagine.

The Shade is a thrilling story that brings in elements of the occult with an overarching theme of values such as standing up for what you believe in and the importance of friendship and family. It is written in the style of Goosebumps and in my opinion, would be of interest to readers in the 9–12 year old age range. The Shade is an Orca Currents novel and is written for reluctant readers. As such, there is little in terms of character development in this story but the plot does enough to keep the reader’s interest and to guide the story to its conclusion.

I give this novel a rating of “Recommended with Reservations.” Even though The Shade has some of the spine-tingling essentials needed for a good ghost story, the lack of detail in the subplots and in the character formation decrease the reader’s overall understanding of the novel.