The Ghost in Room 11

Wright, B. R. (1998). The ghost in room 11. (Rogers, J. illus.). Holiday House. 112 pages. ISBN 0823413187

Primary genre: mystery

Other elements: family, friendship, suspense

Intended reader age: 7 and up

Synopsis:

Matthew Barber is not happy that his parents took him from everything he knows and all of his friends to move him to a ‘hick’ town. When the class bully challenges Matthew to stay after school and face the school ghost Matthew rises to the challenge to show these people that he is not afraid. Unfortunately, Matthew really does find the ghost of a former teacher haunting the school and she has singled Matthew out as her next project. No one believes Matthew when he tells them of his sighting, all the lies he told when first showing up come back to haunt him, so he has to find a way to rid himself of this ghost once and for all.

Review:

When Matt first started formulating the story he would tell the class about his ‘real’ parents I kind of read it that he was adopted and looking to make stories up about his birth parents and justify why they gave him up. Then it turned out that he wasn’t adopted. I definitely felt for his parents when they heard about the story he made up in class. I never moved schools or cities so I never experienced having to make new friends and all that. But, that seemed above and beyond to me and I kind of stopped sympathizing with him then and there.

I thought it was funny that the ghost turned out to be a former teacher who decided the only way to help certain students was to scare them straight. There are definitely teachers out there who stick with us for better or for worse. Their words and ideas do haunt us through our academic careers and guide our actions. So that made it fun that Wright took this literal approach to the idea. There were even former pupils presently employed at the school who had interacted with the ghost while they were in school. It was interesting that these adults had gone through the same experiences Matt did, but they chose to deny the presence when he started telling everyone what he saw.

I had originally wanted to read Crandall’s Castle by Wright (that was what I had listed on my preliminary list) but I was unable to find it at the local libraries. I would still like to read it and get an idea if this is the usual progression that Wright’s ghost stories take. This one did remind me of Hanh’s Wait Till Helen Comes, there turned out be a not so scary answer for who the ghost was and why they were present. Maybe I am used to adult suspense now, sometimes the ghosts are just bad and need to be removed by any means necessary.