BONE TREE

A girl tries to use a local legend to hold on to her best friend.

One night Roman takes Elsie to the town cemetery to show her the eerie Bone Tree and tell her its legend: A witch used a spell to bind a dead woman to it so that her ghost could stay with her husband as the ghostly Woman in White. Then he tells her that he’s dying. During Roman’s battle with stage 4 leukemia, the sixth grade best friends research the legend of the Bone Tree and the Woman in White, and Roman makes Elsie promise that she’ll use the Bone Tree to bring him back when he dies. When the time comes, its magic works, but Elsie and Roman soon learn its dark cost. The revelation of the true nature of the Woman in White leaves Elsie, Roman, and Roman’s older brother, Jake, determined to oppose the evil ghost despite the threat she poses them. The straightforward, fast-moving plot is ideal for middle graders with relatively low reading endurance while the depictions of late-stage cancer and of different shades of grief show respect for the audience. Occasional plot points come too easily to the heroes (especially in the form of a helpful librarian’s exposition), but the hauntings have the right amount of detail for impact without overwhelming gore, and the ending resolves in a satisfying manner. Characters default to White.

A solidly spooky offering.