Ruined by Paula Morris

Morris, Paula Ruined: A Ghost Story, Point (Scholastic), 2009. $16.99. Language: G: (7 swears); Violence: PG (descriptions of deaths and violent climactic scene). From New York City to New Orleans during the middle of the school year? What could her dad be thinking? But here Rebecca is, starting a new school, full of snobby New Orleans socialites who think that Mardi Gras is the beginning and end of existence. Add to that living next to a cemetery and a ghost that only Rebecca can see – the ghost of a girl who was murdered by the ancestors of some of those same snobby girls. Rebecca doesn’t know it yet, but she is an integral part of breaking the curse that has lasted 150 years and already claimed seven victims. Thought he book starts a little slow (I liked this slow, it just didn’t seem like a scary, ghost story beginning), Once it reaches the crisis point, things progress so quickly that you won’t be able to put this one down. MS, HS – ADVISABLE. Cindy, Library-Teacher.