Ghost Girl

Eleven-year-old April Sloane has never gone to school. She’s also never seen a woman as smart and sophisticated as Miss Vest, the new teacher at the one-room schoolhouse that President Herbert Hoover and his wife have built in the remote Blue Ridge Mountains. But with Daddy rarely home and Mama still grieving over the accidental death of their only son, April begins to give up hope that she’ll ever attend school and escape her lonely life in the hollow. Thankfully, her beloved grandmother Aunt Birdy is there to intervene on her behalf.

Yet just when April thinks she might finally be on the verge of leaving her haunted past behind, a dark secret—and frightening changes on the mountain—threaten to bring April’s fragile new world tumbling down. Based on the extensive collection of letters exchanged between the real-life Miss Vest and the White House, this unique coming-of-age novel set during the Depression dramatically depicts how a determined girl, living in rural Virginia, grows in mind and spirit.