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Ghost
The Green Ghost
Move over, Christmas Carol—here’s a new holiday ghost story!It's Christmas Eve, and Kaye’s family is on the way to her grandmother’s house in a swirling snowstorm. Suddenly the car hits a patch of ice. It slides across the road and skids into a snow-filled ditch! Through the car window, Kaye spots a light in the woods. Its glow leads her and her parents through the blizzard. They find a warm cabin and a kindly old woman named Elsa. And Kaye finds something else—a green ghost who needs her help!Newbery Honor–winning author Marion Dane Bauer spins a third spooky tale to complement her previous stories, The Blue Ghost and The Red Ghost.From the Trade Paperback edition.
Unknown Binding
First published September 23, 2008
3 people are currently reading
54 people want to read
About the author
Marion Dane Bauer
180 books186 followersMarion Dane Bauer is the author of more than one hundred books for young people, ranging from novelty and picture books through early readers, both fiction and nonfiction, books on writing, and middle-grade and young-adult novels. She has won numerous awards, including several Minnesota Book Awards, a Jane Addams Peace Association Award for RAIN OF FIRE, an American Library Association Newbery Honor Award for ON MY HONOR, a number of state children's choice awards and the Kerlan Award from the University of Minnesota for the body of her work.
She is also the editor of and a contributor to the ground-breaking collection of gay and lesbian short stories, Am I Blue? Coming Out from the Silence.
Marion was one of the founding faculty and the first Faculty Chair for the Master of Fine Arts in Writing for Children and Young Adults program at Vermont College of Fine Arts. Her writing guide, the American Library Association Notable WHAT'S YOUR STORY? A YOUNG PERSON'S GUIDE TO WRITING FICTION, is used by writers of all ages. Her books have been translated into more than a dozen different languages.
She has six grandchildren and lives in St. Paul, Minnesota, with her partner and a cavalier King Charles spaniel, Dawn.
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INTERVIEW WITH MARION DANE BAUER
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Q. What brought you to a career as a writer?
A. I seem to have been born with my head full of stories. For almost as far back as I can remember, I used most of my unoccupied moments--even in school when I was supposed to be doing other "more important" things--to make up stories in my head. I sometimes got a notation on my report card that said, "Marion dreams." It was not a compliment. But while the stories I wove occupied my mind in a very satisfying way, they were so complex that I never thought of trying to write them down. I wouldn't have known where to begin. So though I did all kinds of writing through my teen and early adult years--letters, journals, essays, poetry--I didn't begin to gather the craft I needed to write stories until I was in my early thirties. That was also when my last excuse for not taking the time to sit down to do the writing I'd so long wanted to do started first grade.
Q. And why write for young people?
A. Because I get my creative energy in examining young lives, young issues. Most people, when they enter adulthood, leave childhood behind, by which I mean that they forget most of what they know about themselves as children. Of course, the ghosts of childhood still inhabit them, but they deal with them in other forms--problems with parental authority turn into problems with bosses, for instance--and don't keep reaching back to the original source to try to fix it, to make everything come out differently than it did the first time. Most children's writers, I suspect, are fixers. We return, again and again, usually under the cover of made-up characters, to work things through. I don't know that our childhoods are necessarily more painful than most. Every childhood has pain it, because life has pain in it at every stage. The difference is that we are compelled to keep returning to the source.
Q. You write for a wide range of ages. Do you write from a different place in writing for preschoolers than for young adolescents?
A. In a picture book or board book, I'm always writing from the womb of the family, a place that--while it might be intruded upon by fears, for instance--is still, ultimately, safe and nurturing. That's what my own early childhood was like, so it's easy for me to return to those feelings and to recreate them.
When I write for older readers, I'm writing from a very different experience. My early adolescence, especially, was a time of deep alienation, mostly from my peers but in some ways from my family as well. And so I write my older stories out of that pain, that longing for connection. A story has to have a problem at its core. No struggle
She is also the editor of and a contributor to the ground-breaking collection of gay and lesbian short stories, Am I Blue? Coming Out from the Silence.
Marion was one of the founding faculty and the first Faculty Chair for the Master of Fine Arts in Writing for Children and Young Adults program at Vermont College of Fine Arts. Her writing guide, the American Library Association Notable WHAT'S YOUR STORY? A YOUNG PERSON'S GUIDE TO WRITING FICTION, is used by writers of all ages. Her books have been translated into more than a dozen different languages.
She has six grandchildren and lives in St. Paul, Minnesota, with her partner and a cavalier King Charles spaniel, Dawn.
-------------------------------------
INTERVIEW WITH MARION DANE BAUER
-------------------------------------
Q. What brought you to a career as a writer?
A. I seem to have been born with my head full of stories. For almost as far back as I can remember, I used most of my unoccupied moments--even in school when I was supposed to be doing other "more important" things--to make up stories in my head. I sometimes got a notation on my report card that said, "Marion dreams." It was not a compliment. But while the stories I wove occupied my mind in a very satisfying way, they were so complex that I never thought of trying to write them down. I wouldn't have known where to begin. So though I did all kinds of writing through my teen and early adult years--letters, journals, essays, poetry--I didn't begin to gather the craft I needed to write stories until I was in my early thirties. That was also when my last excuse for not taking the time to sit down to do the writing I'd so long wanted to do started first grade.
Q. And why write for young people?
A. Because I get my creative energy in examining young lives, young issues. Most people, when they enter adulthood, leave childhood behind, by which I mean that they forget most of what they know about themselves as children. Of course, the ghosts of childhood still inhabit them, but they deal with them in other forms--problems with parental authority turn into problems with bosses, for instance--and don't keep reaching back to the original source to try to fix it, to make everything come out differently than it did the first time. Most children's writers, I suspect, are fixers. We return, again and again, usually under the cover of made-up characters, to work things through. I don't know that our childhoods are necessarily more painful than most. Every childhood has pain it, because life has pain in it at every stage. The difference is that we are compelled to keep returning to the source.
Q. You write for a wide range of ages. Do you write from a different place in writing for preschoolers than for young adolescents?
A. In a picture book or board book, I'm always writing from the womb of the family, a place that--while it might be intruded upon by fears, for instance--is still, ultimately, safe and nurturing. That's what my own early childhood was like, so it's easy for me to return to those feelings and to recreate them.
When I write for older readers, I'm writing from a very different experience. My early adolescence, especially, was a time of deep alienation, mostly from my peers but in some ways from my family as well. And so I write my older stories out of that pain, that longing for connection. A story has to have a problem at its core. No struggle
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
December 9, 2017
Just like the story The Blue Ghost, which was also written by Marion Dane Bauer, this story also centers on the connection and love between a family. These ghost stories are not really intended to scare the readers. Instead, these books teaches young readers, as well as adults, that there are unexplained things we cannot fully comprehend like the concept of ghosts and spirits. But we should take account that these entities want to convey something that's why they make their presence felt.
May 1, 2025
The Green Ghost (2008) is the third of Marion Dane Bauer's four emerging reader paranormal chapter books and is in my opinion geared towards and as such also most suited for young readers (especially girls) from about the age of six to eight or nine (with the series stories titled The Blue Ghost, The Red Ghost, The Green Ghost, The Golden Ghost and with each obviously having a colour both in the title and also within the featured texts in so far that the scenarios related by Dane Bauer very specifically present spirits appearing in blue, red, green and golden hues). And because the four books are standalones, they thus also and of course do not need to be perused in order of publication and that what Marion Dane Bauer for example relates in The Green Ghost actually has nothing to do with and has no bearing on either The Blue Ghost or on The Red Ghost and of course also vice versa (but just to point out that I have not yet read The Golden Ghost although I am of course planning on doing so).
So for The Green Ghost Dane Bauer's featured plot presents a textually delightful and enchanting winter and Christmas themed ghost story, an easy reading and simple Yuletide themed paranormal tale without any eeriness and horror, but also with some emotional richness, potential and actual heartbreak as well as avoidable and problematic dangers to point out, to discuss, to consider with the intended audience (such as in particular how in the parts of The Green Ghost which Marion Dane Bauer has taking place in 1938, Lillian venturing outside in the snow with her younger sister Elsa and to keep on and on searching for a "perfect" Christmas tree in the cold of winter is rather foolish, is hugely dangerous and pretty much a tragedy waiting to happen), with The Green Ghost also featuring in Lillian a friendly, delightfully helpful ghost girl (and with my inner eight year old reader absolutely adoring everything about The Green Ghost even if parts of the story do make me want to cry and actually and indeed did make me cry).
And yes, Dane Bauer with The Green Ghost manages to textually very nicely weave a mildly suspenseful (and also rather magical) winter themed ghost story told in alternating time frames, and with Lillian's ghost in the present being shown by Marion Dane Bauer as guiding Kaye and her parents to the farm where Lillian's sister Elsa still lives when the family car breaks down during a snowstorm (on their way to visit Kaye's grandmother for Christmas), that The Green Ghost presents a simple and basic but also emotional story, where Lillian's glowing and friendly spirit not only helps out Kaye's family but also provides major and appreciated closure for Elsa (but equally for herself as well) and as such in The Green Ghost, Lillian's spirit (and Kaye telling Elsa about her encounter with Lillian) equally then encourages Elsa to leave the farm, to accompany Kaye and her parents, to spend Christmas not alone (like usual) but with Kaye, Kaye's parents and with the grandmother they were on their way to visit when their car went off the road during that snowstorm.
Finally, although I do not think that The Green Ghost actually requires accompanying illustrations, Peter Ferguson's realistic black-and-white artwork certainly provides not only a very nice decorative trim so to speak but that in particular Ferguson's illustrated snowscapes nicely and successfully reflect and mirror what Marion Dane Bauer is textually providing and writing about in and for The Green Ghost (and thus also a solid four star rating for the combination of text and images).
So for The Green Ghost Dane Bauer's featured plot presents a textually delightful and enchanting winter and Christmas themed ghost story, an easy reading and simple Yuletide themed paranormal tale without any eeriness and horror, but also with some emotional richness, potential and actual heartbreak as well as avoidable and problematic dangers to point out, to discuss, to consider with the intended audience (such as in particular how in the parts of The Green Ghost which Marion Dane Bauer has taking place in 1938, Lillian venturing outside in the snow with her younger sister Elsa and to keep on and on searching for a "perfect" Christmas tree in the cold of winter is rather foolish, is hugely dangerous and pretty much a tragedy waiting to happen), with The Green Ghost also featuring in Lillian a friendly, delightfully helpful ghost girl (and with my inner eight year old reader absolutely adoring everything about The Green Ghost even if parts of the story do make me want to cry and actually and indeed did make me cry).
And yes, Dane Bauer with The Green Ghost manages to textually very nicely weave a mildly suspenseful (and also rather magical) winter themed ghost story told in alternating time frames, and with Lillian's ghost in the present being shown by Marion Dane Bauer as guiding Kaye and her parents to the farm where Lillian's sister Elsa still lives when the family car breaks down during a snowstorm (on their way to visit Kaye's grandmother for Christmas), that The Green Ghost presents a simple and basic but also emotional story, where Lillian's glowing and friendly spirit not only helps out Kaye's family but also provides major and appreciated closure for Elsa (but equally for herself as well) and as such in The Green Ghost, Lillian's spirit (and Kaye telling Elsa about her encounter with Lillian) equally then encourages Elsa to leave the farm, to accompany Kaye and her parents, to spend Christmas not alone (like usual) but with Kaye, Kaye's parents and with the grandmother they were on their way to visit when their car went off the road during that snowstorm.
Finally, although I do not think that The Green Ghost actually requires accompanying illustrations, Peter Ferguson's realistic black-and-white artwork certainly provides not only a very nice decorative trim so to speak but that in particular Ferguson's illustrated snowscapes nicely and successfully reflect and mirror what Marion Dane Bauer is textually providing and writing about in and for The Green Ghost (and thus also a solid four star rating for the combination of text and images).
November 26, 2021
Nice illustrations. 2nd book in the “Ghost” series.
February 12, 2012
I'm not sure how we discovered this book, but it was a very powerful story and one that triggers very strong emotions. The Christmas theme brings feelings of happiness and celebration, but Lillian's story is so sad. The disparity of the emotions takes the reader on a roller coaster ride. We started this book late in our storytime and I expected to only read a chapter or two, but we were so drawn into the story, we just had to know what happened in the end. I read the last chapter with tears streaming down my face and our girls were listening so avidly. Our youngest was quite sad about the story, to the point that she says that she didn't like it. But our oldest was completely fascinated, entranced by the tale. She read it again on her own the next day and was insistent that we get the other books in this series.
Being the concerned mom that I am, we discussed the poor choices that Lillian made that fateful day and we imagined what would have happened if she had made better decisions. It brought about an interesting dilemma, as Kaye and her family were saved by her ghost, which of course would not have existed if she had not died. Such an interesting story! We have put the other Ghost stories by Marion Dane Bauer on hold and are really looking forward to reading them.
Being the concerned mom that I am, we discussed the poor choices that Lillian made that fateful day and we imagined what would have happened if she had made better decisions. It brought about an interesting dilemma, as Kaye and her family were saved by her ghost, which of course would not have existed if she had not died. Such an interesting story! We have put the other Ghost stories by Marion Dane Bauer on hold and are really looking forward to reading them.
December 17, 2017
This is one of the sweetest stories!
When we knew the 5 and 7-year-old would be out for Winter Break for 3 weeks, we headed straight to the Metropolitan Library! Loading up on books for everyone as well as the neat little personal video pre-loaded stories. Younger children can watch the Magic School Bus episodes and much more.
This is a great beginning chapter book for readers. Miss Charli Ava had no problem reading it. There was action, adventure, ghosts and blizzards, who wouldn't love it? And how did I choose such a gem? It was sitting beside the 5 American Girl books I checked out.
This one though, started a conversation about life, death, ghosts and long ago times and words. The kids asked me to read it over and over! And now that we know there are more, I'm sure PaPa will swing by and get those too!
Thank you Ms. Bauer for this Christmas Joy!
When we knew the 5 and 7-year-old would be out for Winter Break for 3 weeks, we headed straight to the Metropolitan Library! Loading up on books for everyone as well as the neat little personal video pre-loaded stories. Younger children can watch the Magic School Bus episodes and much more.
This is a great beginning chapter book for readers. Miss Charli Ava had no problem reading it. There was action, adventure, ghosts and blizzards, who wouldn't love it? And how did I choose such a gem? It was sitting beside the 5 American Girl books I checked out.
This one though, started a conversation about life, death, ghosts and long ago times and words. The kids asked me to read it over and over! And now that we know there are more, I'm sure PaPa will swing by and get those too!
Thank you Ms. Bauer for this Christmas Joy!
July 27, 2010
I would have enjoyed it more when I was little. It reminded me of a much better written "Are you afraid of the dark?" episode. Pleasantly spooky and wonderfully written.
December 17, 2020
What is up with depressing Christmas stories? In this one it starts out in 1938 with a girl who wants a green cloak and then decides she wants a pretty Christmas tree. You sense this girl will become the Green Ghost. And she does! Nearly killing her three-year-old sister in the process. She goes way too far out to get a tree that she could never actually take back. And then dies while protecting her sister. This is why we need the Girl Scouts. Make a pine bough thing and drag her gone! Nope. Dies as her dad is bringing the cloak as a surprise! Is there a moral to this story? Don’t be vain? Dickens only pretend killed Tiny Tim! Sheesh. Man I need something happy to read now.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 22, 2019
This was a very quick read I picked up randomly. It helped to be reading it during Christmas season--added to the mood. It had a nice mystery to it and I thought the ending was tender.
May 22, 2020
sweet story
September 13, 2021
Out of all of these ghost books, this one stuck with me the very most. This series of books was what got me into reading and this book was my favourite out of the group.
February 5, 2022
Sad but sweet easy-to-read middle grade historical Christmas novel alternating between 1938 and present day.
December 27, 2025
It was good, but awfully sad for a children's Christmas tale.
May 1, 2024
cute little story, nice if it had been a longer ghost story
February 13, 2024
Two voices from two different times tell a beautiful ghost story. Lillian grows tired of the stunted, scraggly Christmas trees her father cuts down behind the family's barn each year. This year, she convinces her parents that she's old enough to find the perfect tree. When Lillian heads into the forest with her ax, her sister, Elsa, begs to go with her. The search takes longer than Lillian expected, and the girls are caught by the darkness and the cold. They shelter under the perfect tree hoping that their father will find them before it's too late. Many years later, Kaye's family gets stranded by a bad snow storm while on their way to Grandma's house for Christmas. They find shelter at the house of an old woman named Elsa. That night, Kaye wakes to find a young girl sitting on the foot of the bed. As Kaye follows her into the forest, she realizes that the girl is a ghost. Kaye helps the young ghost deliver a special message to her sister, Elsa.
©2024 Kathy Maxwell at https://bookskidslike.com
©2024 Kathy Maxwell at https://bookskidslike.com
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April 2, 2016The main characters in this book is Kayne,Elsa, and Elsa's sister Lillian. Kayne is a kind soft hearted girl who's on her way to her grand mothers place to celebrate christmas. Elsa is a girl who has a beautiful heart too. Lillian is also a girl who is picky. The book switches the story back and forth. The story tells about Lillian going to find a beautiful tree for christmas but something tragic happens. Kayne meets Lillian later in the future. Over all i think this book is a good book to read for fun.
June 30, 2013
I seldom cry over books, but this one had me close to tears. The writing is simple and direct. The title clearly states there is a green ghost in the story, but somehow it caught me unaware. It is sad and happy at the same time.
January 21, 2017
A ghost story told in two voices, Lillian in 1938 and Kaye in present day Christmas. This is a good choice for young readers who want a short, fast-paced story that is only a little spooky and not sad.
December 30, 2008
A ghost story suitable for children -- just enough spooky but not too scary.
Want to read
January 22, 2011Recommended as a good short and sweet chapter book for 2nd/3rd grade. See http://allaboutcomprehension.blogspot...
November 28, 2011
A good Christmas ghost story for 2nd to 3rd graders. Marion Dane Bauer is my go to author for this age group.
January 14, 2012
Recommended to me by a 4th grader. It does touch upon serious topics but there is no real lesson in this book.
September 29, 2013
I really like this book it very interesting
July 30, 2014
A nice, heartwarming, yet chilling Christmas tale. A perfect book for readers moving from easy readers to chapter books or from simple chapter books to ones with a bit more depth.
January 16, 2016
A family is out looking for a Christmas tree when their car slides off the road after hitting a ice patch. Well written,sad but good story.
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews