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Ghost Mysteries #4
The Ghost of Poplar Point
Allie Nichols, “Ghost Magnet,” has only just finished sixth grade, but already she’s grappled with her fair share of adventure: three ghosts have sought her help in less than two months. Now that summer has finally arrived, Allie is ready for a break. Too bad ghosts don’t know about summer vacation. When a new spirit causes Allie to babble incomprehensibly at rehearsals for her town’s first pageant, she and her best friend, Dub, know they have another ghostly mystery to solve. But why does the ghost seem so interested in the pageant, which portrays the relationship between the area’s early European settlers and the local Seneca Indians? And could its manifestation have anything to do with the rich girl who just came to town with her family?
In the fourth fascinating ghost book by Cynthia DeFelice, Allie and Dub uncover a centuries-old secret—the destruction of a Seneca village at Poplar Point—and come up with a plan to share it.
In the fourth fascinating ghost book by Cynthia DeFelice, Allie and Dub uncover a centuries-old secret—the destruction of a Seneca village at Poplar Point—and come up with a plan to share it.
193 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 21, 2007
8 people are currently reading
132 people want to read
About the author
Cynthia C. DeFelice
34 books119 followersCynthia DeFelice is the author of many bestselling titles for young readers, including the novels Wild Life, The Ghost of Cutler Creek, Signal, and The Missing Manatee, as well as the picture books, One Potato, Two Potato, and Casey in the Bath. Her books have been nominated for an Edgar Allen Poe Award and listed as American Library Association Notable Children's Books and Bank Street Best Children's Book of the Year, among numerous other honors.
Cynthia was born in Philadelphia in 1951. As a child, she was always reading. Summer vacations began with a trip to the bookstore, where she and her sister and brothers were allowed to pick out books for their summer reading. “To me,” she says, “those trips to the bookstore were even better than the rare occasions when we were given a quarter and turned loose at the penny-candy store on the boardwalk.” Cynthia has worked as a bookseller, a barn painter, a storyteller, and a school librarian.
When asked what she loves best about being an author, she can’t pick just one answer: “I love the feeling of being caught up in the lives of the characters I am writing about. I enjoy the challenge of trying to write as honestly as I can, and I find enormous satisfaction in hearing from readers that something I wrote touched them, delighted them, made them shiver with fear or shake with laughter, or think about something new.” Cynthia and her husband live in Geneva, New York.
http://us.macmillan.com/author/cynthi...
Cynthia was born in Philadelphia in 1951. As a child, she was always reading. Summer vacations began with a trip to the bookstore, where she and her sister and brothers were allowed to pick out books for their summer reading. “To me,” she says, “those trips to the bookstore were even better than the rare occasions when we were given a quarter and turned loose at the penny-candy store on the boardwalk.” Cynthia has worked as a bookseller, a barn painter, a storyteller, and a school librarian.
When asked what she loves best about being an author, she can’t pick just one answer: “I love the feeling of being caught up in the lives of the characters I am writing about. I enjoy the challenge of trying to write as honestly as I can, and I find enormous satisfaction in hearing from readers that something I wrote touched them, delighted them, made them shiver with fear or shake with laughter, or think about something new.” Cynthia and her husband live in Geneva, New York.
http://us.macmillan.com/author/cynthi...
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
December 30, 2020
Love this series wish there were more!
July 9, 2024
So this is one of the sequels to a children's book I read when I was around 9 (this one: The Ghost of Fossil Glen
, and reread again a few times as an adult.
This one's a good one. For an early aughts children's book, it's pretty conscious and nuanced - debunking stereotypes of Native Americans and deconstructing cheap narratives that obfuscate and distort the violent genocides by Europeans.
The plot is a rather familiar trope - a developer in town wants to build a resort on Poplar Point at Seneca Lake, a location which the protagonist Allie knows (from a Seneca ghost) was the site of a massacre of a Seneca village. To promote the new resort, the developer has arranged for a play to be put on this summer, filled with inaccurate characterisations of Seneca people and with a false, hokey narrative of peaceful friendship between the Seneca village and the local Europeans.
Familiar, but nonetheless, decently executed.
Allie thought of the pretty picture painted by the pageant. She heard the lifeless narration and dull dialogue, saw the happy scdenes of generosity and friendship. A boring - and shameless - lie."
That wraps up this four-book series. It's a nice children's series, the writing is clean and effective, and the characters are memorable.
, and reread again a few times as an adult.
This one's a good one. For an early aughts children's book, it's pretty conscious and nuanced - debunking stereotypes of Native Americans and deconstructing cheap narratives that obfuscate and distort the violent genocides by Europeans.
The plot is a rather familiar trope - a developer in town wants to build a resort on Poplar Point at Seneca Lake, a location which the protagonist Allie knows (from a Seneca ghost) was the site of a massacre of a Seneca village. To promote the new resort, the developer has arranged for a play to be put on this summer, filled with inaccurate characterisations of Seneca people and with a false, hokey narrative of peaceful friendship between the Seneca village and the local Europeans.
Familiar, but nonetheless, decently executed.
Allie thought of the pretty picture painted by the pageant. She heard the lifeless narration and dull dialogue, saw the happy scdenes of generosity and friendship. A boring - and shameless - lie."
That wraps up this four-book series. It's a nice children's series, the writing is clean and effective, and the characters are memorable.
March 7, 2025
It's summer and the town of Seneca is holding a pageant. Allie has a lead role in the play until the man who has bought several local buildings and is funding many pageant activities, demands that his daughter be given the role instead. The ghost of a young Seneca girl alerts Allie that the man has plans to build a hotel on a piece of property adjacent to the property that Allie saved from development in The Ghost of Fossil Glen. Apparently, most people in town aren't aware that Poplar Point was the site of a massacre where the young girl died. Even if they did, Mr. Kavenagh bullies and threatens anyone who stands in the way of his plans. He also shows that he has no respect for local history when he says that he plans to put a teepee in the hotel lobby when teepees were never used by the Iroquois of New York.
Allie works with her friends and the ghost to try to stop development of Poplar Point.
Allie works with her friends and the ghost to try to stop development of Poplar Point.
January 28, 2022
This installment was the best of them all! So many things to digest in this book. I adored how Allie and Dub stood up to a millionaire real estate agent and, after many ups and downs, got the ending that they wanted. So much amazing character development going on. So many new words and *actual* history about the Seneca Indians. I learned so much from this book. This series could go on forever - up until Allie's and Michael's adulthood. I wish there could be more books - I would definitely read them. By far my most favorite read of 2022 so far!
August 23, 2020
Hope this is not the last adventure?!
Another exciting story with a dash of historical drama. Allie and her friends made a great adventure, hopefully not the last.
Another exciting story with a dash of historical drama. Allie and her friends made a great adventure, hopefully not the last.
December 1, 2008
J When 12 year old Allie becomes part of a pageant that will celebrate the friendship of the Seneca Indians and the first settlers in her New York town, she is visited by a disturbed Indian ghost that talks through her and also comes in her dreams. As she looks into the history of her area further, she discovers that the local Seneca Indians were all slaughtered by George Washington's men. Although she would like to be part of the pageant, she comes up against the wealthy businessman who is sponsoring the pageant and planning to build a resort at the massacre site.
At first I thought this was pretty light weight..very simple dialogue, using ghosts in the plot, etc. but I found myself getting wrapped up in the story and the history. In the end I was quite touched!
At first I thought this was pretty light weight..very simple dialogue, using ghosts in the plot, etc. but I found myself getting wrapped up in the story and the history. In the end I was quite touched!
February 28, 2009
It was ok, could have been scarier though
June 25, 2009
This book had a satisfying historical connection that I really enjoyed -- my favorite of this series since the first (Fossil Glen). I'm ready for Allie to tell her parents now! LOL
August 1, 2009
This book is about a young Senceca Indian girl-ghost who wants justice for a massacre that happened at Poplar Point. Some big-wigs want to develop a hotel chain there and Allie has to stop them.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews