Ghosts by Raina Telgemeier

Review by Joel Gould
Genre: Graphic Novel

If you teach or are the parent of primary and middle school kids, you are probably familiar with the work of Raina Telgemeier. Beginning with her adaptations of Ann M. Martin’s Baby-Sitter’s Club series, in 2006, she has produced a series of remarkable graphic novels, which have earned her rabid fans, Eisner awards, and critical praise.  While, surely, she honed her craft over decades, professionally, she appears to have been born fully actualized. I have read every published page, since her first, and I would say that she grows as an artist with each successive book, except that, they are all excellent.  They all share a nuanced understanding of relationships, a maestro’s command of tempo and story arc, a visual balance between pithy lines and natural form, and most importantly, a powerful, serious voice that reveals how under duress the human spirit thrives.  She accomplishes this with multimodal language that speaks directly to every person’s inner fifth grader (whether actual fifth grade is a few years away or decades ago).  

I pre-ordered Ghosts, last summer, when it popped up on Amazon, and forgot about it, until it recently arrived on my doorstep. (Finally, thank you, AdSense!)  

This book is a significant departure from Smile, Sister, and Drama. It retains the realism and detailed Northern California setting of her previous novels (no one has found so much inspiration in Daly City since Malvina Reynolds penned the song “Little Boxes”)– and adds a strong touch of magic. Previously, I had quietly wondered whether Telgemeier, with so many gifts, perhaps lacked imagination:  I got my answer: she’s got it in spades - her mirror reflects, with equal clarity, terrestrial life and the spirit world.   It’s been incubating in her sketch books while she cleared her drawing table of adaptations and autobiographical projects.  

In Ghosts, Catrina and her family relocate to the northern California beach-town, Bahía de la Luna (inspired by Half Moon Bay).  They hope the perpetual cloud-bank that envelops the town will help Maya, who has Cystic Fibrosis, breathe more easily. Exploring the misty shoreline, Catrina and Maya discover and enter an abandoned arcade. They encounter Carlos, a young guide, who leads tours of haunted locations in the town. Skeptical, Catrina demurs and drags enthusiastic Maya back home, only to meet Carlos again at a family dinner and at school. Soon, Carlos persuades the sisters to join him on his tour and introduces them to the shy, but congenial ghosts that inhabit the derelict Spanish mission on a hill above the town. During Día de los Muertos, they dance, play music and eat, and celebrate life with ancestors and town residents past.

In Bahía de la Luna, Catrina and Maya reconnect with their latent Mexican cultural heritage and come to terms with Maya’s declining health. Catrina understands that Maya will always be boundlessly free, no matter which side of the line of death she is on.  Maya, frail of body, but robust of spirit, sees that her older sister will cope in her absence—she’ll make friends, be happy, and perhaps even fall in love. Spoiler alert: nothing this fresh can be spoiled.