This magical-realism tale begins with sisters Catrina and Maya moving with their parents to northern California. Teen Catrina is devastated to move away from her friends, but her younger sister Maya’s cystic fibrosis symptoms can be alleviated in the cooler foggier environment, and as a loving sister she is willing to make the sacrifice.
The girls explore their new community, Bahía de la Luna, and find that the town has a huge yearly celebration of Día de los Muertos/Day of the Dead. This ties in with the girls exploring more of their culture, as their mother was the daughter of a Mexican immigrant, and regrets that she didn’t learn more about her heritage before her mother died. Carlos, a neighboring teen, introduces them to the ghosts of the community. That the ghosts are believed in and embraced as fact seemed a natural part of the narrative, for it matched the theme of Catrina needing to come to terms with Maya’s inevitable death.
Raina Telgemeier’s art work is instantly recognizable if you are familiar with her earlier graphic novels aimed at pre-teens such as Smile, Drama and Sisters. Her style is bright bold colors and she captures the angst of youth very well. I felt the way she handled Maya’s CF was realistic and respectful, and gave readers an idea of how family’s cope under such difficult circumstances. The Day of the Dead portrayal in the book was given appropriate deference, but I’d be remiss if not pointing out there was a bit of cultural appropriation in it and it was matched to Halloween night, which is inaccurate. I ran across this thoughtful article by Debbie Reese that had a different perspective on how American Indians are portrayed in children’s literature.
Despite a few shortcomings, this beautiful evocative tale brought me to tears. Don’t let the deceptively simple illustrations fool you into thinking that the storyline is basic, for this emotionally powerful story will stay with you. Family, community, and accepting death are tied together in this winning novel.
-Nancy
Graphic Novelty² 
February 11, 2017 at 1:45 pm
Good review there. I often see this book around, but I didn’t know what it’s about. It sounds like a sweet one. I’ll pick it up if I see it at my library.
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February 13, 2017 at 1:08 am
I definitely recommend you get it from the library (speaking as a librarian)!
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February 12, 2017 at 2:50 am
I just saw this at Barnes & Noble the other week and, admittedly, wrote it off as simply a cute/fun story primarily aimed at elementary kids given the nature of the cover art. (Clearly I didn’t read the back (and clearly I have yet to fully learn not to judge a book by it’s cover).) But you’ve presented this as such a moving, powerful piece that I think I have to head back to B&N and check this out myself!
(Also, annoyingly my computer wouldn’t let me post this comment earlier so I apologize in advance if another version of this comment pops up later :). I think we’re good but you never know…)
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February 13, 2017 at 1:06 am
It definitely is geared towards younger readers, but as an adult, I obviously found some deeper themes in it. To be truthful, I didn’t pick this book up on my own, I had to read it for a book tournament that I am helping with (guest post later this week, along with the book I read in competition with this one).
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February 13, 2017 at 4:08 am
Ooo…exciting! I will be looking forward to the impending posts. Isn’t that the best too? You pick up a book for something like that and end up being honestly moved and impressed by what you read. That’s great!
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February 12, 2017 at 8:53 pm
I’ve read the criticism of Ghosts, but I don’t think Telgemeier was trying to match Dia de los Muertos with Halloween. It seemed to me that, because the girls come from a mixed family and were just being introduced this part of their heritage, that they were blending the two holidays to make sense of their family traditions and match the new holiday with the one they were already familiar with. Altogether, I thought it was a very moving story.
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February 13, 2017 at 1:03 am
Perhaps “match” wasn’t the best word for me to use, for I meant that the Day of the Dead Celebration happened directly after trick or treating, as if it were part of that celebration, when it should have been the next day and not a continuation of Halloween.
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February 13, 2017 at 1:06 am
Oh, yes, I know what you meant. But I think that the criticisms of the girls associating the two holidays is ignoring that they’re coming from a mixed family and that this is their first experience with Dia de los Muertos. It’s perhaps not surprising that they would make a connection between the two, associating the new holiday with what they already know. I also think the criticisms ignore that the girls do set up an altar for their grandmother, get marigolds for it, etc. They participate in the holiday in a more solemn manner, but because putting marigolds on an altar is less exciting than meeting ghosts, the critics don’t seem to give Telgemeier credit here.
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February 13, 2017 at 1:13 am
Overall, I do feel the book was respectful to the Day of the Dead Celebration, but I also wanted to look at it from another’s perspective that didn’t view it that way. I thought the article that I included a link to was very insightful- but I definitely want to praise Telgemeier for writing and illustrating a poignant and diverse book.
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