THE VERY REAL GHOST BOOK OF CHRISTINA ROSE

Many years after their mother is killed in a plane crash, Christina and her twin brother, Dan, move with their father from the suburbs of New York City to a sleepy little town in California. Their new home, a ramshackle Victorian, seems to be haunted—but by whom? Christina, who believes that her mother's ghost has visited her, is obsessed by the supernatural; her first-person narration takes the form of a journal on ghost-hunting, the place where she dutifully records every incident that occurs and every story she hears. Christina's self-conscious reporting, complete with footnotes and asides, marks the beginning of the problems in this book; the characterizations of the three leads—Christina, Dan, and a new friend, Roberto—are indistinguishable and the posturing of the adults strains credibility. Worst of all, Deem (3 NBs of Julian Drew, 1994, etc.) fudges the issue of the hauntings, which will frustrate readers who have stayed with the book to find out the ``very real'' truth about Christina Rose. (Fiction. 8-12)