Anya's Ghost (Paperback)
Staff Reviews
— Steve has been selling books at TC for decades & he really knows kids' books. Trust him.Anya is a Russian born student in a dreary New England suburb. She attends what she calls the 'third worst private school in the state'. She is an outsider. She attends orthodox church, which lasts three hours. Her parents are divorced and money is tight. Her grades and social life are mediocre and desperately need improvement. When she trips and falls into a deep well she comes across the bones of a ghost who died a hundred years earlier. The ghost turns out to be her high school savior. She gives Anya answers to tests and helps her in awkward social situations with the dream boy in league with the popular kids. But gradually things begin to sour between the two when the ghost, like an angry and difficult high school social climber, wants to rule over Anya's life. When Anya doesn't do what the ghost request she becomes a threatening presence who endangers Anya and Anya's family. This story if excellent for teenagers facing the difficulties of social acceptance and it has a suspenseful narrative that will keep the reader on pins and needles." ~Steve
Anya could really use a friend. But her new BFF isn't kidding about the "forever" part . . .
Of all the things Anya expected to find at the bottom of an old well, a new friend was not one of them. Especially not a new friend who's been dead for a century.
Falling down a well is bad enough, but Anya's normal life might actually be worse. She's embarrassed by her family, self-conscious about her body, and she's pretty much given up on fitting in at school. A new friend—even a ghost—is just what she needs.
Or so she thinks.
Spooky, sardonic, and secretly sincere, Anya's Ghost is a wonderfully entertaining debut graphic novel from author/artist Vera Brosgol.
This title has Common Core connections.
A 2011 Kirkus Best Teen Book of the Year
A School Library Journal Best Fiction Book of 2011
A Horn Book Best Fiction Book of 2011
Winner of the 2012 Eisner Award for Best Publication for Young Adults (Ages 12-17)
Vera Brosgol was born in Moscow, Russia, in 1984 and moved to the United States when she was five. Her first graphic novel, Anya's Ghost, was published in 2011 by First Second. Her picture book Leave Me Alone! was a 2017 Caldecott Honor book. She was a storyboard artist at Laika Inc. for ten years, working on films including Coraline and Kubo and the Two Strings. She lives in Portland, Oregon, and at last count has knit twenty-five sweaters.
“Anya's Ghost is a masterpiece, of YA literature and of comics.” —Neil Gaiman
“Remarkable. . . . With an attitude and aptitude reminiscent of Marjane Satrapi (Persepolis) who likewise conveyed the particulars of an immigrant adolescence, Brosgol has created a smart, funny and compassionate portrait of someone who, for all her sulking and sneering, is the kind of daughter many parents would like to have. And the kind of girl many of us maybe once were.” —The New York Times