Reviewed by Sarah Bean the Green Bean Teen Queen for TeensReadToo.com

It's 1872 in New York and Horace Carpetine is working as a photography apprentice. Photographer Mr. Middleditch is a little down on his luck and in need of a large profit from a client. So when they are approached by Mrs. Von Macht, who is grieving the loss of her only child and wishes a portrait to place on her daughter's grave, Mr. Middleditch comes up with an idea to make money.

The pair will make a ghostly likeness of Eleanora appear in Mrs. Von Macht's picture, and hopefully she will miss her daughter enough to order more photos.

Problems start to occur, though, when Horace takes a photograph and Eleanora's ghost really does appear -- without the assistance of photography.

With the help of Pegg, the Von Macht's servant girl, Horace finds out the horrible truth about Eleanora's death. Together the new friends must stop Eleanora's vengeful ghost from hurting her family.

This is a great historical mystery by Avi. The history is rich and I felt as though I was walking the streets with Horace and Pegg. The details provide an interesting look at early photography and how it worked. The mystery keeps readers engaged and has some chilling moments. Recommended for history, paranormal, and mystery fans alike! ( )

Another classic from Avi in the tradition of Charlotte Doyle. The creepiness pervades the atmosphere and continually drives towards its satisfying conclusion. A truly enjoyable read for children and a great history lesson to top it off! ( )

This ghostly adventure takes place in the late 1800's in New York. Young Horace is learning everything he can about photography from his mentor, but when he's asked to alter a photo session to make it look like a ghost is in the picture, he unwittingly opens the door to another world...a world in which he is a seer of ghosts...and they want revenge! It takes a couple of chapters to get into this novel, but once hooked it's a real page-turner.

(#63 in the 2008 Book Challenge)

This is one of those times where what I thought this book was going to be about would have been a better book than what it is actually about. It's set in New York City in the late 19th century, and a young boy is serving as a photographer's apprentice. Then the photographer decides to start a little scam making fake spiritualist photographs. I was really liking it at this point. It's Avi, so the story is nicely layered and everyone's motivations feel both complex and appropriate. The parts about the early days of photography, and how it worked, and how one would go about making a fake spiritualist portrait were awesome. Then it turned into an real ghost story, which I would have been fine with on its own ... but I was a little unsettled at the premise that the best response to fake spiritualist photography is genuine spiritualist photography. I'm sure I'm thinking on this too deeply.

Grade: A-
Recommended: All the elements are pretty neat, and despite my philosophical differences with it, I was eager to see how everything was going to turn out. Good for readers who like ghost stories with historical settings ... it would probably frustrate kids who don't care about life in Gilded Age New York. ( )

This book is about a boy who discovers he has the ability to photograph ghosts. It's 1872, and 14-year-old Horace is apprenticed to a photographer. When a wealthy woman hires the photographer to take her portrait, and mentions that her daughter Eleanora has just died, the photographer decides to trick her into believing he can capture an image of Eleanora's ghost. But it turns out that not only can Horace really make Eleanora's ghostly image appear in a photo, but doing so brings her spirit back from the dead....and now she's looking for revenge..... ( )