{"id":19787,"date":"2025-06-02T07:00:35","date_gmt":"2025-06-02T11:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/?p=19787"},"modified":"2025-05-20T22:42:58","modified_gmt":"2025-05-21T02:42:58","slug":"review-ghost-runner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/review-ghost-runner\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Ghost Runner by Ann Malaspina"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"19788\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/review-ghost-runner\/ghost-runner\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/ghost-runner.jpg?fit=1025%2C1500&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"1025,1500\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"ghost-runner\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/ghost-runner.jpg?fit=700%2C1024&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-19788\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/ghost-runner.jpg?resize=239%2C350&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"cover of Ghost Runner\" width=\"239\" height=\"350\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/ghost-runner.jpg?resize=239%2C350&amp;ssl=1 239w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/ghost-runner.jpg?resize=700%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 700w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/ghost-runner.jpg?resize=768%2C1124&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/ghost-runner.jpg?w=1025&amp;ssl=1 1025w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 239px) 85vw, 239px\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Ghost-Runner-Verse-Ann-Malaspina\/dp\/1978597754\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><i>Ghost Runner <\/i>by Ann Malaspina<\/a><br \/>\nWest 44 Books (June 16, 2025)<br \/>\nReviewed by Joshua Gage<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Award-winning children&#8217;s author Ann Malaspina writes about the environment, social justice, history, and current events in her picture books, chapter books, and YA and MG verse novels. She holds an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts. Her newest HI-LO novel-in-verse is <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ghost Runner<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u00a0<\/span><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For readers unaware, HI-LO books, short for high-interest, low-readability books, are key to cultivating reading skills and a love for literature in tweens. These engaging and relatable books are invaluable in sparking interest and enhancing literacy in middle schoolers. These books will have limited vocabulary and need to focus on a very specific target age range, so to capture a ghost story in such a limiting format is impressive. Malaspina creates a story of a younger twin, Essie, whose brother, Nate, died under mysterious circumstances. Guided only by her brother\u2019s dog and the innate sense of companionship that twins have, Essie is determined to solve the secret of her brother\u2019s death and avenge his ghost.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This book absolutely works for the targets it has to hit. The language is simple and direct, and the verse uses some of the tools of prosody to create tension but also isn\u2019t too ornate to scare off young readers. Older readers might enjoy this tale, but it\u2019s very much centered on a YA\/tween audience. For those readers, this would be an engaging tale of justice, revenge, and forgiveness, and a way for them to dabble in horror without being too scared off. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ghost Runner by Ann Malaspina West 44 Books (June 16, 2025) Reviewed by Joshua Gage Award-winning children&#8217;s author Ann Malaspina writes about the environment, social justice, history, and current events in her picture books, chapter books, and YA and MG verse novels. She holds an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/review-ghost-runner\/\" class=\"more-link button bg-gold white\">Continue Reading!<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Review: Ghost Runner by Ann Malaspina&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[80],"tags":[3406,3407,506,79],"class_list":["post-19787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","tag-ann-malaspina","tag-ghost-runner","tag-joshua-gage","tag-reviews"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - 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