GHOST OF THE SOUTHERN BELLE

Pale mist wafts mysteriously through the pages of this saga of a young boy’s quest to appease the spirits of a ghostly captain and his crew. When a boy sees the Southern Belle crash, he recalls the law of the sea—that the nearest vessel must help a ship in trouble. When no ship, not even his father’s, goes to help, the seas seem haunted for a year by the captain and crew of the Southern Belle; one ship after another goes down. The boy, open-minded about superstitions, convinces his more practical father to allow him help the ghosts of the Southern Belle to their rest. Scenes overlaid with an appearance of fog and dripping with moisture give a tactile feel to a classic tale of a racing boat beaten not by another ship but by a storm at sea. Save this for a rainy afternoon story hour when the lightning flashes and thunder rolls. (Picture book. 8-12)