This house is mine and I am its beating heart. She is a ghost: a figure glimpsed from the corner of your eye, a momentary chill, and a memory of secret kisses and hidden passion. He is 17 years old: Evan Calhoun, warm and alive, and ever since moving to this big abandoned house, he has dreamt of her. Ghost and boy fascinate each otherndash;until her memories and his desire collide in a moment that changes them both. Combining verse fragments with chiseled prose, A. M. Jenkins captures the compelling voice of a longndash;dead ghost and the perspective of a modern teen, twining mystery and romance in this evocative, sensual, and unrelentingly engrossing novel. Ages 14+ Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

After a rocky divorce, 17-year-old Evan's mother buys a Victorian fixer-upper where she can write and, with Evan and his young sister Libby, make a home. Along with the stained glass window and gingerbread outfittings, comes the spirit of a girl who died in the house a century before. The ghost sees in Evan a reminder of her own lover (a workman's discovery of a box of papers reveals the identities of the two 19th-century lovers). Evan begins to feel ill at ease, and he dreams of sex with a pale-haired girl. His brunette girlfriend, Carrie, senses his emotional withdrawal and becomes more demanding. The story unwinds in two voices, that of the ghost, and the other the third-person account from Evan's perspective. The dead girl's voice starts out as lyrical, conveying her emotions and longing in poems almost like Haiku in their brevity and emotional trenchancy ("quiet/ night nestles into corners/ tall clock in the downstairs hall/ ticks the seconds/ I roam"). Later, the ghost, too, becomes demanding; and past and present converge to bring about a kind of healing for both the ghost and Evan. The third-person narrative works as an excellent foil, portraying Evan's kind nature with an even tone as opposed to the growing urgency of the dead girl's obsession. This is an evocative, often sexy book, demonstrating Jenkins's (Breaking Boxes) skill and imagination. Ages 14-up. (Jan.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

Gr 9 Up-Evan, 17, doesn't think much of his creaky, fixer-upper new home. His mom seems to be spending more time on it than she does at work or with his five-year-old sister. In addition to the three of them, the rickety house is inhabited by the ghost of Cora, a teen who lived there nearly 100 years earlier, and whose effervescent, whispery poetry makes up much of the novel's text. Most of her thoughts are about Evan, how beautiful he is and how much he reminds her of a past lover. Her words are hauntingly erotic as she admires him from a distance, in his bedroom, in the bathroom while he showers. He is intrigued by her story, especially when he examines a box of her family's files and photographs found hidden in the walls of the house. She begins to appear in his dreams, causing him to question whether he truly loves his girlfriend, Carrie, with whom he's had an intimate relationship for over a year. Jenkins's novel is subtly eerie-a razor-sharp plot enfolded in a bed of feathery down, and a coming-of-age story about two teenagers-one dead, one alive-who learn that the lines between love and sex are much more blurred than they could have ever imagined.-Hillias J. Martin, New York Public Library Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

Gr. 9-12. When 17-year-old Evan moves into the Victorian house his mother has remodeled, he gradually realizes that someone else still inhabits his room. He dismisses the thought, yet he continues to be haunted by graphic dreams of a young woman with fine, pale hair who matches the picture he finds in a box hidden in his room. As days and weeks pass, his nightly fantasy life begins to take a toll on his real-life relationship with Carrie, his girlfriend of two years. Both accessible and substantive, this book will be an easy sell to teens. Chapters alternate between narrative (Evan's life, feelings, and relationships) and free verse depicting the ghostly girl's thoughts about Evan, to whom she has transferred her love and passion. Readers will identify with Evan's fascination, the ghost's longing, and Carrie's frustration with the gradual demise of her relationship with Evan. There's also the subtle message about the possible differences between men's and women's perceptions of a relationship once it becomes sexual, and the hurt that can result from these often opposite perspectives.--Frances Bradburn Copyright 2006 Booklist From: Syndetics Solutions, Inc. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.