Ghost Dance

By Susan Price

Book Overview

The young witch, Shingebiss, believes she can 'spell' the Czar and make him save her beloved Northlands from destruction.

In her innocence, she little understands that the Imperial Palace is a place of treachery and murder, ruled by a madman with a mind like 'a broken mirror, reflecting all things crookedly.'

At first the Czar takes Shingebiss for an angel, sent to him by God, and welcomes her. But none of her spells seem able to blunt his greed and cruelty.

And Shingebiss has a rival at court who hates her -- the English wizard, Master Jenkins, who pretends to the Czar that he can summon demons.

Fearing that Shingebiss will unmask him, Master Jenkins plans to be rid of her. He tells the Czar that he can make him an Elixir of Immortality. The most potent ingredient is the blood of an angel.

The Czar orders the elixir made immediately.

Can Shingebiss save the Northlands? Can she save her own life?

An intense, Gothic fantasy.

Susan Price is an acclaimed writer for young people. The first book in the Ghost World sequence, The Ghost Drum, won the prestigious Carnegie medal.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0C6GC6SQY
• ISBN13: 9798223503835
• Release Date: May 2023
• Publisher: Susan Price
• Length: 186 Pages
• Weight: 0.53 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.5" x 8.5"
• Age Range: 9 to 12 years
• Grade Range: Grades 4 to 7

Customer Reviews

Gripping

This and Susan Price's two other novels, Ghost Drum and Ghost Song, are compelling for both adults and kids. They are bleak, there is cruelty and the outcomes are not straightforward, but I have used these books in classrooms with children aged between 10 and 12 and the class was totally engaged throughout, despite language difficulties. Susan Price is a thoughtprovoking writer with a style which works like a Shaman's spell on the reader. I cannot recommend them too highly as introductions to the darker aspects of human nature. Terrific.