The Saturday Night Ghost Club by Craig Davidson

Just prior to Halloween I was looking for something spooky, something scary to help ring in the season. Arriving in our new collection was the book The Saturday Night Ghost Club (SNGC) by Craig Davidson. The book has ghosts and fires on the cover and certainly looked to be able to meet my expectations. It also had a good word of mouth, so I checked it out.
What I got was proof of the old maxim "you can't judge a book by its cover" as SNGC was not a horror story full of ghouls and goblins, but a book dealing with a coming of age story and a story of things that haunt people from their pasts.
The main character of the the book is 12-year-old Jake Baker, a resident of a decaying Niagara Falls of the 1980s. Jake looks back from his present day position as a brain surgeon and reminisces about his awkward pre-teen years, the friends he made, and the issues he had to learn about his own family's past.
Davidson does great job of describing both people and places. You get to know the characters and learn what makes them tick. He also does a masterful job of describing the surroundings, the decay and and the situations that took them to that point.
SNGC makes you think - think about summer's past, friends you had, and possibly about what you might have missed when it comes to the people you knew back when, and, what you did not know about them. The Saturday Night Ghost Club points out that there are ghosts that haunt people for many reasons, but they aren't necessarily the type that jump out and say "boo"!

The Leaving by Tara Altebrando

This young adult thriller begins when five teens find themselves suddenly abandoned on a playground with no recollection of where they’ve been or what happened to them.  They are about to learn that eleven years ago, on the first day of kindergarten, six of them were taken.  Now they are forced to struggle with their memory loss as they try to fit back into unfamiliar families.  Everyone wants answers… especially the sister of the one who didn’t return.

This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger

In Depression era Minnesota, 12 yr old Odie O'Bannon runs away from the Lincoln Indian Training School, along with his brother Albert, their friend Mose, and newly orphaned Emmy.  They set out in a canoe down the Gilead river, heading for the Mississippi and St. Louis, hoping to find a place to call home.

Along the way, they meet many memorable people -- the "pig-scarer" farmer, a traveling revival show, residents of a Hooverville, and others.  All this time, they are being chased by the superintendent of the Lincoln School.  Odie eventually makes it so St. Louis, only to find out that his "Home" there wasn't what he hoped for.  But all of the Vagabonds do find home in time.

This is a beautifully written book with a wonderful story.  I highly, highly recommend it!