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©Carolyn Gabb

Category:     historical fiction
(written by a college student of Dr. Gabb)

Book title:    Ghost Cadet
Author:       Elaine Marie Alphin
Illustrator:     NA
Publisher:     Scholastic
Date:          1991
ISBN#        0290452444

The range of possibilities for me to read every semester seems to expand exponentially. I am always grateful when students recommend a title to me, knowing that the story and style of the book have already been "tested" and I have only to explore the text for my own connections. When Sonya recommended GHOST CADET (by Alphin) last spring, my first reaction was (and oh, how I HATE myself for even thinking this): Civil War History…not again. And on top of that, a "boy's" book. So, I put off the reading for some time.

Class DEAR time finally gave me the opportunity to open the covers and examine this 16-chapter novel for upper elementary readers. Told in third person through the eyes of 12-year-old Benji, the story is woven through visit during school break to Grandmother Leota in Virginia. Benji and his sister Fran (16) have been "sent away" while their mother takes a needed vacation with her new beau (the biological father left the family when the children were young). During this visit, Benji encounters the ghost of a VMI cadet killed at the Battle of New Market in 1864.

Ahhh…historical fiction. And what do I think about as critical to historical fiction? First, authenticity. The author provides a final chapter of notes which explain her initial reasoning for writing the novel, and more importantly, her sources for information for this novel based on the life of a real cadet. Use of actual diaries and letters from VMI, as well as extensive reading on the period and the specific events, have provided Alphin with material to craft an intriguing story.

Conversations between Benji and Hugh (the Civil War casualty hunting for some resolution to his past through an effort to find a lost watch) reveal facts about war which so often are left out of textbooks. As the two characters, now friends, travel back in time together, the reader is given a graphic view:

           "The Cadet's face was lined with dirt from his slow progress through the

muddy wheat field. Benji thought he saw blood at the corners of his friend's mouth. " Certainly, a critical component of this story's appeal is Alphin's ability to bridge past to the present. But in addition to her abilities as a genre writer, Alphin also creates believable and well-structured characters. Benji's experiences during his visit to Virginia brought new wisdom to a 12-year-old persona:

            "He cried because he has been too busy to understand. He cried

            because he had just discovered that people would always leave--

            they'd die or they'd move on--but sooner or later they'd have to

            find their own way through their own lives and that would mean

             leaving him. Like it or not, he would have to accept it. And sometimes

             reaching out to people could work…"

Because of the focus on Benji's encounter with Hugh, I don't feel readers come to know the other characters as well. I did wonder about Benji's connection to his mother and wanted to know more about Fran. Maybe such questions could be answered in another novel.

  Suddenly, the novel was over, and I realized I had had trouble putting it down. I found myself wanting to read more about the Civil War, in particular about the New Market battle. I couldn't ask more of a novel than to have its words make me want to read and learn more.