Ghost Girl Book

I finished this book in exactly one week. Ghost girl is...a compelling book, to say the least. The fact that it tells a true story is one of the reasons why its reader is urged to keep on going, but the most important reason is that you can't help but wanting to find out what happened to Jadie.

The book is about her, an 8-year-old girl who's deeply disturbed and is an elective mute. That means she doesn't talk by choice. She never laughs, never cries or expresses any other kind of emotion. She just is. Walking doubled over as if she's crippled, she just seems to not care about life or anything around her at all. The author of this book, Torey Hayden, is a special education teacher who has helped children her whole life and has got quite the career record to testify to that. The book deals with Torey coming to Jadie's class to teach and slowly trying to get through to her, wanting to find the source of her problems.

It's obvious from the start (thanks to the cover text) that something horrible and terrifying must have happened to Jadie (or is perhaps still happening) for her to be so psychologically damaged. And as you get on, you start collecting pieces to the puzzle, though it's all very confusing at first and you share the teacher's frustration.

I won't give away anything more, since it's really just a book that needs to be read to fully understand its power. For lack of a better word, it leaves you shocked. When I put the book down I felt like crying. Crying for Jadie and the millions of other children out there who have gone or are going through similar situations. If only there were more caring and loving teachers like in this book, then maybe the world would be a better place. Maybe.