The GHOSTS OF ORDINARY OBJECTS series continues with Lingering Echoes. I previously featured BONE’S GIFT and loved the characters along with the time period—World War II. Be sure to read this first book as it will enrich the experience in reading Lingering Echoes. The story is certainly intriguing…

Bone wants to understand her Gift—She can hold an object and see images or full scenes of what happened in the past with that object—good and bad. It’s the mysterious jar her best friend Will holds that has her both curious and scared. Will hasn’t talked since his father died in the Virginia coal mines. Can she find the courage to touch the jar to see what secrets it holds?

The writing brings history alive with vivid details of what it was like. School life will especially be an eye opener for young readers with one classroom each for the younger and older kids at the town’s schoolhouse. Family and community are also portrayed well along with the food of the times. War is ever present with rationing, scrap drives to support the effort, labor shortages, and elimination of sport leagues due to lack of players.

The story ends on Halloween and appropriately so as Bone loves to tell about “Stingy Jack”, an old Jack-o’-lantern folk tale that surfaces throughout the book. But the heart of the story belongs to Bone and Will as they separately come to grips with the loss of a parent. Savor the results as we will have to wait until 2020 for THE TRUCE, book three and the true end of this enjoyable trilogy.

THE OFFICIAL PLOT (From Amazon)

In a southern Virginia coal-mining town in October 1942, Bone Phillips is learning to control her Gift: Bone can see the history of a significant object when she touches it. When her best friend, Will Kincaid, asks Bone to “read” the history of his daddy’s jelly jar–the jelly jar that was buried alongside his father during the mine cave-in that killed him–Bone is afraid. Even before Bone touches it, she can feel that the jar has its own strange power. With her mother dead, her father gone to war, and Aunt Mattie’s assault looming over Bone, she can’t bear the idea of losing Will too. As Will’s obsession with the jelly jar becomes dangerous, Bone struggles to understand the truth behind the jar and save him. Featuring a beautiful, compelling voice, this novel weaves a story of mystery, family, and ultimately, love.

SOME OF MY FAVORITE LINES

Bone shook her head violently. The jar called to her, but the teensy hairs on her neck bristled and her arms went all gooseflesh and her throat seized up. This jar was nothing to fool with.

ABOUT ANGIE SMIBERT

I was born in Blacksburg, a once sleepy college town in the mountains of Southwest Virginia. I grew up thinking I wanted to be a veterinarian; organic chemistry had other ideas. But I always had stories in my head. Eventually, after a few degrees and few cool jobs—including a 10-year stint at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center—I wrote some of those stories down. (For more visit Angie’s author web site).

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