I read this book on the bus for my daughter's filed trip last week to Greenfield Village. It was a long day, but it was a nice charter bus and I finished the whole book. It was fun to be reading a story from 1872 at the same time we viewed many things from Thomas Edison of the same era. This book involves the early days of photography and a young apprentice named Horace Carpentine. I enjoy books that also involve historical themes and Avi does a good job of explaining life at this time. Even the concept of being "apprenticed" out must seem foreign to children of today. Horace starts to develop pictures that contain the image of a deceased girl named Elenora. He befriends the black servant girl of Elenora's aunt and learns more about the girl's tragic death. Pegg, the servant, and Horace work to solve the mystery of the images and help Eleanora rest in peace.
There is lots of description on the photographic process and how day to day life was at this time. I found the overall story to be a little weaker than some of Avi's better known books. My younger daughter loved the "Poppy", "Ragweed" and "Poppy and Rye" books. My absolute favorite Avi book of all time is "Nothing but the Truth". It is even more relevant to me today with all of the scandle over the West Ottawa valedictorian not being able to quote the bible in his commencement speech. Read "Nothing but the Truth" --it is a real education on freedom of speech!
