Kate Culhane: A Ghost Story

By Michael Hague

(2001) ISBN 1587170582

Kate Culhane lives among many losses.  Ireland, Kate’s home in the mid-nineteenth century, has endured the famine deaths of many inhabitants and a further reduction of people due to immigration.  The home that Kate shares on the windswept coast with her only family, her mother, provides a meager shelter but Kate manages to be happy.  It is when her mother falls ill and dies that a much saddened and lonely Kate struggles to survive.

One day as Kate hurries out of the cemetery following a visit to her mother’s gravesite, she accidentally steps on a newly dug grave.  Unable to pull away, Kate hears a voice from the dead and finds herself compelled to follow the orders of a dead man.  Kate is forced to drain blood of the living and prepare it in a meal for the dead man.  Later Kate finds out the power of that gruesome gruel and manages to free herself from her ghostly controller as well as save her beloved’s life.

Kate’s story will appeal greatly to those familiar with the struggles of the Irish forced in the mid-nineteenth century to flee their homeland.  This story with the personification of a ghost does even more to emphasize the presence of the lost in this land during this story.  This book will be highly appealing to many of today’s readers is that Kate Culhane is the heroine who determines her future and that of her people.  Kate not only risks her life but prevails due to her resourcefulness, saving the lives of those dear to her and bringing wealth to them. 

The watercolor illustrations are vital instruments in the story telling.  No important detail is omitted and the pictures blend well with the text.  The dismal world that faces Kate in the beginning of this tale is clearly presented as is the frightfulness of the ghost Kate encounters in the cemetery.  The drawing showing Kate’s strong resolve as she faces the merchant and demands that he remember the promise to reward her once she manages to save his sons is well executed.

This book will appeal to both tweens and older readers due to the great story as well as the illustrations do much to convey the moods of the different episodes that range from bleak to frightful to joyous.