SuitabookScritch Scratch
Lindsay Currie
- Reading
- Consider reading alongside Claire’s investigation rather than focusing only on the scares. Pause after especially unsettling scenes, check how the relationships are changing, and discuss what the historical mystery means to those involved.
- Themes
- Science and the paranormal: Claire values the predictability of science while her father works with ghost stories; she applies the scientific method to the mystery. The contrast appears to invite attention to different ways of understanding an unexplained situation, rather than simply dismissing one perspective.
- Friendship and jealousy: Claire is distressed when her best friend and science-fair partner becomes involved with a new girl, and jealousy is identified as affecting female solidarity. The book takes a critical view of this.
- History and human stories: Claire researches a real Chicago disaster while trying to discover the ghost boy’s identity and story. Historical research is used to deepen the mystery and connect a past disaster with an individual human story.
- Worth knowing
- The haunting is described as intense: scratching, whispering voices, a pursuing ghost boy, dripping water, icy air and scrawled notes. Claire is also described as experiencing exhaustion and emotional distress.