The Face in the Mirror - Hardcover

Grade 5-8-Sibling rivalry gets a pretty nasty portrayal in this theatrical ghost tale. Jared, a young teen with divorced, self-absorbed actor parents, has been raised by a grandfather who is becoming frail. Armed with little but Pop's words of wisdom, the boy is bundled off to Michigan to live with the father he has never met and his second wife. They are starting up a new Shakespeare company in a historic theater that soon proves to be haunted by the apparently playful ghost of a 19th-century actor, Garrick Marsden. As the company rehearses the first production, Richard III, Jared is bitten hard by the acting bug while working on his first role, the older of the young princes in the tower. The other is played by his younger half-brother, Tad, a spoiled but talented child who is struggling with an awkward adolescence. The unpleasant rivalry of the brothers escalates and leads to problems on stage. Add this to the increasingly malevolent pranks of the ghost and the production is seriously jeopardized. When Marsden, who has befriended Jared, uses him as a pawn in a plan to smother Tad during a performance, Jared must act quickly. The family relationships are self-centered and shallow and Jared is pretty one-dimensional but the theater and Marsden's history and evil intent take center stage and keep the story moving. This hasn't the depth of Tolan's Save Halloween! (1993) or Welcome to the Ark (1996, both Morrow) but should be fun for theater buffs.
Sally Margolis, Barton Public Library, VT
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