Giving Up the Ghost

Author Sherri Sinykin will be Yvonne Perry’s guest on Writers in the Sky Podcast November 9th, 2007!

Sheri Sinykin published 17 books for middle grade and young adult readers in the 1990s, including eight titles as lead author of The Magic Attic Club series. Her mother’s devastating Stage 4B endometrial cancer diagnosis—and several writing losses—at the close of the decade plunged her into a paralyzing period of writer’s block. As part of her recovery, she earned an MFA in Writing for Children at Vermont College in 2003. Her mentors Louise Hawes, Ron Koertge, Carolyn Coman, and Marion Dane Bauer encouraged her to write about what terrifies her. The result is her first children’s novel in nine years, Giving Up the Ghost, published by Peachtree (October, 2007). This novel was inspired by Sinykin’s work as a hospice volunteer, a love affair with New Orleans, and her mother’s eight-and-a-half-year battle with cancer, which she lost in February, 2006.

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Sinykin lives in Wisconsin and in Arizona, together with her husband and two Tonkinese cats who tolerate twice-annual flights between homes. In addition to writing, reading, yoga, and mah jongg, she enjoys traveling to Spain where one son and his wife currently live, as well as hanging out with her other two sons and daughters-in-law and her new grandson. Sinykin grew up in California, earned a BA in Communications-Journalism from Stanford University, and worked variously as a newspaper reporter, a hospital public relations director, and an assistant executive director of a convention and visitors bureau before “settling down” to pursue her childhood dream of writing children’s books.

SYNOPSIS for GIVING UP THE GHOST: Thirteen-year-old Davia Peters is afraid of many things: death, ghosts, unfamiliar places, and the possible return of her mom’s cancer. But she can’t avoid these fears now. Far from their Wisconsin home, Davia and her parents are temporarily living in Louisiana to assist with the in-home hospice care of her elderly Great-Aunt Mari. Everything about the old woman and her spooky-looking plantation home terrifies Davia. And when she encounters Emilie, the tortured ghost of a well-to-do adolescent girl from the nineteenth century, she is even more frightened. To Davia’s surprise, Emilie seems eager to have her for a friend, but the ghost is unpredictable and difficult.

Davia begins to gradually learn from Aunt Mari secrets about Emilie and about her own family’s past—stories of premature endings and regrets. As Aunt Mari’s health deteriorates, she and Davia become closer. Together, they hope to release Emilie’s spirit from the mansion and the world of the living while there is still time.

Giving Up the Ghost can be ordered online or through any local bookstore.
ISBN: 978-1-56145-423-5

For More information about Sheri Sinykin please visit http://www.sherisinykin.com/.

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