The Ghost Belonged to Me

The Ghost Belonged to Me is a novel written for children by Richard Peck, author of Newbery Medal winning A Year Down Yonder. Plot 1913. Alexander Armsworth is a normal boy until he sees a ghost of a girl in his barn, warning him of an impending disaster. This leads to him to become a local hero. But when he explains that a ghost warned him, it uncovers the story of how she came to rest on their property, far from her home in New Orleans, Louisiana. He takes it upon himself to take her body home to New Orleans. Main characters Alexander Armsworth 13 years old, and a 7th grader at Horace Mann Middle School, he is informed by his classmate Blossom Culp, that he is receptive to ghosts. When she also tells him his barn is haunted, he thinks that she is playing a trick on him. Eventually he meets the ghost of Inez Dumaine, the ghost that haunts his barn. With her help he saves the lives of others when a mad man weakened and set a fire to the supports for the trestle in hopes to crash the trolley. He becomes a famous local hero, but when he explains he had help from a ghostly source, it leads to a journey to return her body to New Orleans. With the help of Blossom, and his great uncle Miles, he eventually returns her body to New Orleans, to be placed within her family’s crypt.