The Ghost in Allies Pool by Sari Bodi

The Ghost in Allie's Pool Independent Publishers Book Awards 2008 Semi-Finalist Juvenile Young Adult Fiction
		by Sari Bodi Eighth grade goes from fun to disaster when Allie’s best friend, Marissa, dumps her for the popular crowd. Suddenly, Allie finds herself sitting alone in the middle-school cafeteria with no one to call on her new cell phone. In a moment of frustration, Allie flings Marissa’s friendship necklace into her pool, and to her surprise, the ghost of Dorothy May--the ancestor she’s been researching for English class--appears. Problem is, Dorothy May is as depressed as Allie, because she fell off the Mayflower 400 years ago. Worse: if Marissa finds out Allie’s talking to a ghost, she’ll never want to be Allie’s friend again. But is it possible that Dorothy May is exactly who Allie needs to help her fit into eighth grade? List price: $8.95 Pages: 184 Format: Paperback ISBN: 9780976812661 Publisher: Brown Barn Books
WHAT REVIEWERS ARE SAYING “Just wait until you meet Allie and her mysterious friend in this imaginative, satisfying story. Heart stopping and unusual, I couldn't put it down. You won't be able to either.” --Patricia Reilly Giff, author of the Newbery Honor Books, Lily’s Crossing and Pictures of Hollis Woods "Bodi's affecting debut novel balances a familiar fictional theme with an inventive historical premise. When Marissa abandons Allie for two new best friends, Allie muses, "They're beautiful and great lacrosse players. They're also kind of mean. In our school, you can't get any cooler than that." Hurt, Allie throws out her window her half of the best-friends charm she shared with Marissa and it lands in the swimming pool. When she decides to rescue it from the water, she hears a voice imploring her not to jump. She looks up to find Dorothy May, who jumped off the Mayflower to her death because her husband, William Bradford, did not love her... Allie's crisp narrative lends credibility to both strains of plot, each of which comes to a satisfying conclusion. An intriguing postscript: Bodi is a descendant of Bradford's second wife and her first husband." --Publishers Weekly May 2007
About the Author Sari Bodi’s short stories and essays have appeared in publications in the United States and England, and her comedy sketches on BBC Radio. Her plays have been performed off-Broadway and by high school students around the country. In New Haven, Connecticut, Ms. Bodi served as the literary manager for the Long Wharf Theatre and taught playwriting in a magnet high school specializing in the arts. She lives in Westport, Connecticut with her husband, their two children, and their dog, Eolas, who as a young pup came over from Ireland, thus continuing the family tradition of immigrating to America.		If you would like to write to Sari, her email address is: saribodi@sbcglobal.net
...From The Ghost in Allies Pool If Dorothy May hadn't jumped off the Mayflower on a freezing cold Cape Cod night in 1620, I wouldn't have been born. So shouldn't I be happier with my life? I'm sitting on the curb in front of Bristol Pizza with my best friend Marissa, waiting for the cool kids to show up. Marissa says we need to be more popular before we get to high school. I don't see why; we have each other. I really shouldn't be here. My paper on "digging up the roots of your family tree" is due in Mr. Sampson's English class tomorrow. Mr. Sampson says it's important for us to know who we are by where we came from. "And I don't just mean writing down the name of your parents," he said. "You already did that in kindergarten." "Hey, Allie. Do what I'm going to do," Marissa says, slurping the last of her diet soda through a straw. "Tell Mr. Sampson your mother had a nervous breakdown and you had to go to the hospital with her."

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