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Type of bind: Hardcover
EAN num: 9780060000158
ISBN number: 0060000155
Label: HarperCollins
Manufacturer: HarperCollins
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 208
Printing Date: April 01, 2008
Publishing house: HarperCollins
Age index: Ages 9-12
Release Date: March 25, 2008
Sale Popularity Level: 91542
Studio: HarperCollins
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Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
Newbery Medalist Avi weaves one of his most suspenseful and scary tales—about a ghost who has to be seen to be believed and must be kept from carrying out a horrifying revenge.
The time is 1872. The place is New York City. Horace Carpetine has been raised to believe in science and rationality. So as apprentice to Enoch Middleditch, a society photographer, he thinks of his trade as a scientific art. But when wealthy society matron Mrs. Frederick Von Macht orders a photographic portrait, strange things begin to happen.
Horace's very first real photographs reveal a frightful likeness: it's the image of the Von Machts' dead daughter, Eleanora.
Pegg, the Von Machts' grey servant girl, then leads him to the truth about who Eleanora really was and how she actually died. Joined in friendship, Pegg and Horace soon realize that his photographs are evoking both Eleanora's image and her ghost. Eleanora returns, a vengeful wraith intent on punishing those who abused her.
Rich in detail, full of the magic of early photography, here is a story about the shadows, visible and invisible, that are always lurking near.
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Rated by buyers -
It's 1872 in New York and Horace Carpetine is working as a photography apprentice. Photographer Mr. Middleditch is a little down on his luck and in need of a large profit from a client. So when they are approached by Mrs. Von Macht, who is grieving the loss of her only child and wishes a portrait to place on her daughter's grave, Mr. Middleditch comes up with an idea to make money.
The pair will make a ghostly likeness of Eleanora appear in Mrs. Von Macht's picture, and hopefully she will miss her daughter enough to order more photos.
Problems start to occur, though, when Horace takes a photograph and Eleanora's ghost really does appear -- without the assistance of photography.
With the help of Pegg, the Von Macht's servant girl, Horace finds out the horrible truth about Eleanora's death. Together the new friends must stop Eleanora's vengeful ghost from hurting her family.
This is a great historical mystery by Avi. The history is rich and I felt as though I was walking the streets with Horace and Pegg. The details provide an interesting look at early photography and how it worked. The mystery keeps readers engaged and has some chilling moments. Recommended for history, paranormal, and mystery fans alike!
Reviewed Author name: Sarah Bean the Green Bean Teen Queen
Rated by buyers -
Avi is one of my favorite cildren's writers. You can always count on an original story and original characters, unlike many other books out there. This book was cleverly plotted and very enjoyable. I'm sure he did a lot of research on 1800's photography. I highly recommend it.
Rated by buyers 
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These days, when even my four-year-old niece has a functioning digital camera, it's hard to imagine a time when photography was still more mysterious than commonplace. Back in 1872, when Avi's THE SEER OF SHADOWS is set, photography was a brand new art form, a complicated set of processes understood by few and believed by many to be a sort of magic.
No wonder, then, that some unscrupulous photographers in the late 19th century took advantage of the public's ignorance of photographic methods and the simultaneous public interest in spiritualism, mysticism and ghosts of all kinds to launch a business in "spirit photography," in which images of a client's dead loved ones are superimposed onto a standard portrait or landscape photograph.
One of these shifty photographers, in Avi's novel, is Enoch Middleditch, a society photographer of little or no reputation. His apprentice, Horace Carpetine, tells the story of how Mr. Middleditch plotted an elaborate plan to dupe a grieving mother, Mrs. Frederick Von Macht, who desperately wants to put her late daughter's spirit to rest by placing a photograph on her gravesite. Mr. Middleditch has the idea to superimpose an actual image of Eleanora, the dead girl, onto a portrait of Mrs. Von Macht.
When Mr. Middleditch enlists Horace's unwilling help, however, little does he know that Horace actually has the supernatural ability to bring latent spirits to life with the photographs he takes. Horace, who was raised in a supremely rational household and with whom ghost sightings and spiritual phenomena hold little sway, at is highly skeptical about the ghostly images that appear in his photographs, and, later, about the mysterious figure that lurks in the corners of the Von Macht house. But as the ghost becomes more real --- and more dangerous --- Horace finds himself believing despite himself. What secrets are the Von Machts hiding? And how can he help put Eleanora to rest before this vengeful spirit does real harm?
THE SEER OF SHADOWS is a top-notch ghost story, filled with mysterious sightings, angry spirits, unexplained phenomena and plenty of creepy atmosphere. It's also, however, a first-rate historical novel, as Horace is a believable, genuine inhabitant of a specific time and place --- New York City in the 1870s. Avi introduces readers to post-Civil War race relations, 19th-century educational practices, the Victorian fascination with spiritualism, and the elements of the photographic process --- all in the context of a thrilling, suspenseful ghost story.
Steeped in historical fact, grounded in elements of fact and science, the truthfulness of THE SEER OF SHADOWS in all things makes its supernatural elements that much scarier --- because if the history is true, might not the ghosts be also?
--- Reviewed by Norah Piehl
Rated by buyers 
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Ever wondered if you could capture a ghost on film? Well I sure have and this book grasps that topic, but for Horace it doesn't turn out to be as fun as it sounds. Shortly after Horace gets offered a job to work for Mr. Middleditch, a community photographer, Mrs. Von Macht comes in wanting a portrait of her hung above her daughter, Elenora's grave. Mr. Middleditch decides to have Horace take a picture of Elenora and imports it into the portrait to create a "ghost." When Horace Starts taking the photos, he finds that one picture he developed was accidentally taken. As Horace and the Von Macht's slave, Pegg become good friends, Horace learns filthy secrets about what really happened to the Von Macht's daughter. The topic/theme would be, be brave. Horace had to be very brave in this story.
"Let there be light: and there was light," is a quote from the bible that helped Horace decide how to get the ghost of Elenora out of our world. This quote, to him, meant that he should get her out of this world by the way she came in, photography. I think Avi did a well done job on this book. It showed lots of description and was very original. I believe he wrote this book because he likes to entertain his reader with interesting topics and he has an interest in photography, just like me.
Rated by buyers -
Short book, only 202 pages. Written well but not for children as the book encourages readers in the 8 to 12 year group. Threatening ghosts, deaths, fire and fear are the ingredients - good reading for an adult but a little too much for the younger set. If you are an adult who likes well written fiction for youth (as I am) than please read - but not out loud to a child as it tends to leave a fear memory that lingers in the dark of the evening.
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