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    A Touch of Ruckus | Book Review

    Dr. Jen HarrisonBy Dr. Jen Harrison2 Mins Read Ages 9-12 Best Kids Stories Fantasy: Supernatural Fiction Novels for Kids and Teens
    A Touch of Ruckus | Book Review
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    Book Review of A Touch of Ruckus
    The Children’s Book Review

    A Touch of Ruckus

    A Touch of Ruckus

    Written by Ash Van Otterloo

    Ages 8+ | 240 Pages

    Publisher: Scholastic | ISBN: 9781338702040

    What to Expect: Magic, ghosts, friendship, family, secrets, gender diversity.

    A Touch of Ruckus is both a spooky ghost story and a heartwarming story about family love.

    Tennessee Lancaster has a very important job in her family—one that no one else knows about. When Tennie touches objects, she can pull memories from them. It gives her an illicit peek into their secrets. With that knowledge comes great responsibility—the responsibility to keep the peace, not be a burden, and look after everyone and everything.

    When Tennie gets an unexpected opportunity to stay with her grandmother in the mountains, her job becomes much, much harder. Her grandmother is secretly struggling financially, her mother might be pregnant and suffering from depression again, and her father’s new job has fallen through. Oh – and Tennie’s gift has woken up some pretty nasty ghosts. Will Tennie really be able to solve everyone’s problems before everything falls apart?

    Set in the Smoky Mountains, the story is filled with the sights, sounds, and culture of rural Tennessee, perfectly evocative of Halloween magic. Tennie herself is a realistic, relatable character, and readers will love watching her developing relationship with Fox, a gender-diverse friend with a lot to teach Tennie about responsibility and relationships. As well as being a riveting ghost story, A Touch of Ruckus touches on difficult topics such as grief, environmental sustainability, poverty, and mental health.

    For readers who love ghost stories, A Touch of Ruckus provides plenty of excitement with a thought-provoking plot line to add substance – a fantastic read at any time of year.

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    About the Author

    Ash Van Otterloo is the author of Cattywampus. When they’re not writing and freelance editing, they love gardening, hiking, exchanging playful banter, and collecting folklore stories. A longtime resident of the foothills of the Smoky Mountains, they now live in Washington with their family and an enormous collection of plants.

    Ash Van Otterloo

    A Touch of Ruckus by Ash Van Otterloo was reviewed by Dr. Jen Harrison. Discover more books like A Touch of Ruckus by following along with our reviews and articles tagged with Magic, Ghosts, Friendship, Family, and Diversity.

    What to Read Next:

    1. The Graveyard Book, by Neil Gaiman | Book Review
    2. The Ghost of Midnight Lake, by Lucy Strange | Book Review
    3. Skyborn: Sparrow Rising | Book Review
    4. Melissa, by Alex Gino | Book Review

    *Disclosure: Please note that this post may contain affiliate links that share some commission. Rest assured that these will not affect the cost of any products and services promoted here. Our team always provides their authentic opinion in all content published on this site.

    Ash Van Otterloo Diversity Family Friendship Gender Identity Ghosts Magic Middle Grade Books Scholastic Press
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    Dr. Jen Harrison
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    Dr. Jen Harrison provides writing and research services as the CEO of Read.Write.Perfect. She completed her Ph.D. in Children’s and Victorian Literature at Aberystwyth University in Wales, in the UK. After a brief spell in administration, Jen then trained as a secondary school English teacher and worked for several years teaching Secondary School English, working independently as a private tutor of English, and working in nursery and primary schools. She has been an editor for the peer-reviewed journal of children’s literature, Jeunesse, and has published academic work on children’s non-fiction, YA speculative fiction, and the posthuman.

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