I bought it for the Michael Hague illustrations. The ghost story is creepy, and Kate Culhane is smart and brave.

A really scary read aloud, perfect for Halloween. Read along as Kate uses her cleverness to find a better life and outwit an old ghost in the process. ( )

When a clever but impoverished young woman named Kate Culhane steps upon a freshly-dug grave, she finds herself caught up in a terrifying adventure, forced to dig up the dead man therein, and procure human blood for his oatmeal. But brave Kate manages to fool the malicious spirit, escape her own untimely demise, and win her love in the process...

This traditional Irish folktale, originally recorded as The Blood-Drawing Ghost in Jeremiah Curtin's nineteenth-century collection, Tales of the Fairies and of the Ghost World, is a genuinely horrific story. Michael Hague, whose illustrations usually tend more towards the heart-warming, here delivers a convincingly eerie visual landscape that is a fitting accompaniment to the tale. Highly recommended to folktale lovers, but beware! This is not for the faint of heart - you may never want to eat oatmeal again... ( )

This book contains two of my favorites, a ghost story and the art of Michael Hague. Kate Culhane: A Ghost Story, is Hague's retelling of a mid-nineteenth century tale from Ireland. The ghastly, ghoulish elements of the story combine perfectly with Hague's full page and double page illustrations in full color to create a no-holds-barred ghost story in the best Halloween tradition.

Hague has illustrated dozens of children's books, including many fairy tales like The Velveteen Rabbit, Peter Pan, Beauty and the Beast, classics like The Secret Garden, The Wizard of Oz and The Hobbit, as well as William J. Bennett's anthologies The Children's Book of Virtues and The Children's Book of America. He has collected, retold and illustrated several anthologies himself, including The Book of Pirates, The Book of Fairies, and The Book of Dragons. This book differs from these dramatically. Here, Michael Hague uses his considerable talents to create a creepy atmospheric tale featuring open graves, tattered malevolent corpses and evil spells of enslavement. Even though the book is short and can easily be read in a few minutes, it throws a web of suspense and revulsion that will surely delight the lover of ghost stories.

The story opens on a rocky, windswept coast of Ireland. The illustration of the iron gray sea, the ragged shoreline, a humble thatched cottage, and the crumbling ruins of an old church draw us in from page one.

The following synopsis contains some spoilers:

Poor Kate Culhane is all alone following the death of her mother. At the end of a hard day's work, she stops to tend to her mother's burial place, and accidentally steps onto another nearby grave. Held fast by the foot, she hears a voice commanding her to open the grave. Against her will, she involuntarily grasps a shovel and opens the grave, freeing a hideous, ragged cadaver who orders Kate to carry him on her back through the darkened village in search of a house.

They come, at last, to the home of a wealthy merchant with three grown sons. The corpse commands Kate to take him inside where he further forces her to prepare oatmeal. He then makes her carry the bowl of oatmeal upstairs where he cuts the fingers of each of the young men and drains their blood into the oatmeal. This is his deadman's food which gives him life. It also has the power to permanently enslave Kate and she is forced to eat it, too. The victims hover on the brink of death.

Ah, but our Katie is a clever girl and it will take more than some stiff to outwit her. She tricks the dead man and avoids the bloody oatmeal. As she carries him back to his coffin, hurrying to avoid the rising sun, she also tricks him into revealing some secrets that she uses to not only turn the immediate situation around , but to enrich the rest of her life. Kate Culhane's clever Irish mind saves the day and it's happily ever after time.

The illustrations of Kate struggling along the cobbled streets with the corpse on her back are really creepy and the graveyard scenes so shadowy and spooky that you can almost feel the damp air and the chilling wind and smell the decaying flesh.

I loved this book and dressed as a wicked old hag of a witch, I read it aloud to a slumber party crowd on my niece's Halloween birthday, to rave reviews. The book is intended for the 9-12 year old age group, but I personally do not recommend that they be given it to read to themselves. There is much more fun to be had from this book if it is shared aloud where the abundant atmospheric touches of Hague's prose can work their magic. It is a rather creepy concept, girls carrying rotting corpses and being forced to cut and bleed sleeping victims, not to mention bloody hot cereal...yuk! I would prefer that children have some adult supervision and a measure of laughter and comfort along with the telling of this tale.

It's rare to find such detailed and scary illustrations and a story that doesn't cop out in a children's book format. Hague, himself a parent, has managed to pull off a difficult task and has created a satisfyingly spooky tale without making it unnecessarily violent or terrifying. Don't miss it. ( )