Kate Culhane A Ghost Story

Sometimes when we get new books I might skim them but then read them for the first time with the kids.  Thank goodness I didn't do that with this one!  I brought it up to bed with Charlotte and read it to myself quickly while she was looking at other books.  I really liked it (and so did my teenager) but it's definitely not for my four year old! 

Kate Culhane

A Ghost Story

Michael Hague 2001

The illustrations are wonderfully creepy, and the story is quite gruesome. It's an Irish legend that was copied down in the 1800's. 

Kate's mother dies and then her luck gets worse as her farm starts to fail and she accidentally steps on a freshly dug grave. The dead man inside that grave forces Kate to dig him up and carry him on her back into town. He can only enter a house that does not have holy water protecting it. When they find such a house he has Kate make him a ghoulish meal of oatmeal made with the blood of the house's inhabitants.

As the tale closes, Kate manages to outwit him in true folktale heroine fashion and all ends well.