Circle of Secrets

olliebob - Eleven year-old Shelby Jayne Allemond has been left. Her mother left their family when Shelby was ten. Her grandmother Phoebe is in the hospital, and her dad must leave on a business trip to Ukraine. That means that Shelby Jayne must go to Bayou Bridge, Louisiana to live with her mother, Mirage. She refuses to forgive Mirage. Mirage is a traiteur, or a healer who uses the power of God. Shelby starts finding strange notes in the beautiful blue bottle tree out back. Even stranger, there is a nice girl named Gwen who lives by her self on an island. Shelby can't shake the feeling that something super-natural is going on. This a story that pulled my heartstrings. It was written by the sister of someone in my church. My mom pointed it out at the bookstore, and it looked cool, so we got it. An AMAZING book!

September 1, 2011

A steamy Louisiana bayou is the atmospheric backdrop to a tale about a daughter's estrangement from her mom, the mother's long-held guilty secret and a restless ghost's long-sought closure.

When her dad takes a job overseas, 11-year-old Shelby must stay with the mother who walked out on both of them a year earlier. Deeply resentful and wary of her healer mom's isolated cabin deep in the swamp, Shelby gets drawn into mysterious doings involving strange notes hidden in glass bottles that hang from a tree near home. Tormented at school, Shelby eventually finds a friend in Gwen, a girl who lives alone in the bayou. Ever more mysterious incidents ensue as Shelby slowly unravels the truth about Gwen, her mother's involvement with the cryptic messages and Mom's past. The author serves up the setting well, evoking the sights, sounds and smells of the humid, tangled bayou. She fares less well with the regionalisms, which are delivered inconsistently and sometimes jar. The gently spooky ghost angle is handled nicely with some religious overtones. A very dramatic climax leads to a sweet, satisfying ending with some surprising twists and with reconciliation occurring for several characters. 

For readers who like their ghost stories more friendly than terrifying.  (Suspense. 9 -12)

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

Starred review from December 1, 2011

Gr 5-8-A story of loss, love, and forgiveness. When Shelby Jane's father is sent out of the country for his work and her Grandma Phoebe must have an operation, she is sent to live with her mama deep in the Louisiana bayou. Because Shelby, 10, believes that her mother abandoned her, the start of this mother/daughter reunion is contentious, and Shelby seems determined to maintain her distance. Mirage is a traiteur, a healer who ministers to those in need with herbal remedies, prayers, and patience. Selby's reluctance to give an inch at first makes her transition to life in the bayou that much more difficult. She can't, however, squelch her fascination with the blue bottle tree in the backyard. Mirage explains that the bottles are supposed to capture spirits and that notes are put inside to send messages from the beyond. A mysterious tone permeates this gripping story. Shelby is a believable, fully developed character, as is Mirage. When the child starts at her new school, she is drawn into a frightening truth-or-dare challenge by the in crowd, which foreshadows future eerie, terrifying developments. Her strong friendship with mysterious Gwen dovetails with her determination to understand notes she takes from the blue bottle tree and Mirage's references to painful memories she is trying to forget. Little's rich, vivid prose and characterization create an intriguing universe in which realism and mysticism intertwine as the story's secrets unravel. Fans of Little's The Healing Spell (Scholastic, 2010) and Donna Jo Napoli's Alligator Bayou (Random, 2009) will be well served by this selection.-Renee Steinberg, formerly at Fieldstone Middle School, Montvale, NJ

Copyright 2011 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 1, 2011
Grades 4-6 In this atmospheric storypart mystery, part ghost storyset deep in the Louisiana bayous, 11-year-old Shelby has her hands full. She has to contend not only with a contingent of malicious local bullies but also her conflicted feelings for her estranged mother, Miragea traiteur, or traditional healerwith whom she must live while her father travels on business. Tormented, she skips classes to meet up with a mysterious girl named Gwen who frequents a spooky bridgethe site of some of the bullies' cruel games. Gwen also seems to be connected to the messages Shelby finds inside the blue bottles adorning her mother's backyard bottle tree, as well as the heirloom charm bracelet bequeathed to Shelby by Mirage. While the story takes its time gaining momentum, readers who stick with it will be rewarded with Shelby's softening of heart towards her gentle parent, and the way the pieces of her mother's past finally connect. Everything converges at the bridge during a dramatic and dangerous storm, and the final revelations make for a satisfying ending.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)