Forever Home Paperback – February 23, 2021

I thought this was really well done; beautifully illustrated and very sweet message.

Willow is a young girl whose family had to move frequently because they worked in the military, consequently, what Willow has wanted more than anything else is a place to belong at, permanently. Her parents, having left the military lifestyle behind, buy a lovely old Victorian house - a real "fixer upper" with an affordable price tag. What they don't realize, though, is that part of its affordability stems from the fact that the previous owners were chased out of the house by ghosts, and that the house is haunted by a variety of specters from a variety of different time periods. The ghosts try to drive Willow's family out as well, but it doesn't work as planned; Willow's military parents are not easily frightened and attribute the ghosts efforts to the quirks of living in an old house, and Willow - the only one in the family who can actually see and hear her haunting housemates - refuses to be intimidated into leaving, now that she's finally found what she hopes will be her "forever home."The book is delightful. The ghosts are not TOO scary (they're more funny than scary, like the little old lady ghost who makes her presence known to a paranormal investigator by giving his bum squeeze!), and Willow is totally relatable as she faces the situation with like measures of stubbornness and compassion. I also like the fact that, when Willow tells her parents about the ghost, they don't automatically tell her she's wrong, but instead try to come up with other explanations until she finally manages to prove that the house truly is haunted. And the story is well told - it totally tugged at my heart strings when Willow told a story about losing her pet hamster, and having no chance to ever visit its grave again, because it was buried in Germany, where the family was living at the time. That was the moment when I totally understood about why Willow was so desperate to keep the house - she didn't want to have to leave anything or anyone behind ever again.I also appreciated the fact that Willow is biracial. It's not a big deal and is never addressed directly, she just is who she is. I can't remember another graphic novel (and can think of very few books in any genre) where the lead character is mixed race. I hope that this begins a trend that will continue.On the whole, I really enjoyed this book, and will be sharing it with my middle school students. I strongly recommend it!