Review: A Ghost in my Suitcase

Forget the modern day ghost buster. This haunting story is about more than just banishing spooks from under the bed. This is about spiritual power and that achingly rare connection to lives unseen.

Twelve-year-old Celeste is travelling to China. She has her regular travelling paraphernalia but she also carries with her something enormously precious - the ashes of her dead mother.


Celeste is met in Shanghai by her grandmother, Por Por, whose past is fraught with terrible secrets. Who is the strange young girl Ting Ting who makes Celeste so unwelcome? What is her connection to both Por Por and Celeste? And can the three band together to undo a series of terrible wrongs?

Descriptively vivid and beautiful, the smells, sights and sounds ring clearly in A Ghost in My Suitcase. Wang writes with honesty and a deeply-embedded love of her Chinese culture that adds such authenticity and depth to her work. The plot is deftly written, incorporating just enough complicated elements to hone the interest of readers who desire true substance in their reading.

Visiting the streets of Shanghai with Celeste and sharing in her family secrets and paranormal talent felt like a privilege to me, and I'm so happy Wang is sharing these amazing stories with young readers everywhere.

Title: A Ghost in My Suitcase
Author: Gabrielle Wang

Publisher: Penguin, $16.95 RRP
Publication Date: February 2009
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 9780143303794
For ages: 
Type: Junior Fiction