‘Tombstone Tea’ a ghost story for young adults

  In Joanne Dahme’s “Tombstone Tea,” young Jessie has had trouble making friends at her new school. When a group of girls dares her to spend a night in the cemetery, she gladly accepts in the hopes of gaining their favor.
  Jessie always has been sensitive to the spirits, often zoning out, hearing a voice, whisper or laugh in her ear, and in the eerie silence of the cemetery, the tombstones seem to glow.
  Early during her visit with the dead, she runs into a young man named Paul. He says he works there and that she’s in luck, because the cemetery is holding an event called Tombstone Tea, and this night the actors are rehearsing, for they will portray the deceased during the memorial the next evening.
  Jessie is a bit suspicious, but she agrees to go with Paul, who says the cemetery is like a neighborhood, built from the pasts of the dead. Jessie balks.
  “But this is the present, Paul. We don’t belong here. We have nothing to do with these ... people.” People? Why did I choose that word? They weren’t people anymore. They were bones and dust. Nothing that could hurt us, I reminded myself.
  Paul raised a sculpted eyebrow. Something flew — crows — into the tree branches looming above him. I jumped but Paul ignored it. “That’s not true, Jessie. History is alive and linked to the present. It’s a continuous line. That means we are connected to those who have gone before us.”
  Jessie soon learns the truth of Paul’s words, and the adventure that follows will leave her changed forever.
  “Tombstone Tea” is Dahme’s third crack at young adult fiction, the first two being “Creepers” and “The Plague.” Her third effort is, by far, the best. The story is creepy, but not too scary for younger readers, and the plot is filled with life lessons as Jessie’s journey through the cemetery develops.
  With “Tombstone Tea,” a book for any reader who loves a good ghost story, Dahme demonstrates not only her growth as a writer but that an appreciation of cemeteries and the past that haunts them can inspire the imagination.