A Home To Haunt
THE STORY BEHIND THE STORY
MY THOUGHTS
Imagine being 8.5 years old and school has just closed for summer break. You have a long break ahead of you, and the world is literally your oyster! You have an exciting holiday planned at your grandparents’ house with your cousins — lots of staying up late, endless games of hide and seek, and of course, no studying. The icing on the cake? Your mother isn’t travelling with you, but has entrusted you to the care of her brother, your Mama, to take you to Jalpaiguri. This is how Poltu’s summer break looks, and he simply cannot wait to get it all started.
But like the best laid plans of mice and men, Poltu arrives at the station to find his train is running late and his Mama is acting strange. What follows is a crazy set of events involving foreshadowing Gems packets, a train full of ‘homeless’ ghosts, and being entrusted with a special task to find homes around Kolkata for a motley crew of ghosts, immediately!
Sudeshna Shome Ghosh brings a completely unexpected story to the table, filled with multiple twists and turns that will have you turning the page to know what happens next. The book, aimed at emerging readers, is the kind that gently nudges you into the horror genre, but is gentle enough not to give you the heebie-jeebies. Sure, there are ghosts, but they also love eating Gems, salivate for Kolkata street food, and love playing a different form of cricket — just like one of us!
A Home to Haunt is a spooky book, but it is also packed with humour that young readers can relate to. Ghosh writes about situations children often find uncomfortable, like the right way (and language!) to address a taxi driver or how to strike up a conversation with someone older than them, making it relatable for young readers even though the book is about spending a night with homeless ghosts! She also modernises the story and roots it in the present by talking about why these ghosts suddenly find themselves homeless. Rapid urbanisation of rural areas and loss of ‘regular haunts’ have left these ghosts with no homes, forcing them to relocate to cities to carve out a small space for themselves.
I also enjoyed the quirky illustrations by Pankaj Saikia, which help the reader imagine the scenario in front of Poltu. How else could you conjure up an image of the headless leader of homeless ghosts, a driverless taxi, or a large group of old English ghosts left behind after independence? Saikia brings his trademark charm to the illustrations, and I would have loved to see them in full colour!
Kolkata, its old-world charm and eccentricities, becomes a character in this book, showcasing the author’s love for the city and resonating with Kolkataphiles and Bengalis everywhere.
I love this book and highly recommend it for emerging readers because it is such a great way to introduce young readers to the horror/spooky books genre without scaring them away and ensuring they finish reading the book. If that doesn’t help you raise a reader, I don’t know what else will.
If you think your child would enjoy this book, you can buy it here →
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