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Feb. 6th, 2012 12:53 pmIt turns out that rereading the Blossom Culp books was an amazing decision. I've done three now - The Ghost Belonged To Me, Ghosts I Have Been and Blossom Culp and the Sleep of Death - and I can't find The Dreadful Future of Blossom Culp anywhere, but I have vague memories of that one being the least exciting anyway.
The books take place in a small Missouri town in 1913; the two protagonists are Blossom Culp - champion speller, master troll, teen psychic and total weirdo, lives on the wrong side of the tracks with her neglectful fortune-telling mother - and Alexander Armsworth, golden boy, who comes from big money for Bluff City, Missouri because his dad owns a construction business, and who sees ghosts even more strongly than Blossom does, much to his eternal chagrin.
The first book is The Ghost Belonged to Me, which Alexander's book. When Alexander is telling the story, he is a dubious but reasonably plucky hero and Blossom is the weird semi-love-interest who pops up to alternately encourage him and troll him. That one also has the fewest ladies and the most ablism, of the "character lost his hand and turned into a murderous psychopath!" variety. But Richard Peck and everybody else figured out rapidly that Blossom was the most interesting character, and in Ghosts I Have Been, Blossom becomes the protagonist and gets second sight of her own and Alexander gets hilariously downgraded to reluctant love interest. His second sight is more powerful than Blossom's, but given that his standard reaction to seeing ghosts in Blossom-narrated books is to shriek "A HAUNT! I AM CURSED! WHY DID YOU GET ME INTO THIS, BLOSSOM CULP!" he is only of occasional use.
(Blossom keeps him around because he's pretty and because his freakouts are hilarious.)
Ghosts I Have Been also features some amazing older ladies, including the fabulous Miss Dabney, who invites Blossom and Alexander over for tea:
BLOSSOM: So I can't help but notice there are some loud, agonizing noises coming from your kitchen.
MISS DABNEY: Yes, I suspect that's the ghost of our old maidservant who committed suicide.
BLOSSOM: So it is! Want me to try and exorcize her?
MISS DABNEY: Oh, no! I certainly don't want her gone, that would be a shame. I just would appreciate it if she would stop hanging herself loudly in the kitchen every night and channel all that energy into, say, making delicious baked goods?
And then of course there's Blossom's teacher, Miss Spaulding, who -- when a pack of reporters invades her classroom -- rapidly has them all cowering behind desks listening to the lesson, and dismisses them with "GENTLEMEN, YOU HAVE A GOOD DEAL OF HOMEWORK TO DO." I kind of want to be Miss Spaulding when I grow up.
There's also some plot around the sinking of the Titanic, and a phony spiritualist that Blossom exposes, and a visit to the queen, but mostly the book is about watching Blossom troll everyone and generally be amazing.
Blossom Culp and the Sleep of Death is not quite as good, and it does have some sort of awkward stuff with then-Egypt, but it also has a suffragette history teacher with a monocle, so I am not really complaining.
The books take place in a small Missouri town in 1913; the two protagonists are Blossom Culp - champion speller, master troll, teen psychic and total weirdo, lives on the wrong side of the tracks with her neglectful fortune-telling mother - and Alexander Armsworth, golden boy, who comes from big money for Bluff City, Missouri because his dad owns a construction business, and who sees ghosts even more strongly than Blossom does, much to his eternal chagrin.
The first book is The Ghost Belonged to Me, which Alexander's book. When Alexander is telling the story, he is a dubious but reasonably plucky hero and Blossom is the weird semi-love-interest who pops up to alternately encourage him and troll him. That one also has the fewest ladies and the most ablism, of the "character lost his hand and turned into a murderous psychopath!" variety. But Richard Peck and everybody else figured out rapidly that Blossom was the most interesting character, and in Ghosts I Have Been, Blossom becomes the protagonist and gets second sight of her own and Alexander gets hilariously downgraded to reluctant love interest. His second sight is more powerful than Blossom's, but given that his standard reaction to seeing ghosts in Blossom-narrated books is to shriek "A HAUNT! I AM CURSED! WHY DID YOU GET ME INTO THIS, BLOSSOM CULP!" he is only of occasional use.
(Blossom keeps him around because he's pretty and because his freakouts are hilarious.)
Ghosts I Have Been also features some amazing older ladies, including the fabulous Miss Dabney, who invites Blossom and Alexander over for tea:
BLOSSOM: So I can't help but notice there are some loud, agonizing noises coming from your kitchen.
MISS DABNEY: Yes, I suspect that's the ghost of our old maidservant who committed suicide.
BLOSSOM: So it is! Want me to try and exorcize her?
MISS DABNEY: Oh, no! I certainly don't want her gone, that would be a shame. I just would appreciate it if she would stop hanging herself loudly in the kitchen every night and channel all that energy into, say, making delicious baked goods?
And then of course there's Blossom's teacher, Miss Spaulding, who -- when a pack of reporters invades her classroom -- rapidly has them all cowering behind desks listening to the lesson, and dismisses them with "GENTLEMEN, YOU HAVE A GOOD DEAL OF HOMEWORK TO DO." I kind of want to be Miss Spaulding when I grow up.
There's also some plot around the sinking of the Titanic, and a phony spiritualist that Blossom exposes, and a visit to the queen, but mostly the book is about watching Blossom troll everyone and generally be amazing.
Blossom Culp and the Sleep of Death is not quite as good, and it does have some sort of awkward stuff with then-Egypt, but it also has a suffragette history teacher with a monocle, so I am not really complaining.
