Angie Smibert is the author of the spooky MG series, Ghosts of Ordinary Objects, as well as several YA science fiction novels, including Memento Nora. She’s also written numerous short stories and 20+ science/technology books for kids.
Angie teaches young adult and speculative fiction for Southern New Hampshire University’s online Creative Writing MFA program as well as professional writing at Indiana University East. Before doing all this, she was a science writer and web developer at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. She lives in Virginia with a goofy dog (named after a telescope) and three bickering cats (named after Tennessee Williams characters), and puts her vast store of useless knowledge to work at the weekly pub quiz.
Author website: www.angiesmibert.com
Twitter: @amsmibert
Facebook: AngieSmibertAuthor
Ghosts of Ordinary Objects Series
“An intriguing blend of history and magic..” – Kirkus
Bone’s Gift (2018)
In this supernatural historical mystery, twelve-year-old Bone possesses a Gift that allows her to see the stories in everyday objects. When she receives a note that says her mother’s Gift killed her, Bone seeks to unravel the mysteries of her mother’s death, the schisms in her family, and the Gifts themselves.
In a southern Virginia coal-mining town in 1942, Bone Phillips has just reached the age when most members of her family discover their Gift. Bone has a Gift that disturbs her; she can sense stories when she touches an object that was important to someone. She sees both sad and happy–the death of a deer in an arrowhead, the pain of a beating in a baseball cap, and the sense of joy in a fiddle. There are also stories woven into her dead mama’s butter-yellow sweater–stories Bone yearns for and fears. When Bone receives a note that says her mama’s Gift is what killed her, Bone tries to uncover the truth. Could Bone’s Gift do the same? Here is a beautifully resonant coming-of-age tale about learning to trust the power of your own story.
- Bone’s Gift – reviews, ordering info, book talk, activities, and lesson plans.
- More teachers’ resources.
Lingering Echoes (2019)
Bone has a Gift. When she touches certain objects, images wash over her, and she sees stories—the joyful, surprising, or even terrifying events that occurred as someone gripped those objects.
So when Bone’s best friend, Will, brings her an object unlike any other Bone has encountered, he asks her to tell him its story. It’s the jelly jar he inherited from his father—the same jelly jar his father clutched during the coal-mining cave-in that killed him.
Bone only has to put her hand near the jar to feel the strange power in it, to see flashes of her friend—who has been mute for as long as she can remember—talking with his dad. And when Will opens the empty jar, sounds float out.
This jar isn’t just a witness to history; it’s something more, something dangerous. Could it have a Gift of its own? In this second haunting installment of The Ghosts of Ordinary Objects series, Bone must use her wits and her Gift not only to uncover the truth but to make sure Will isn’t sucked away by long-forgotten memories.
The Truce (2020)
I don’t have jacket copy for this one yet, but let’s just say it involves a pair of dog tags, a body in the mine, and Uncle Ash.
Spooky Middle Grade 