Armstrong, Kelley. (2009). The Summoning. NY: HarperCollins.
ISBN: 978-0061450549
Award/Honor: Sunburst Award Nominee (Young Adult, 2009)
Bibliotherapeutic Usefulness: Mental Illness, Secrets, Friends, Romance, Love, Independence
Genre: Fantasy
Annotation: The Lyle House for disturbed teens is not what it seems. Fifteen year old Chloe sees ghosts, but is she really crazy?
Summary: Chloe Saunders is 15, short, and has a slight stutter, but she also can talk to ghosts. Her screaming reaction to seeing a dead custodian at school gets her diagnosed with schizophrenia and sent to the Lyle House for troubled teens. However, it seems that all the kids at the Lyle House have mysterious abilities. Chloe and her new friends slowly learn the truth about the Lyle House and it horrific past. When Chloe discovers the dead bodies of past Lyle House inhabitants, she and her supernatural friends decide that they must solve the mystery of their deaths and in doing so, save themselves.
Evaluation: While I thought parts of the story were, well, silly, I think teen girls will race through this one. Chloe is not a perfect beautiful specimin of a girl, which makes her more appealing right off the bat, and she struggles with normal teen issues. At first anyway. I do enjoy stories involving discovered powers, hidden identities, and magic, and this one fits the bill.
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