The Ghost of Wreckers Cove by Liniers and Angelica del Campo is the perfect ghost story. It has all the elements: a coastal New England town, a beautiful and kind ghost, a lighthouse, and land pirates. There’s also a library, a museum, and a hat shop in this story, all of which are sites of crucial information that drives the plot forward.
Liniers and Angelica del Campo spoke to the community about The Ghost of Wreckers Cove on September 13th at the Norwich Bookstore. I learned that they wrote this book together during the pandemic. I also learned that the fictional Wreckers Cove is based on Norwich, Vermont. The library in Wreckers Cove is inspired by the Norwich Library. The bridge that the family takes to get into town looks very much like the bridge that connects Norwich and Hanover. It was fun to read this book with that in mind and look for the familiar in the artfully created scenes.
I love The Ghost of Wreckers Cove for the atmosphere, the illustrations, and the history. I love the way the natural blends with the supernatural. There are scary moments, heartbreaks, and great loss, yet the story is comforting and warm-hearted. I love getting lost in the dreamy quality of the illustrations. I own this book in Spanish as well as English, and I think it’s worth noting that this book, created in the Upper Valley, has a global reach. Imagine kids all over the world reading this book, dreaming of mysterious, ghostly New England, home of lighthouses and land pirates.
Rena J. Mosteirin wrote Experiment 116 (Counterpath press, 2021), Half-Fabulous Whales (Little Dipper, 2019) and Nick Trail’s Thumb (Kore Press, 2008). She is the co-author of Moonbit (punctum books, 2019) an academic and poetic exploration of the Apollo 11 guidance computer code. Mosteirin is an editor at Bloodroot Literary Magazine, teaches creative writing workshops at Dartmouth College and owns Left Bank Books, a used bookstore in Hanover, New Hampshire.