Tamsin (original 1999; edition 2004)

Anyone who enjoys a good ghost story will like this book about a thirteen year old girl and her cat who meet a 300 year old ghost named Tamsin. Comparable to the Redwall series. ( )

Thoroughly American New Yorker Jenny Gluckstein is a typical teenager: she hates her mother, except when she doesn’t; she hates her father, except that she loves him; she smokes pot with her friends; and she’s convinced she’s ugly. So when her musician mother Sally remarries, this time to a British agronomist, and the whole family—including two new step-brothers for Jenny—is relocated to a rundown old estate farm in Dorset, England, Jenny is anything but happy about it—especially not when she realizes her beloved cat, Mister Cat, will be quarantined for six months. But once Mister Cat is returned to her, the adventure of Jenny’s life begins. Mister Cat takes off running one night, chasing another animal. It turns out to be the 300-year-old ghost of another cat who has stayed around to keep her own mistress company: the ghost of Tamsin Willoughby, who once lived on the farm. Unhappy and uneasy, her spirit has never left the farm, though she only remembers her past in bits and flashes. The two girls, one living and one dead, soon become fast friends, and ghostly Tamsin introduces Jenny to the other supernatural beasties inhabiting the farm, including a mischievous boggart, the silent Black Dog, and the unpredictable Pooka. But when Judge Jeffries—another restless spirit from the past, this one not nearly so benign as Tamsin—begins manifesting, Jenny has to grow up fast and save her friend from utter destruction.

Enchanting and masterful, dealing equally gracefully with the violent history of the Dorset region and the concerns and complaints of contemporary teenagers, Tamsin is that rare book equally suited to teen readers and adults. Highly recommended. ( )

I read this entirely out of nostalgia, though I've never read it before. It's one of my favourite plots from my young days: sulky girl, uprooted from her normal life by some family event, goes to live in an old house, and gradually learns more about the fate of a previous young female inhabitant. I am totally going to write one of those myself, one day. This one is amiable and good, and involves ghosts, including boggarts and pookas. Also Judge Jefferys plays a part in it. They still just about remember to hate Judge Jefferys in the south west. He was an utter bastard. My mother's mother's family in Bath were Jefferyses, and they would say "no relation!" until my great great aunt started digging around in the family tree and then stopped abruptly refusing to tell anyone what she had found. So then they worried that maybe they were related to Judge Jefferys. But after her death they found her papers and actually she'd stopped on getting to a lot of people with Jewish names. So that's the 1930s for you. If they really were Jewish I'd love to find out more about them some time. Even in the non-conformist south-west it must have been complex to be that non-conformist. ( )

This is the first Peter S. Beagle book I’ve read, and I thought it was pretty darn good. It’s a young adult fantasy about a young teenaged girl who moves to Dorset with her mother and new stepfather, and learns how to deal with the magical creatures and ghosts that roam the historical area. This teaches her a lesson about who she is and what she wants to be. It was cute and magical. It’s most appropriate audience would be teenaged girls (because of the heroine), but I think boys would enjoy it as well. ( )

Peter Beagle is an amazing storyteller. His stories just have a timeless quality to them and a comfort to them that I haven't encountered much before. Even though his books singly might not be my absolute favorite, his body of work has to have him up at the top for my favorite authors at this point...I'm going to be reading everything I can get my hands on to see if the magic maintains.

For Tamsin, he offers a narrator who might have come off as unlikeable in the hands of a less-talented author. Instead, even though she is stubborn and self-centered at times, Beagle's masterful treatment shows her evolution to someone the reader can feel good cheering on. The story itself has so many nods and winks to traditional English faeries and goblins that it's just fun to read as well. ( )