This is the true story of an experienced special ed teacher who goes to a small town to teach a class. One girl in her class in very disturbed and this book tries to unravel why the girl is disturbed.

Once I got into the book I couldn't put it down. But now that I am finished.....creepy. I don't think I will sleep well tonight. This book will probably give me nightmares and I sort of regret reading it!

I googled and the girl is now grown-up, but declined to be interviewed.

I have my opinion about More...

This was fairly pulp-type reading, I got through the book very quickly. The author is a special needs teacher & has written a whole series of books about the "poor" children she's worked with (but who's stories she doesn't mind using for profit...there's no real educational or informative angle on these things). It didn't sit right with me that this is apparently a real case, but obviously changed to "protect the innocent" to the point where she could have probably made up anything. I also d More...

I finished this book in exactly one week. Ghost girl is...a compelling book, to say the least. The fact that it tells a true story is one of the reasons why its reader is urged to keep on going, but the most important reason is that you can't help but wanting to find out what happened to Jadie.

The book is about her, an 8-year-old girl who's deeply disturbed and is an elective mute. That means she doesn't talk by choice. She never laughs, never cries or expresses any other kind of emotion. She ju More...

This book has a very interesting plot. It is about a lady named Torey who gets a job in Pecking to work as a special needs teacher because the old teacher didn't come back. She later found out that the old teacher had commited suicide. On their first day she had four children; Jeramiah,Reuben, Philip and Jadie. Jeramiah was in the class because no other techer wanted him in there classes. He was a very violent child and swore all the time. Reuben was autistic. Philip was a premature baby so was More...

Ebonie Washington
1-10-10
Title: Ghost Girl

The novel is about a girl named Jadie who was an elective mute. She never ever laughed or cried out loud. Jadie was a person who stayed to herself all the time in her own troubled world. Until one of her teachers gave her dome advice to break her silence and to speak. After that, however Jadie told the teacher a story that was very difficult to hear.
In addition to Jadie…. The first character name is Tashee, the one who was getting picked on in the story More...

Plot Summary:

Ghost girl is the true story told in the author's point of view about when she was a Special Education teacher in a small town. Despite the title "Special Education" not all of the students in her class have learning disabilities, as you might think. One of her students, Jadie is an elective mute, which is a person who- by choice- does not utter a single sound. Not a word, sniffle, cough, laugh- simply nothing. Because Torey Hayden (the author) had vast knowledge about this issue as More...

after-read effect:



tadinya sempet mau mindahin buku ini ke shelf "tendang-ke-laut" tapi ga tega juga..aku baca buku ini pas kelas 3 apa 2 smp ya? dan buat yang udah baca pasti tau buku-bukunya Torey Hayden itu diperuntukkan buat usia 30tahun keatas.orr siapapun yang sudah siap mental. Jelas aku bener bener ga siap mental pas itu.
arghhh why did i read thiss boookk?? this book haunted me for years. tapi memang ga separah Kevin sih Murphy's Boy

aduh, stress ga sih ngebayangin child abuse? tapi sayang More...

This book is gripping and heartwrenching. It is a story that I just had to finish once I started, and I read the entire book in one sitting. But once I finished the book, I almost wished I hadn't read it. There are some very grapic and disturbing images in this book. It made me feel bad to even let my mind wander to these kinds of places. The very sad thing about this book is that it is a true story. And whether you believe Jadie truly experienced these things or not, I really do believe she exp More...

I trully Loved this book. It was a good experience for me even though it was a nonfiction book. I really never liked nonfiction books but this book almost felt like fiction to me and i think thats the reason I liked it so much. Im really into fantasy stories and the supernatural, this story got me hooked on all of the vivid imagery the second i opened the book the little ghost girl is actually a little girl that has had a terrible past and Torey helps little Jadie find her way to justice. This i More...

This book was also another intresting read. The reason is because all the things that happened to Jadie seemed so unreal. It was told with such descriptive details that I couldn't imagine that this was real. Jadie apperently had a problem because she believed in satanism. And she claimed that in the middle of the night people came and did things to her and her younger sisters. Jadie never spoke until Torey took the teaching job and said she could help Jadie. I didn't really like the book because More...

Well... what can I say? Torey Hayden certainly knows how to drag the reader along, that's for sure. She makes good use of cliffhangers and moments of tension so that you're drawn to keep on reading. On the one hand this is good, since it makes the book exciting and gripping. On the other hand it's not so good, because it makes the book a bit too exciting and gripping and it's therefore easy to forget that this is a true story. You read on in a kind of fascinated horror that really should be rese More...

I read this book in translation, which was a mistake as the translator did not do a good job. The language didn't flow properly, idioms had been directly translated and she used formal language where casual talk would have suited better. A shame, but thankfully I could see it for what it was (i.e. the fault of the translator rather than the author) and ignored it as much as possible.

Like "Beautiful Child" the story of Jadie is a haunting tale, but I wasn't quite as mesmerized by it, as I wasn't More...

Jadie's story is compelling, disturbing, and touching all at once. The story naturally attracted my interest and, no matter how horrifying and sickening Jadie's experiences were, I still found myself reading more and more chapters with every chance I had. This is a very good story, just bear in mind that this is a non-fiction story written by the teacher Ms.Torey herself. In my opinion "Ghost Girl" is definitely not one of those stories you can shortly discuss with a friend who hasn't read it ye More...

when i was in the 5th grade believe it or not very young i read this book but did not understand it i was very young. in the 7th grade i started to read it all and i couldnt stop reading it, i enjoyed it very much the psychology the unrapping mysteries the kids how they acted although some parts werent that grade and a 7th grader should have not read this book but jade reminded me of myself alittle . from 1st grade to 3rd i was was in the special education program but i wasnt autistic i just did More...

i wish that ms. hayden was less reluctant to believe the girl's story just as she told it. even in the epilogue, she discusses the various potential explanations....... i guess it is ok, considering that at the time the book was written (1991 i think?), there was even less knowledge about ritual abuse than there is today. (and today, on wikipedia for example, it is still considered an "urban legend".)

other than that, this books gives a captivating account of a very brave little girl, who broke h More...

Lontano dall'essere un romanzo, sembra una sorta giallo imperniato sul rapporto che si crea tra l'insegnante (e autrice del libro) Torey e una bambina con gravi problemi psicologici.E' purtroppo una storia vera e dico purtroppo perchè racconta di abusi e difficoltà talmente grandi da spaventare qualsiasi adulto, figuraiamoci un bambino. Non so che valore "scientifico" possa avere, se può essere utilizzata come "libro di testo" per corsi universitari relativi al disagio giovanile, non sono ferrat More...

I read this book in my early twenties but it stayed with me to this day.

The English original is called Ghost Girl, and that's an apt title.

Jadie will not talk, will not smile, will not interact with anyone. Safe in her shell, she refuses to speak.

Torey Hayden, the author, is a young teacher for special ed kids - those labeled difficult and hard to work with.

Determined to figure out what's going on with the little girl, Torey wins Jadie's trust - over months of excruciatingly slow progress.

I More...

I was given this book by my friend after having seen Torey Hayden books on the shelf but never actually reading one. I was hooked. It deals with a subject that no one likes to think about in a very real and compelling way. I like the style of writing and I also like that then book was about the other children in the class. There were some very humorous moments that I felt the book needed to break up the harshness of the main subject. I enjoyed the descriptions of the classroom scenes and felt th More...

This book is truly amazing. Not only because of the strength of Miss Hayden but also because of the strength of Jadie, the main character. Jadie is a little girl who is horribly mistreated by a woman who is refered to by Jadie as, Miss Ellie. Torey is the teacher who gets hired as a teacher for the special education class in Pecking and that is where she meets Jadie. Throughout a lit of trouble and time and difficulties, Miss Torey finally gets Jadie to talk about everything that has happened to More...

i think that this book is extremely interesting so far. i love the way that torey hayden goes straight into the story. she doesnt have a huge long interduction of EVERYthing. she just writes it as it happens and doesn't try to cover anything up. you always know just as much as she does.

Jadie is the only girl in the "special" class of the small town of Pecking. she talked at home and never uttered a sound until torey came along. Torey has gotten her to show her true self from what i understand. More...

I've been on a bit of a nonfiction kick lately. I love psychological fiction and was intrigued by this title. This book, although a true account of the author's experience, read just like a story. It had dialog and enough elements of description to keep me completely engaged. I was on the edge of my chair throughout the book (until the very scholarly epilogue) wondering what had happened to the child involved. The book did not end like a lovely wrapped gift with an answer that contained all the More...

Jadie never spoke. She never laughed, or cried, or uttered any sound. Despite efforts to reach her, Jadie remained locked in her own troubled world - until one remarkable teacher persuaded her to break her self-imposed silence. Nothing in all of Torey Hayden's experience could have prepared her for the shock of what Jadie told her - a story too horrendous for Torey's professional colleagues to acknowledge. Yet a little girl was living in a nightmare, and Torey Hayden responded in the only way sh More...

Ghost Girl is the story of little Jadie, a girl so tormented by her past she believes she is a ghost, and doesn't speak to anyone. Hayden recounts of how she got Jadie to talk, and the frighting picture of what happens when she does. Jadie is preoccupied by sexual acts and strange symbols, making her believe that someone in her family is abusing poor Jadie.

With a blend of compassion and brilliant storytelling comes another frighting story from Torey Hayden. I found that no matter how hard I tri More...

I like books where the reader is in the same mindset as the character. ie there's not some knowledge the main character is lacking because he/she doesn't have our insight. That's what this book does. Half the time Torey doesn't know what to do with the girl in question, she's confused, she doubts herself, gets frustrated and we go right along on that ride with her. As well as this it's always wonderful to look into the reality of being a teacher who really cares; there's the constant need to mon More...

Wow, this book is... WOW! I don't know exactly how to describe it. It was the first of Torey Hayden's books that I read. I sort of regret that now and sort of don't. This was probably one of the more disturbing of her books. I read it in about a week. The end was weird. I read that this was the first book to get sent back to Torey for editing. I can sorta see why. Well, Torey, I'm a big fan. This is a good book although not your best book. It's a very shocking story. I feel if you want to start More...

Fascinating true story about the kids in an elementary 'special needs' class where an abuse victim becomes the focus of the new teacher's attention. The specifics of what is happening remain mysterious throughout as the girl presents some fantastical information, some of which can't be completely true but based in the girl's interpretation of events and/or misdirection on the part of the abusers. A compelling look at the struggles involved in helping children who are dealing with severe emotiona More...