The House of the Good Spirits

by Donn Kushner

For Amos Okoro, a boy from Nigeria who comes to live in a small town on the edge of Lake Ontario, the past becomes very much a place--a place of mystery, challenge, and suspense.

214 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 1990

Reviews

[Frances]

Bought in error but read anyway. A gripping easy read - fascinating - but odd.

[Mrs]

From back cover:
For Amos Okoro, a boy from Nigeria who comes to live in a small town n the edge of Lake Ontario, the past becomes very much a place—a place of mystery, challenge, and suspense.
When Amos arrives in Ontario with his parents, both medical doctors, and his wise and funny old Aunt Naomi, he expects to make new friends and explore a new land. But he also meets racism—from the sneering condescension of his teachers to the taunts and jeers of his schoolmates. They call him “jungle boy” and label his parents “witch doctors”, and they dare him to prove his nerve by entering the local “haunted house”.
Amos soon discovers that the house is indeed haunted—not by white-sheeted wraiths or even by its own colourful past from the years of rum-running, but by the spirits of blacks who came to Ontario before him, in the desperate days of slavery. As he learns the story of their flight from pitiless bounty hunters, their encounter with the famous Underground Railroad, and their terrifying escape—an escape that can only be completed with his help—Amos also comes to find his own place in his new home."