SOLVED. YA, short ghost story, weight loss camp attendee meets a kindly counselor, cleans a gummed-up locket. [s]

[Erin]

(Trigger warning for insensitive terminology regarding body weight. I am only including the quote because it stood out to me so much at the time it may help identify the story.)

I read this from a library in Maryland, US as a kid between 1986 and maybe 1990. I can't remember if the book was hardback or paperback or how "old" it seemed to me at the time, and if I had to guess it was published in the 1970s or 80s. I was in grade school and the story was probably age appropriate on the same level that Judy Blume books would have been. There is a chance this was actually a book from the adult fiction section, as I sometimes chose those to prove to myself I could read and understand them. :)

The story was in an anthology, though I'm not sure if there were different authors or the same, nor what the overall theme might have been (maybe atypical ghost stories?) It struck me as very well-written and bittersweet.

The MC was a preteen or young teen girl attending a weight loss camp in the US. She wasn't in to it at all, but a kindly female counselor stopped by at night and lent her a locket/necklace charm that was covered in gunk/clay and they talked while the girl began to chisel the gunk off, then returned it each night. This went on for some time and at some point the counselor mentioned what she did before, in her own words, she "went into the beef business." (Ugh, I know.)

One night the girl had the locket cleaned, and opened it to find a thin image of herself. The counselor took back the locket, saying something like, "I told you, I'm not a fairy godmother." I can't recall if the girl had already lost weight or if the image let her know she could do it, but they didn't see each other again. Sometime later the girl asked about the counselor and after some confusion, another counselor said the woman had died (in a fire, maybe) sometime ago.

Thanks in advance! TL;DR version: girl at weight-loss camp is visited by a crass, not-quite-fairy-godmother, chisels off a gummed-up locket to find a thin image of herself inside, discovers counselor was a ghost.

[Rainbowheart]

Altogether, One at a Time

[Erin]

Solved! Wow, thank you very much. So the book was published in 1971. I'm surprised I didn't remember the author was E.L. Konigsburg, as I'd read a fair number of her other books as a kid.

As always, Rainbowheart, I'm amazed at your ability to find these books! This one should be fun to read again.

[Rainbowheart]

You're super welcome, glad I was able to help out!