Booraem, Ellen: Texting the Underworld (2013)
MG/YA. Twelve-year-old Conor O'Neill has a problem. The new family banshee (the old one retired) hasn't done it before, and she seems to be about his age, having died young several centuries ago. She doesn't know who will die, only that someone in his family will, and soon. He loves his family and intends to prevent any deaths, but meanwhile there's the problem of explaining his "visiting Irish cousin" to his family, and also to the school, because a visiting child can't just hang around loose, not in Boston, Massachusetts. One added issue is that if it seems like someone or something is going to die, she will wail, and just hearing that can be disastrous.
Nothing a quick trip to the Underworld can't solve, right?
Fun. Deals with the multiplicity of underworld beliefs, family loss.
MG/YA. Twelve-year-old Conor O'Neill has a problem. The new family banshee (the old one retired) hasn't done it before, and she seems to be about his age, having died young several centuries ago. She doesn't know who will die, only that someone in his family will, and soon. He loves his family and intends to prevent any deaths, but meanwhile there's the problem of explaining his "visiting Irish cousin" to his family, and also to the school, because a visiting child can't just hang around loose, not in Boston, Massachusetts. One added issue is that if it seems like someone or something is going to die, she will wail, and just hearing that can be disastrous.
Nothing a quick trip to the Underworld can't solve, right?
Fun. Deals with the multiplicity of underworld beliefs, family loss.