Ol' Clip-Clop: A Ghost Story

Gr 2–5—John Leep, a miserly landlord living in 1741, gleefully sets out to evict his tenant, the widow Mayes. It is a cold, dark night, Friday the 13th even, but Leep will not wait until morning. He wants to set an example for all of his tenants-pay up or get out. As he travels by horseback to the house, he keeps hearing another rider behind him. The sound of horses' hooves is employed throughout the story to build anticipation and suspense. After deceiving the woman, he heads home, and the simple "clip clop" grows in speed and complexity until a breathless "clippitycloppityclippitycloppityclippitycloppity" puts Leep at his door. Dark, ominous images, rendered in mixed media and oil, suit the nighttime setting and reinforce the eerie, somber tone of the story. Leep looks like an ordinary man, not a stereotypical villain. His selfishness is conveyed through his sneering expression when widow Mayes begs for one more night in her home. Appropriately, he looks nervous during his frightening ride, but he never appears to think something could really hurt him-until the shocking conclusion. The twist at the end is scary and makes the book better suited to an elementary audience than a younger one. The tale is tailor-made for storytellers who want to actively engage their audiences.—Lucinda Snyder Whitehurst, St. Christopher's School, Richmond, VA