Neshama

by Marcella Pixley

Overview

A bullied girl who communicates with ghosts finds her inner strength in this haunting novel in verse that will resonate with anyone who has felt themselves to be different.

Anna sees ghosts. The spirits of her ancestors call to her from the shadows, and no matter where she is, Anna always answers. Kids in her middle school tease her. Teachers and parents are worried by her strange behavior. The only one who seems to understand is Anna’s beloved grandmother, Bubbe, who has always treasured Anna’s shayna neshama, her beautiful soul. Spending Shabbos with Bubbe is the only thing that gives Anna the sense of love and belonging that she needs.

But when a ghost named Ruthie appears at Bubbe’s house by the sea, Anna begins to uncover long-hidden secrets that reveal the mystery of her family’s troubled past. As Anna and Ruthie get closer, Anna must decide for herself whether being connected to a restless ghost is worth the risk. When it becomes clear that Bubbe’s life is in danger, Anna must face the horrible truth: She alone has the ability to save her family and heal the wounds that follow them from one generation to the next.

National Book Award long-listed author Marcella Pixley brings her Jewish faith and her acclaimed sense of lyricism to this powerful story of bravery, forgiveness, and healing.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781536236613
Publisher:	Candlewick Press
Publication date:	05/13/2025
Pages:	368
Product dimensions:	5.70(w) x 8.30(h) x 1.30(d)
Age Range:	10 - 12 Years

About the Author

Marcella Pixley is the award-winning author of four novels for middle-grade and young adult readers, including, most recently, Trowbridge Road, which was long-listed for the National Book Award, received a Massachusetts Book Award Honor, was nominated for Vermont’s Golden Dome Award, and was a Junior Library Guild Selection. It was also named a best book of 2020 by Shelf Awareness, Reading Group Choices, and A Mighty Girl. Marcella Pixley teaches eighth-grade language arts in Massachusetts, where she lives with her family.

Read an Excerpt

Being
Anna

x
Being Anna Means

Growing my hair long and dyeing the tips universe blue,
drawing spiderwebs on the tops of my hands and wearing combat boots even though no other kid in Ms. Garland’s sixth-grade class looks anything like that.

It means writing ghost poems in my math notebook,
words curling across tiny graph-paper squares like silvery smoke.
It means inviting spirits to speak through my hands,
whispering in the secret places between now and never again.


x
Being Anna Means

Seeing ghosts wherever I look,
children centuries old,
their quick footsteps skittering like autumn leaves,
a cold hand on my shoulder,
a voice in my ear insistent as wind.


x
Miss Mary Mack

They sit beside me in the cafeteria,
ghosts with pale braids,
faces the color of ash.
Sometimes all they want is to tell me stories of how they passed away.
Other times they want to play the games they used to love.

I know I look strange hand-clapping the air.
No one would believe
I am singing rhymes with a ghost who was in sixth grade a century ago when the school was new and no one roamed the corridors except living, breathing children.


x
Ring-Around-the-Rosy

A pocket full of posies
Ashes, ashes, we all fall down.

We spin like ballerinas,
letting our circles take us around the world and back,
breathless.
I twirl and laugh out loud even though I know to the world it looks like I am dancing by myself.


x
Teacher’s Note

Dear Mr. and Mrs. Fleischman,
I am reaching out about Anna.
She spends most of her day pretending to play with ghosts.
It scares the other children.
Would you come in to speak with me?

Oh, Anna, Mom sighs,
what are we going to do with you?
At the dinner table my little sister kicks her legs and sings.
Everyone loves how hard she tries to be happy and good.
Mama, look,
says Evie, grinning like a jack-o’-lantern.
I lost a tooth today.
I am growing up so fast.
It’s true, little sister.
I just hope you don’t grow up like me.


x
Dancing with Ghosts

Being Anna means never getting invited to sleepovers except once in fourth grade,
when Eden Antonio said I could come because our mothers are on the PTO together but it didn’t mean she liked me.
I hid in my sleeping bag while Eden’s friends braided hair, told secrets,
and laughed behind cruel hands.
I didn’t come out until the last one fell asleep.

I rose in the moonlit night and tiptoed to the open window.
No one saw it but me:
the whole street was filled with spirits.
And then
I remember one ragged little ghost holding out her hand.


x
Awakenings

The next morning they found me outside the window hugging my knees with oak leaves in my hair.
What on earth are you doing out here?
What’s wrong with you?

What could I have said?
That I would rather twirl in moonlight and fall asleep in the dewy clover and never be invited to a sleepover again than pretend for one more moment that I am the same kind of girl as them?

Editorial Reviews

The wonderful writing is spare and striking, immediately establishing an occasionally eerie, though never truly frightening, atmosphere, and the words flow effortlessly. The story allows plenty of space for thoughtful reflection on grief, antisemitism, and bullying while also conjuring cozy scenes of familial love and believably fostering understanding between opposing parties. A mesmerizing meditation on family, forgiveness, and the freedom to be found in embracing one’s truest self.
—Booklist (starred review)

An eerie, melancholic story of family trauma and healing.
—Kirkus Reviews

In verse that alternates nimbly between Anna’s thoughtful first-person narrative and Ruthie’s fierce interjections, Pixley (Trowbridge Road) illustrates concrete earthly experiences alongside a more diaphanous ghostly world.
—Publishers Weekly

The accessible verse is rich with imagery, with feelings evocatively described, and warm scenes at Bubbe’s house mixing with Anna’s awareness of ghosts. An atmospheric ghost story for character-driven readers.
—The Horn Book

A sensitive, affirming novel-in-verse, Neshama celebrates the life-giving power of children being able to embrace their unique gifts.
—Foreword Reviews

This novel in verse is a spiritual exploration of how the past can have lasting effects through generations of a family. It is a lesson in being oneself even when no one, not even those meant to love you, accept you for who you are.Anna is a beautiful, strong, and inspiring character. . . . A unique ghost story.
—School Library Journal

Every poem, every word, in Marcella Pixley’s novel in verse, NESHAMA, is hauntingly beautiful. This is the middle grade novel that I needed as a child. Readers will believe in ghosts and the power of prayer and also what it means to forgive and to accept yourself. It is as if Neshama set an extra seat at Bubbe’s Shabbat table for the reader where they can taste the soup, the challah, and hear the whispers of the ghosts of her ancestors.
—Judith Magazine

This book will steal your heart and open your soul. Neshama by Marcella Pixley is a beautiful homage to the lessons of our ancestors, the power of prayer, the transcendence of forgiveness, and the freedom that comes from being uniquely you. I loved every word!
—Elly Swartz, author of Same Page

A beautiful, quiet storm of a story that explores grief, forgiveness, and finding courage for the present through the past.
—Randy Ribay, author of Everything We Never Had

Marcella Pixley’s deftly crafted novel in verse is a thought-provoking page-turner. A perfect read-aloud and book club selection!
—John Schu, librarian and author of the New York Times best-selling Louder Than Hunger

In haunting, heart-stirring verse, Neshama draws you in to a deep and unexpected world of courage, forgiveness, and healing. It will grip you from the very first line.
—Chris Baron, author of the Sydney Taylor Notable Book The Magical Imperfect

A stunning verse novel that captures the raw ache of being an outsider and the courage it takes to find one’s voice. I adored and applauded Anna as she became increasingly clearheaded and stronghearted! Tender, mesmerizing, and truly uplifting—a testament to the beauty of second chances.
—Jennifer Richard Jacobson, author of Small as an Elephant

From the Publisher

2025-02-15
Anna sees ghosts.

Talking with and about ghosts—not to mention her blue-dyed hair, combat boots, and weird poetry—has left Anna shunned by her sixth grade classmates. Even her father would rather break her spirit than support her macabre behavior. Only her grandmother, Bubbe Esther, offers Anna the kindness and space to be herself. On a solo visit to Bubbe’s home in Gloucester, Massachusetts, Anna encounters the ghost of Ruthie, her father’s sister, who died in childhood and now wants Anna’s help to settle some scores. Pixley’s verse balances gauzy abstractions with well-wrought details, highlighting the physicality of the living that the ghosts envy: “We watch you /at night /when you are sleeping. /We love /the sound /of your breath /hissing /like silver thread /pulled through silk.” While visiting Bubbe, Anna also feels drawn to her grandmother’s Jewish observance, which Ruthie practiced unabashedly—another form of self-expression her secular father has rejected. The relationship between Anna and her ghostly aunt evolves effectively, with the decisive, liberated Ruthie initially helping to bolster Anna’s confidence; over time, she becomes more feral and overbearing, forcing Anna to trust and assert her own judgment. A denouement with her father feels rather quick, but readers will cheer Anna’s burgeoning ability to embrace her unusual skills and advocate for herself. Characters are cued white.

An eerie, melancholic story of family trauma and healing.(Verse fiction. 9-13)

Kirkus Reviews