School Library JournalGr 7 Up—Revenants are usually portrayed as evil, power-filled, and terrifying. The "returned" presence in this novel seems somehow more human and harkens back to the idea of a spirit unable to rest because of unsettled violent circumstances of death. The story begins in 1896, when not-quite-graduated Willemina Hammond purloins a teaching certificate and escapes her demanding family by heading off to the Cherokee Female Seminary at Tahlequah, OK. Teaching under a false identity, Willie makes both friends and enemies at the school, and meets Eli Sevenstar and Larkin Bell, handsome students at the nearby male seminary. Her familiarity with Shakespeare, learned at the feet of her adored (and now deceased) father, stands her in good stead when her English classes put on a production of As You Like It.
