"Grippingly heart-wrenching and speaks to deeper themes of family, trauma, and friendship.a fascinating, page-turning tale." -- Kirkus Reviews (starred review) "Alkaf's middle-grade debut is unapologetically--and beautifully--Malaysian. it sizzles with tension and safe-but-ghoulish imagery, without letting go of the heartfelt thread of love between a girl and her ghost." -- Booklist "I can't stop thinking about THE GIRL AND THE GHOST, a desperately beautiful novel about the many ways people can be haunted and the transformative power of friendship and love. A spellbinding story, told with an enormous heart." -- Anne Ursu, author of the National Book Award Longlist title, The Real Boy "Delightfully gruesome, humorous, haunted and heart wrenching, The Girl and the Ghost is an intense tale of grief, family, friendship and forgiveness." -- Robin Yardi, author of The Midnight War of Mateo Martinez "An entertaining convergence of the supernatural with the everyday.

touches of contemporary Malaysian life enrich the background: ethnic and religious diversity, layers of rapid social change, and loving descriptions of food abound." -- Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books.