In The Bagpiper's Ghost, we find ourselves once again with Peter and Jennifer (and their younger sister Molly) still on Vacation, visiting their grandmother in Scotland. This is the third (and final, at present) book in the tartan magic series and the events follow not too long after those of the Pictish Child. After a walk and a visit to a cemetery (during the day) the twins decide to sneak out (with the help of their magical dog) and see if they can see ghosts in the cemetery at night. Naturally, they do...or there wouldn't be a story! As with the other two books in the series, Jennifer shines while Peter gets used horribly and this is something that I don't like about this series. The sibling rivalry and jealousy of Peter toward Jennifer because she has exhibited more magical ability than he is natural and welcome...but the constant build up of her skill and ability at the expense of any for her brother is, well, annoying. After three books, maybe he could have been given a bit more to do than sleep and be possessed by someone intent on being selfish and having their way from beyond the grave. Once again, the grandmother and Jennifer save the day and I'm a bit tired of that setup.

In this particular story, we find Jennifer trying to reconcile the three ghosts...a set of twins, where the brother kept the sister from marrying her true love because of social status issues. She died, apparently of a broken heart and the brother went on hypocritically to marry and have a family and lives a long full life...all the things he denied his sister and selfishly continues to deny her even in the afterlife. The third ghost is the lost love...playing the bagpipes nightly for his lost love, not realizing that he's dead. Not a bad premise for the story. As it happens the twins show up and the selfish brother possesses Peter's body and decides that he can get a life back and still keep his sister under his thumb...what will Jennifer and Gran do?

The entire premise is full of charm and I love the magical aspect of the stories...but the timeline is rushed, the characters out side of the grandmother, the dog and Jennifer is lacking...all the other characters are flat and one dimensional, which probably isn't really a problem for the reader level this book is aimed at, it's annoying to me that the rest of the family never gets fleshed out as well. I'd like to see the entire cast of characters more fleshed out and well developed and I'd like the events to be more spaced out...we're talking about a matter of days or weeks on a vacation and three HUGE magical things have already happened. It's just so rushed. Clearly Yolen has left the door open for more books in this series, the conclusion to this story hardly wrapped up the twins magical development and it felt somewhat unsatisfying in that respect. I hope there will be more and we can see both twins develop. Ok, but not great. I give it a B+ ( )

http://www.greenmanreview.com/yolen.omni.htm ( )