Published on 04/20/2009

"First Night" by author Tom Weston centers on Alexandra O Rourke, aged 16, who is not a happy camper. It's New Year's Eve and she should be partying in San Diego with her friends, but instead she is stuck in Boston, with just her younger sister, Jackie, for company. As if that wasn't bad enough, she is being haunted by Sarah, the ghost of a seventeenth century Puritan. Oh, and there is the small matter of the charge of witchcraft to be sorted out. Armed only with big shiny buttons and a helping of Boston Cream Pie, the sisters set out to restore the Natural Order. Can Alex solve the mystery of the Devil s Book? Can Jackie help Sarah beat the sorcery rap? And can they do it before the fireworks display at midnight?

First Night by Tom Weston: Book Review

Tom Weston Media (2008)
ISBN 9780981941301
Reviewed by Neha N. Kashmiri (age 14) for Reader Views (3/09)

In Boston, in 1688, Sarah Pemberton dies of smallpox. More than 300 years later, her ghost wakes up in a world that she can’t understand. Luckily, she runs into (or through, actually) Alex and Jackie O’Rourke, two San Diego girls stuck in the cold city for the New Year.

Apparently, everyone can see and hear Sarah and assume that she is a colonial re-enactor. After Alex and Jackie show Sarah around, they find out that Sarah is looking for an advocate to defend her in a witch trial where the accusers are the ones closest to her. Jackie, always impulsive, agrees to defend Sarah; as soon as she does both the sisters find they are wrapped up in a mystery that is not so easy to solve. Can they save the 17th century ghost from damnation? Or, more importantly can they save her from herself?

Tom Weston is really good with providing information, while still keeping track of a good storyline. Basically, “First Night” is a sort of paranormal mystery with a lot of history thrown in. If you like reading about the Salem Witch Trials, this is a good book with tons of information.