5.0 out of 5 stars
storyline of The Ghost and the Magic Saber, April 28 2010
By Miles Swarthout - Published on Amazon.com
When Newton's parents declared he was to spend his summer on a farm in Michigan -- and practice his flute every day -- Newton was miserable. He was "citified" and he liked it. But when he arrived at his grandparents' farm and found his chief companion was to be a girl, he was mortified! Newton hated his flute, but he hated girls beyond anything. To add injury to insult, Newton found himself in competition with the girl Cassy for his grandfather's prize possession: a magnificent saber from the Civil War. The better farmer by the end of the summer would win the prize, and since Cassy was already an experienced farmer, and also more athletic, luckier, and meaner than Newton, the outcome seemed inevitable. But then, Cassy didn't have a ghost on her side...
Readers will find Newton irresistible, though Cassy had a different opinion at first. This hilarious tale -- from the first use of Grandfather Pierce's zany invention, the Pierce Mechanical Boy Chastiser, to Cassy's supreme trickery -- is an unforgettable delight.
Fans of Glendon Swarthout's adult novels will find many similarities between The Ghost and the Magic Saber and Glendon's more famous novella, A Christmas Gift, which became a CBS TV-Movie in 1978 retitled A Christmas To Remember, starring Joanne Woodward, Jason Robards and Eva Marie Saint.