Spirit Hunters
Written by Ellen Oh

Publisher’s Summary:
Harper doesn’t trust her new home from the moment she steps inside, and the rumors are that the Raine family’s new house is haunted. Harper isn’t sure she believes those rumors, until her younger brother, Michael, starts acting strangely. The whole atmosphere gives Harper a sense of deja vu, but she can’t remember why. She knows that the memories she’s blocking will help make sense of her brother’s behavior and the strange and threatening sensations she feels in this house, but will she be able to put the pieces together in time?

Primary Source Pairing:
Harper knows something is not right from the moment she steps foot in her new house in Washington DC. She feels the tension and changes in temperature in the house. The only good thing about the new house is Harper’s reunion with her friend Rose. Through a course of events that involves a trip to a cemetery, finally seeing her beloved yet estranged Grandmother, and an emergency exorcism, Harper saves her family and finds herself. For this primary source pairing, invite students to study a painting from 1805 showing a mudang or a shaman performing at a gut ceremony. Gut translates to good. In Chapter 20, Harper learns that her Grandmother is a mudang who is able to communicate with spirits and ghosts. Harper learns that she too has this ability and must use it to help save her brother. 

Questions for Discussion:

• Describe what you see.
• What do you notice first?
• What people and objects are shown?
• How are they arranged?
• What is the physical setting?
• What’s happening in the image?
• Make a connection to Harper and her Grandmother in the book Spirit Hunters.
• What are you still curious about?

Credits:
Book Cover and Summary: Follett
The depiction of a mudang performing at a gut in the painting entitled Munyeo sinmu, painting, Wikipedia