A Phantom at the Opera? The Haunted Opera (A Marie-Grace Mystery) by Sarah Masters Buckey

"None of us had crossed the Atlantic before, and we were all quite excited about our American debut!" said Miss Bell.

But, she continued, during the trip Henrietta, one of the major singers, had come down with a fever. Mr. Foxcroft had canceled their performance and arranged for her to recover in Cuba.

Now the company need a local singer to replace Henrietta, and Marie-Grace's Aunt Oceane had been chosen.  She would also be Miss Bell's understudy.

Miss Bell pursed her lips.  "I've heard that there were--er--some problems the last time The Crown Diamonds was performed in New Orleans...  but I'm sure nothing will go wrong this time." She gave a little nervous laugh.

Marie-Grace and Cecile exchanged a glance. Marie-Grace wondered, "What did happen last time?"

It is 1843 in New Orleans, and the town is abuzz with talk about the British opera company, with a famous soprano and dashing leading man, soon to open at the St. Charles Theatre.

Marie-Claire and Cecile look forward to their Saturday voice lessons with Mdme. Oceane Rosseau at the opera house.  They both love singing, and the friends are delighted to get to visit with each other over tea and cookies afterward.  But with the short time before the opera's grand opening, Aunt Oceane must begin rehearsals and instead offers the two girls a chance to be her assistants during the week of preparation for the big opening.  Thrilled, Marie-Claire and Cecile decide to try to sneak a peak of the rehearsals from backstage. But the two are spotted peeping through the curtains by Mr. Foxcroft.  With a quick whispered "Allons-y," they duck down the back stairs and make their escape for the moment and decide to stay far away from the cranky director if they can.

But bad luck does seem to have followed this ill-fated opera to New Orleans again.  The girls hear the whispered story of the earlier aborted performance, when the prima donna soprano, Angelique Beaupre' died suddenly just before the opening, and some of the costume crew tell stories of sightings by her ghost from the graveyard across the street. Mr. Foxcroft rails at the chorus, the orchestra, and even leading man, Roberto DiCarlo, and the costume mistress Ida hurriedly finishes the sumptuous gowns for the leading ladies and leaves mysteriously. Gossip and rivalries break out among the anxious troupe. And the day before the opening, the two leading ladies' costumes are found soaking a vat of blue dye, ruined.

And then the costume coronet which Miss Bell has always worn disappears from Aunt Oceane's wardrobe chest. Some of the players seem to believe Oceane has hidden it in hopes that Miss Bell will be too upset to perform, and that she will be able to assume the starring role. Marie-Grace and Cecile see that they must discover the real thief or The Crown Diamonds may never open.

In Sarah Masters Buckey's The Haunted Opera: A Marie-Grace Mystery (American Girl Mysteries (Quality)) (American Girl Books, 2013), the author takes her two young friends backstage and even into the twilight graveyard as they follow a ghostly figure to solve the mystery of the missing crown.

Pre-Civil War New Orleans provides a colorful setting for this story, the home of the premier opera company in the country, the historic St. Charles Theatre as its backdrop, and the curious mixture of whites, Creoles, and slaves who mixed and mingled in the day-to-day life of the city. The two unlikely friends--Marie-Grace a white doctor's daughter, and Cecile, the pampered daughter of a prominent Creole family--are unusual girl sleuths, thrilled to have the chance to spend so much time together and caught up in an adventurous detective story with a surprising conclusion.

As always, the author appends a historical section, "Looking Back: A Peep into the Past" and a short pronouncing glossary of the French words which she uses to add spice to her narrative.

Fantastique, mes petites filles!

On Stage: Cecile's Gift (American Girl) by Denise Louise Patrick

"Mathilde," Cecile asked, "how did you become so good at cooking?"

Mathilde smiled so that her eyes crinkled at the corners. "Grand-mere said I had a gift for cooking."

"A gift?" Cecile felt puzzled. "but a gift is--"

""--not always what you think. It can be something that comes natural to a person. That doesn't mean I always get things right at first, but I like to practice and learn. Cooking is easy for me. It's my gift."

Cecile slowly pushed the nutmeg back and forth against the grater. What was it Marie-Grace had said about singing? She enjoyed it because it was easy... or it was easy because she enjoyed it?

"I want to make people happy," Cecile said. "That's why I want to get my poem right."

"Everything is better when you put love inside it, cherie," said the cook.

It is the early fall of 1853 in New Orleans, and the yellow fever epidemic which has cost 10,000 lives in the city is waning with the cooler weather, but the city is struggling to take care of the widows and orphans left behind. Cecile Rey and her white friend Marie-Grace volunteer in the two orphanages that care for white and African-American children, and even though Cecile's status as a member of a well-to-do gens de colour libre family has protected her from material hardship during the epidemic, her family's maid Ellen has died and her brother Armand has just begun to recover.

Then, as Cecile and Marie-Grace are about to enter one of the orphanages, a young man collapses with fever on the street in front, and Cecile discovers his little sister, Perrine, cowering in a a doorway nearby. Talking softly to the frightened girl, Cecile finally learns that the two are also without parents and manages to take Perrine to the sisters at the Children of Mercy home, but her heart aches for her and the other children and for the nuns who are struggling to find the means to care for so many homeless children. She feels that somehow she herself should do more.

Then the girls learn that the city is planning a citywide benefit in Jackson Square, La Celebration, to raise money for the needy left behind by the yellow fever. Marie-Grace is going to sing with her Aunt Oceane from one of the many performance stages, and Cecile feels that she must also help by volunteering to recite a heroic poem, one that she hopes will inspire the orphan children. Working harder than she ever has, she memorizes a long, grand poem, but when she performs it for little Perrine, she does not get the response she hopes for.

Perrine was looking out the window, not at Cecile. "I...I didn't understand it," she murmured.

Cecile heart sinks. Suddenly she sees that if she wants to reach grieving children like Perrine, she is going to have to write a poem herself, one whose simple words will lead the children into facing the future. Cecile knows what she must do. But does she really have the gift for writing such words and then performing them before such a large audience?

In this latest book in her new American Girls series, Denise Patrick's Cecile's Gift (American Girl) (American Girls Collection) (American Girl, 2011), Cecile has grown, no longer the sheltered daughter of an illustrious and artistic Creole family in nineteenth century New Orleans. Yellow fever has changed the city forever, and the diverse populations--"Americans" from outside the area, Creoles, Black slaves, old Spanish and French families, and German populations--come together for a time to take care of their own. What they have seen during the epidemic, so many deaths, so much grief and disintegration of families, has matured both Cecile and her "American" friend Marie-Claire and deepened their friendship as well. As is true for all the books in this notable series, young readers are given a look back into a unique period and place in American history to see how other girls have faced the challenges of their own time.

Along with full-color illustrations which show the dress and customs of the time, plenty of French expressions give the book the flavor of the nineteenth-century Crescent City, bolstered by a complete glossary of terms and pronunciation, and a pronunciation guide to names is also appended. The series' customary illustrated historical notes are also included, titled "Looking Back: Recovering from Disaster, 1853," giving modern children a picture of how Americans have dealt with natural disasters in the past as we do today. A worthy addition to a uniquely notable series.

Earlier books in this New Orleans series include Meet Cecile (American Girl) (American Girls Collection), and Troubles for Cecile (American Girl) (American Girls Collection) and the companion books Meet Marie-Grace (American Girl) (American Girls Collection), Marie-Grace and the Orphans (American Girl) (American Girls Collection), and and Marie-Grace Makes a Difference (American Girl) (American Girls Collection).