From School Library Journal
Grade 7-9. Fifteen-year-old Geena Howe's ability to think herself into a painting provides the plot mechanism that moves this mediocre fantasy forward. The teen decides to explore a favorite piece of art, one of Monet's water lilies. She projects herself into it, enters the previous century, and encounters a young man, Crispin, and his aunt, who are convinced that the castle in which they live is controlled by a ghost. This figure continually transforms their world, with whole wings of the castle appearing and disappearing and their clothes and hair changing on a daily basis. Astute readers will see right through the author's setup, since plenty of hints that Monet is the ghost are provided. While Yarbro does an admirable job of describing scenery and period clothing, as well as the extraordinary light that inspired Monet's Giverny paintings, the book gets bogged down in its repeated exploration of the differences between the two centuries. Since Geena is a plucky and courageous character, determined to find the answers to many of the castle's baffling mysteries, YAs might stick with the book until she successfully navigates back to the 20th century. However, several questions remain unanswered, such as why the characters that Geena encounters in France speak English. Finally, although Geena worries about explaining her absence when she returns to her own time, the author takes the easy way out by ending the novel before she actually faces the police or her parents.?Ellen Fader, Multnomah County Library, Portland, ORCopyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Gr. 6-10. Geena Howe, 15, has an unusual talent--she can think herself into a painting. The first time it happens unexpectedly while she is looking at a Mondrian canvas; two weeks later, she deliberately enters a Vermeer and learns she must exit from the same place she entered. The adventure really begins, however, when she slips into a huge Monet painting of water lilies floating in a castle moat. What she encounters is bizarre, to say the least. The castle is inhabited by a boy named Crispin, his aunt Lucrece, and a cook. The castle is haunted by a ghost that materializes shortly before drastic changes occur--stacks of wheat appear in a field, castle towers appear or disappear, the castle furnishings change in period style, hair and clothing styles change, etc. When the moat vanishes, Geena despairs of ever getting home. The eerie details and scary happenings are enticing and well worth the suspension of disbelief; the interactions between the very modern Geena and the "old-fashioned" Crispin are amusing; and despite its predictability, the ending is satisfying. Readers with an interest in painters and paintings will especially enjoy the story. Sally Estes

From Kirkus Reviews
Monet's Ghost (151 pp.; $17.00; Jun. 1, 1997; 0-689-80732-5): More fantasy from Yarbro (for adults, Writ in Blood, p. 686, etc.), this time about a teenager who transports herself inside Monet's Water Lilies. Geena's gift for slipping ``sideways'' into museum paintings becomes a burden when she enters Monet's masterpiece and cannot get out. There she encounters the priggish Crispin and his aunt, Lucrece, and learns that a ``ghost'' haunts their castle, changing their clothing, buildings, hair, and landscapes on a whim. Geena, in an attempt to find her way out of the painting and learn more about the ghost, meets Monet and asks him to paint her an exit. Yarbro tosses out many intriguing ideas and dwells on none for long; the playful proposition--that an art-lover can put herself into the paintings, literally as well as figuratively--may lure readers in, but will not hold them. (b&w illustrations) (Fiction. 11-13) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

What would you do if you were trapped in a painting? Geena just wants to get out.

Geena Howe loves art, and is thrilled to find that she has the ability to literally project herself into paintings. She can even travel to places beyond what is depicted on the canvas, but can only come back at the spot where she came in. When she enters one of Monet's water lily paintings, she meets the denizens of a Victorian castle who believe the castle is haunted and that it constantly changes size. Geena is skeptical at first, but then sees the ghost herself, and experiences strange changes. Suddenly, the moat with the water lilies where she came into the painting is gone. . . .

In this exciting new Dragonflight fantasy novel by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, readers will be captivated as Geena struggles to keep her own identity and confront the mysterious ghost.

FROM THE CRITICS

VOYA - Meg Wilson

With Monet's Ghost, Yarbro joins Tanith Lee and Richard Silverberg in writing for the Dragonflight series of fantasy novels for young adults. Yarbro explores the world of Geena Howe, who suddenly acquires the ability to project herself into paintings, thus traveling through time and space-in this case, to nineteenth-century France, via Monet's famous painting Water Lilies. In exploring the world inside the painting, Geena meets several other people who live there, bemused by the way their world changes and vanishes, apparently at the whim of a ghost. When Geena witnesses part of the castle and grounds vanishing in mist and changing in appearance, she is convinced that something is strange, but not that a ghost is responsible. Her main problem with the changing surroundings is that she can only return to her own world at precisely the spot where she came through. If the moat with the water lilies vanishes, how will she ever get home? After a journey through a changing castle and topiary maze, Geena stumbles upon Monsieur Monet himself. She convinces him to work on a large painting of water lilies in just the right light and just the right place so that she can leave the painting and begin explaining her two-day absence to her family. Although the idea of time travel through a painting is an interesting one to ponder, Yarbro never quite establishes a believable fantasy world. It is obvious to a fairly alert reader that the "ghost" is Monet, and the world changes because he has painted over something. It becomes annoying that Geena cannot figure it out. She is otherwise an intelligent, independent, and likeable character. Other characters are quite two-dimensional, as one might expect from characters who live in a painting. Events here do not flow well. Interesting episodes are disjointed and never really tie into the outcome of the story. The reader wonders what Geena's motivation is to risk searching a section of the castle that frequently vanishes, and why she is determined to enter the maze in spite of warnings from the painting's inhabitants. Her actions seem particularly futile after she just wakes up and meets Monet. Couldn't she have just fallen asleep anywhere and waited for him to show up and explain everything? Despite Yarbro's popularity in the adult section, this young adult offering, though based on an interesting idea, provokes only a lukewarm reaction in the reader. VOYA Codes: 2Q 3P M (Better editing or work by the author might have warranted a 3Q, Will appeal with pushing, Middle School-defined as grades 6 to 8).

School Library Journal

Gr 7-9Fifteen-year-old Geena Howe's ability to think herself into a painting provides the plot mechanism that moves this mediocre fantasy forward. The teen decides to explore a favorite piece of art, one of Monet's water lilies. She projects herself into it, enters the previous century, and encounters a young man, Crispin, and his aunt, who are convinced that the castle in which they live is controlled by a ghost. This figure continually transforms their world, with whole wings of the castle appearing and disappearing and their clothes and hair changing on a daily basis. Astute readers will see right through the author's setup, since plenty of hints that Monet is the ghost are provided. While Yarbro does an admirable job of describing scenery and period clothing, as well as the extraordinary light that inspired Monet's Giverny paintings, the book gets bogged down in its repeated exploration of the differences between the two centuries. Since Geena is a plucky and courageous character, determined to find the answers to many of the castle's baffling mysteries, YAs might stick with the book until she successfully navigates back to the 20th century. However, several questions remain unanswered, such as why the characters that Geena encounters in France speak English. Finally, although Geena worries about explaining her absence when she returns to her own time, the author takes the easy way out by ending the novel before she actually faces the police or her parents.Ellen Fader, Multnomah County Library, Portland, OR

Kirkus Reviews

Monet's Ghost (151 pp.; Jun. 1, 1997; 0-689-80732-5): More fantasy from Yarbro (for adults, Writ in Blood, p. 686, etc.), this time about a teenager who transports herself inside Monet's Water Lilies. Geena's gift for slipping "sideways" into museum paintings becomes a burden when she enters Monet's masterpiece and cannot get out. There she encounters the priggish Crispin and his aunt, Lucrece, and learns that a "ghost" haunts their castle, changing their clothing, buildings, hair, and landscapes on a whim. Geena, in an attempt to find her way out of the painting and learn more about the ghost, meets Monet and asks him to paint her an exit. Yarbro tosses out many intriguing ideas and dwells on none for long; the playful proposition—that an art-lover can put herself into the paintings, literally as well as figuratively—may lure readers in, but will not hold them.