Available:*
Library | Call Number | Status |
|---|---|---|
Searching... Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde Library | YA FIC HAHN | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Lyons Public Library | YA HAHN | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Monmouth Public Library | J Fic Hahn, M. 2007 | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Newberg Public Library | TEEN HAHN | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Silver Falls Library | YA HAHN | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
Mary Downing Hahn is at her chilling best in this supernatural tale, where the long-buried secret of a young girl's death in a canoe accident relentlessly makes its way to the surface of an idyllic vacation.
A family secret is at the root of Mary Downing Hahn's story of supernatural events in Maine. Thirteen-year-old Ali is eager to spend her vacation with Aunt Dulcie, helping to care for her little niece, Emma, in the lake house where Dulcie and Claire, Ali's mother, spent summers. Claire, who is phobic about water, is dead set against her going but is forced to agree. The vacation by the lake turns unpleasant when Ali and Emma meet a mean, spiteful kid named Sissy. Emma idolizes and imitates Sissy, becoming bratty and hostile and accepting Sissy's dangerous dares. Sissy keeps talking about Teresa, a girl who drowned under mysterious circumstances when Claire and Dulcie were kids. At first Ali thinks Sissy is just trying to scare her with a ghost story, but soon she discovers the real reason why Sissy is so angry: she is the ghost of Teresa and blames Claire and Dulcie for her death.
Author Notes
Mary Downing Hahn grew up in College Park, Maryland. After graduating college, she worked as an art teacher, a college instructor, and a children's librarian in Prince George's Public Library System. She published her first novel, The Sara Summer, at the age of 41. Since then, she has been a full-time writer and averages one book a year. Her ghost story Wait till Helen Comes was the winner of 12 state children's book awards and she received the Scott O'Dell award for her World War II novel Stepping on the Cracks. She currently lives with her husband in Columbia, Maryland.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (4)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 4-7-Thirteen-year-old Ali is excited to be spending the summer with her Aunt Dulcie, an artist, and her four-year-old cousin, Emma, in the Maine lakeside cottage where her aunt and mother spent their childhood summers. But why is Ali's mother so terrified to let her go? Why did the sisters' annual sojourns there stop so abruptly 30 years earlier? And what is the meaning of Ali's recurring dream in which, while walking along the shore of Sycamore Lake, she meets a young girl who points to three girls in a canoe and admonishes, "you must do something about this?" Ali soon discovers that Teresa, her mother's and aunt's playmate, had disappeared and was presumed drowned when their grandfather's empty canoe washed up on shore. When a strange girl calling herself Sissy shows up at the cottage and lures Emma into defiant and dangerous behavior, Ali finally realizes who she is. Hahn weaves into the story some classic mystery elements such as a torn photograph, a waterlogged doll, dense fog, and an empty grave, all of which add to the suspense and keep the well-plotted story moving along to a satisfying conclusion.-Marie Orlando, Suffolk Cooperative Library System, Bellport, NY (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Horn Book Review
Thirteen-year-old Ali, vacationing with her aunt and cousin at a secluded family cottage, is drawn by family tension and a bratty visitor to investigate the events of a long-ago summer that ended in a girl's death. Despite a slightly redundant plot, the ghost's appearance and need for resolution rings true, as do the effects of the tragedy on Ali's family. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
Twelve-year-old Ali is excited by the prospect of spending the summer at Sycamore Lake, babysitting her four-year-old cousin Emma while her Aunt Dulcie paints at the newly renovated, long-deserted family cottage. But who is the neighbor girl "Sissy," who wedges herself like a thorn between the two girls? Who is "Teresa," the girl torn out of a family photograph, and who all the town seems to know about? Why does Ali's mother refuse to come to the cabin, and why do Dulcie's paintings suddenly take a dark and watery tone? Signature spooky Hahn sends appropriate shivers up the reader's spine. If Ali's insights into Sissy's psychological problems are surprisingly mature, they're necessary to render the reader's delightful fright into a satisfyingly chilly but calm resolution. Not terribly surprising, but it does the trick. (Fiction. 9-13) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Hahn offers another eerie, suspenseful ghost story filled with family secrets. Thirteen-year-old Ali is thrilled when her aunt Dulcie invites her to spend the summer at the family's Maine cottage, where Ali will help babysit her four-year-old cousin, Emma. Things fall apart, however, when Sissie, a mysterious, manipulative girl, befriends Emma. As tensions rise, Ali begins to piece together rumors about a childhood tragedy that continues to haunt her mother and Dulcie. Early on, Hahn drops heavy hints about who Sissie is. Guessing her identity won't spoil the suspense for readers, though; on the contrary, it will feed their sense of terror as events unfold. The emotional weight of family dynamics and the private burdens of adults might have overwhelmed the ghost story, but Hahn maintains the momentum with scenes that will chill readers as surely as a plunge in cold water. Young people will easily connect with sensitive Ali, whose search for family truths feels like good practice for crossing a minefield. --Gillian Engberg Copyright 2007 Booklist