The Wreckers, The Smugglers, The Buccheners

The Wreckers 1999

The Smugglers 2000

The Buccaneers 2003

Iain Lawrence

I could not put these books down.  One I finished in a day, it was so gripping.  A bit gruesome, mysterious and plenty of adventure.  Charlotte read the first two but admitted to me that they were more grisly than she expected (there's a description of a drowning that particularly bothered her).  Taking place in the 19th century along the English coast, they're a treat for readers who like historical fiction a little on the dark side.  (Maybe for older YA readers).  

The Egypt Game

The Egypt Game

Zilpha Keatley Snyder

It had only been a game.  Of course, it had been a very special one, more serious and important and mysterious than most- and a lot more fun.  And there had been times when it had seemed to have a mysterious sort of reality about it.  But no one had believed, when you came right down to it, that it was anything more than a game.  At least, no one had until today.

This was our first introduction to the author Zilpha Keatley Snyder.  It's the story of a girl who comes to stay in her grandmother's apartment building.  While dealing with the neglect of her mother, she makes some new friends and they create a magical world based on their love of all things Egyptian.  In the fenced-in backyard of the odd curiosity shop (owned by the creepy old shopkeeper who may or may not be a murderer), the kids use trash and remnants to make a temple and costumes and play out elaborate storylines.  Maybe because my kids and I were this type of child, I completely understood and loved how the characters threw themselves into their "game".  Reading everything they could about Egypt, drawing papyrus scrolls, excitedly telling each other about new ideas they had, reminded me so much of the way I used to play.  Even how school and regular life was secondary to the kids as they thought about and couldn't wait to get back to their Egypt game, felt particularly familiar to me.  Keatley Snyder completely captures the enthusiasm of imaginative kids and the magic they can create. 

It had been a terrific game, full of excitement and mystery and way-out imagining, but it had been a great deal more than that.  It had been a place to get away to- a private lair- a secret seclusion meant to be shared with best friends only- a life unknown to grownups and lived by kids alone.

On a side note, I also really liked that all the kids in the book were diverse.  It was written in a natural way- that was just the makeup of the neighborhood and apartment building.  Sometimes I feel like older books (from the 60-80's) get this right better that modern ones!  And if you have sensitive readers, part of the plot does involve a child murder (not described or detailed).

Sweet Whispers, Brother Rush

 Tree and Dab never had time to find out about the past, they had so little of the present.  

Sweet Whispers, Brother Rush

Virginia Hamilton 1982

I found this book in our church's children's library years ago.  When I tracked down my own copy I had to have the Dillon's cover (man I love their artwork!).  Part ghost story, time travel, family story and coming of age, it has a haunting storytelling quality that I just loved.  It's more of a teen YA fiction than Hamilton's "The House of Dies Drear" (and I liked it better).

The Wyndcliffe

Sometimes you take a chance on a 25 cent book at the thrift store and it's a gem indeed!

The Wyndcliffe

Louise Lawrence 1975

A beautiful ghost story about a girl named Anna moving with her family to an old stone house in the English countryside.  While navigating her relationship with her older brother and sister and trying to find her way in a new school, she grows lonelier and lonelier.  Then she meets the ghost of a young man- a Romantic poet from centuries ago whose own tragic history is tied to Anna's house.  Filled with teenage angst and longing, Anna begins to lose herself in her mysterious bond with the young man.

Anna shivered and crawled behind the sofa.  The metal radiator was warm.  She clung to it in the small dark space breathing in the dry heat.  She didn't want to be anymore.  She wanted to stay a nothing, warm and hidden, protected.  She wanted to stay for the rest of her life in this warm, dark, sheltered corner where no one would come.  She wanted never to be herself again but stay nonexistent and forgotten.

This is a well written YA book that captures a dreamy teen girl's emotions (and I was that dreamy teenager!) within a haunting mystical sort of story.

His was the same world, the Wyndcliffe under the same sky.  But now Anna looked on it with unclouded eyes.  The Wyndcliffe was only a small part of something bigger.  She gazed on strange and distant horizons, brilliant and indescribable, where there were colors she had never seen before.  John's world.  She drifted through its clearness, its misted depths, its shadows, colors, sounds and movements.  It was a dream landscape, a magic place, and this little piece of it belonged to them, the Wyndcliffe, windswept, sunstruck and beautiful.  Its intensity touched her with a delight that was almost pain.



 

The House of Dies Drear

The House of Dies Drear

Virginia Hamilton 1984

 I couldn't decide if I loved this book or not.  The premise is great- an African American family moves to an old historical house that was part of the Underground Railroad but has a tragic story.  The father of the family, Mr. Small, is a historian and it's interesting to experience the cultural references and the perspective that they have.  Mostly the writing was really really good, but I admit sometimes it felt a little slow.  As a story about ghosts and hidden treasure and secret passageways it also wasn't as exciting or scary as I expected.  But still, a worthwhile read with an interesting plot for older elementary kids.

Here's a scene from the church that Thomas and his family visit one Sunday:

It seemed to Thomas that Pesty's voice slid down from the ceiling, down the hot walls and into Mac Darrow's hands.  It seemed to him that Mac Darrow's hands were inside the sound of the choir, holding on to Pesty's voice and then letting go of it when it became too strong for them.  Her voice was like no other Thomas could remember hearing.  It was pure and strong, not like a child's, and it was sweet and good, like a girl's. 

Later Thomas and his father explore the land around the house one night.

Thomas knew where to follow.  Moving blindly, he would suddenly have the sensation that his father had left behind part of his spirit like a hand print in the air.  Thomas would stumble upon this unsettled space and would know his father had passed there.

At one point the family takes part in a ruse to trap some mischief makers.  They dress as slaves and hide in the woods waiting to appear as ghosts.

Mr. Small was dressed much like Thomas, in tatters and rags, with chains about his wrists and ankles.  The chains were read and quite heavy;  Mr. Small hugged the ground in the way Thomas did.  During the long period of time he lay there, he began to feel as though he were a slave hiding and running.  Somewhere in the back of his mind was emptiness and fear;  loneliness, the way a desperate slave would feel.

And from Old Pluto:

Halfway through the waiting, the staring, he had become afraid.  The night settled around him; the minutes hung inside him in even lengths of cold.  He felt his mind getting further away from him.  He became frightened that he might see the real ghosts of old Mr. Drear and the two slaves, as he had seen them before when he was sick and tired with despair.  There had been a time when what he saw was just the Darrows walking stealthily behind him, never too near and never too far away.  They had followed him down the years, as had those ghosts, so that, oftentimes, he couldn't tell which he was seeing.