A children’s book from the 80s which I somehow missed, as I missed everything by Hahn, but I have remedied this now thanks to recs from ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
sovay and skygiants.
Like a Brady Bunch gone wrong, a blended family has been formed, consisting of Jean and her two children, 12-year-old Molly and 10-year-old Michael, and Dave and his 7-year-old daughter Heather, whose mother died in a fire when she was 3. Heather hates the entire idea, and takes her unhappiness out fighting with her new siblings and then blaming them.
Because nothing helps a difficult family dynamic like suddenly uprooting everyone and then isolating them together, the parents move them from Baltimore to a secluded church converted into a house, a mile from anywhere, complete with a graveyard in the backyard. This freaks out Molly to begin with, and she gets even more alarmed when Heather gets obsessed with the grave of a 7-year-old child—her age—marked only with the initials H.E.H—her initials.
When Molly spots Heather at the grave talking to an unseen person she calls Helen, Heather accuses her of spying and says threateningly, “Wait till Helen comes.”
AIEEEEEEE!
A very satisfying, eerie ghost story, playing on elements of grief, guilt, and family. Molly, not Heather, is the narrator, and once she realizes that Heather may be in as much or more danger as anyone, she’s put in the difficult position of trying to save someone she doesn’t like, who doesn’t like her and doesn’t want to be saved, when no one else even believes there’s a problem.
I was delighted to discover that many of Hahn’s books are currently in print. If you’ve read others, what do you recommend?
Wait Till Helen Comes: A Ghost Story
sovay and skygiants.Like a Brady Bunch gone wrong, a blended family has been formed, consisting of Jean and her two children, 12-year-old Molly and 10-year-old Michael, and Dave and his 7-year-old daughter Heather, whose mother died in a fire when she was 3. Heather hates the entire idea, and takes her unhappiness out fighting with her new siblings and then blaming them.
Because nothing helps a difficult family dynamic like suddenly uprooting everyone and then isolating them together, the parents move them from Baltimore to a secluded church converted into a house, a mile from anywhere, complete with a graveyard in the backyard. This freaks out Molly to begin with, and she gets even more alarmed when Heather gets obsessed with the grave of a 7-year-old child—her age—marked only with the initials H.E.H—her initials.
When Molly spots Heather at the grave talking to an unseen person she calls Helen, Heather accuses her of spying and says threateningly, “Wait till Helen comes.”
AIEEEEEEE!
A very satisfying, eerie ghost story, playing on elements of grief, guilt, and family. Molly, not Heather, is the narrator, and once she realizes that Heather may be in as much or more danger as anyone, she’s put in the difficult position of trying to save someone she doesn’t like, who doesn’t like her and doesn’t want to be saved, when no one else even believes there’s a problem.
I was delighted to discover that many of Hahn’s books are currently in print. If you’ve read others, what do you recommend?
Wait Till Helen Comes: A Ghost Story
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The only other one of Hahn's books I remember from my childhood -- and I'm not even a hundred percent sure it was Hahn who wrote this, I may have just associated them in my head -- is one about a girl whose older sister is being seduced by a ... murder selkie? And she's the only one who's suspicious. I've been thinking about this book anyway as it was sort of the pattern I expected for The Mysterious Mr. Ross, which obviously turned out quite different.
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From:
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