This is an old, old favorite of mine. I think that it contains one of the most amazingly dreamlike scenes I've ever read, when a sleepy Sophia starts thinking about the trunks and suitcases in the attic floating away .... "and none of them ever came back." And the chapter about the Haunted Forest was great. I also love the flooding of Venice, and Grandmother's closing words in that chapter.

I really treasure the fact that Sophia is un-cute. She's shy and unsocialized and judgmental, just like a real kid.