Took

Took

Juvenile fiction
Mary Downing Hahn's new books are few and far between. So when
I discover one it is a true cause of celebration. She has an uncanny
ability to combine modern day narratives with chillingly believable
back stories and legends to create impossible to put down stories of
eeriness and high suspense. Her Took: A Ghost Story is a prime
example.
Daniel, his little sister, Erica, and their parents have just
moved all the way from a ritzy Connecticut suburb to a falling apart
at the seams isolated famhouse in West Virginia. The dad has lost his
job. It's all they can afford.
Almost from the beginning things start falling apart. Erica
becomes withdrawn, spending more and more time with her little Erica
doll whom she believes can speak to her. Daniel's parents can
scarcely be in the same room and remain civil. The classmates with
whom they attend a backwards public school bully the children
relentlessly and torment them with a lurid tale they believe...
...tales of a centuries old ghost named Auntie with a wild hog/
bear familar who comes for a girl child who lives in Daniel's new
house every fifty years and makes her her slave.
It's been fifty years since the last little girl disappeared.
On a personal note, the weather is finally warming up enough to give
me more reading time outside with my daffodils and the bees. Since
it's Mothers' Day weekend and I'm not sure if I'll see any of my kids
I'm celebrating myself with more reading time.
A great big shout out goes out to all my readers who are also mothers.
jules hathaway




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