Last year, I started out wanting to review and keep track of all the books I read. I did really well at first and then sort of fizzled out. But I really DO want to do this in 2013, so here we go again.
My review of Deep and Dark and Dangerous by Mary Downing Hahn:
Way back in the fourth grade, I had a wonderful teacher. Her name was Mrs. Westmorland and she was the best teacher in the whole entire world. I mean, she was amazing. She was also a lover of books, and we clicked. She read many, many books aloud to our class. A few that stick out in my mind: The View from the Cherry Tree, Where the Red Fern Grows, Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, and Wait til Helen Comes. Wait til Helen Comes was my first ghost story, and I've been a sucker for paranormal stories ever since. A few weeks ago the kids and I were at the library and I noticed Deep and Dark and Dangerous. It's also a ghost story and was written by Mary Downing Hahn. Of course I checked it out, even though it was "just a kid's book".
When Mrs. Westmorland read Wait til Helen Comes, my socks were scared off. I thought it was soooo scary! I remember checking out from the school library time after time and reading it over and over up in my room, each time deliciously terrifying myself. Well, that was in the fourth grade. Even though I'm 32 now and didn't get scared, Deep and Dark and Dangerous is of the same caliber as Mary Downing Hahn's first ghost story. I loved it. I want my kids to read it, since they love to be scared as much as I do.
I thought this book was wonderfully done, even though the characters have the same traits as some of the characters in Wait til Helen Comes. We see lots of family tension, sibling rivalry, and a drowned ghost. I think that if I had read this book back in the fourth grade it would have in fact left me "deliciously terrified". This is always a tell-tale sign of a great ghost story!
Way back in the fourth grade, I had a wonderful teacher. Her name was Mrs. Westmorland and she was the best teacher in the whole entire world. I mean, she was amazing. She was also a lover of books, and we clicked. She read many, many books aloud to our class. A few that stick out in my mind: The View from the Cherry Tree, Where the Red Fern Grows, Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, and Wait til Helen Comes. Wait til Helen Comes was my first ghost story, and I've been a sucker for paranormal stories ever since. A few weeks ago the kids and I were at the library and I noticed Deep and Dark and Dangerous. It's also a ghost story and was written by Mary Downing Hahn. Of course I checked it out, even though it was "just a kid's book".
When Mrs. Westmorland read Wait til Helen Comes, my socks were scared off. I thought it was soooo scary! I remember checking out from the school library time after time and reading it over and over up in my room, each time deliciously terrifying myself. Well, that was in the fourth grade. Even though I'm 32 now and didn't get scared, Deep and Dark and Dangerous is of the same caliber as Mary Downing Hahn's first ghost story. I loved it. I want my kids to read it, since they love to be scared as much as I do.
I thought this book was wonderfully done, even though the characters have the same traits as some of the characters in Wait til Helen Comes. We see lots of family tension, sibling rivalry, and a drowned ghost. I think that if I had read this book back in the fourth grade it would have in fact left me "deliciously terrified". This is always a tell-tale sign of a great ghost story!
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