The Ghost that Came Alive by Vic Crume, 1975.
Jenny Blair is a gloomy gus who often gets premonitions of impending doom, much to the annoyance of her siblings. They poke fun at her pessimism, but some of those premonitions start to come true when her youngest brother falls ill on a family vacation to the beach and needs to be taken to the hospital.
Jenny and her twin brother, Chris, accompany their older teenage brother and sister as they start the long drive home while their parents tend to their younger brother at the hospital. On the way home, the kids accidentally become stranded during a storm and seek out help from a large old house that they had mistaken for a hotel. With a fallen tree blocking the road, the inhabitants of the house reluctantly agree to take them in until they can continue their trip home, but all of the kids can tell that there is something sinister about their hosts. Miss Cliff makes it obvious that she resents the children’s presence, and Dr. Cliff is a peculiar kind of scientist working on . . . something . . . in the basement.
They tell the kids that the house is supposed to be haunted and people can often hear the ghost of Andrea Cliff calling out in the night. The kids soon hear this spooky voice themselves, calling for help. Trapped in the house with the ghost and unfriendly people, the Blairs decide that they have to figure out what’s really going on, but the danger is worse than they know, and Jenny’s premonition of doom is getting stronger all the time . .
The book is available to borrow and read for free online through Internet Archive, but the version there does not have pictures.
My Reaction:
This creepy little book has been a favorite of mine for years!
Young people trapped in a spooky old house with a ghost story during a storm is a common trope of spooky stories, but this one is a particular favorite because of the way it’s done. I like the implication that Dr. Cliff might be some kind of mad scientist. Mad scientists appear in other books in children’s literature, but it’s an element that provides a nice twist on the ghost story and allows readers to wonder whether Dr. Cliff or the ghost might be the bigger threat.
The ghost story and the mysterious voice the kids hear is also well done, and they confront the problem very practically. For those who like the Scooby-Doo style of mystery, where the “ghosts” turn out to be people, and there’s an explanation for everything . . . you’ll love this story. Not all copies of the book have pictures, but my book contains a few black and white illustrations. The one I used in my review is the scene where the kids hear the ghost’s voice for the first time.
There is one final twist at the end of the story that readers might see coming if they pay close attention to the story. There’s even a clue to this twist that is shown in pictures if you have a copy with pictures, but I’m not going to spoil it here.
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