Posted on by TracyC · 1 Comment

The Haunting of Grade Three

HauntingG3The Haunting of Grade Three by Grace Maccarone, 1984.

Elwood Elementary has become overcrowded, so the third-graders have been moved to an old mansion, Blackwell House, which has been empty for years. The house looks kind of spooky, and there are a lot of local ghost stories about it. Fortunately, Adam Johnson likes scary stories, so he thinks that it’s wonderful to go to school there.

Soon after the students move into the house, strange things begin happening. Objects fall off desks and shelves, and door slam for no reason.  Some of the kids discover a grave marker on the property for a boy about their age who died during the Civil War.  The kids start getting nervous, and so does their teacher, Mr. Jenkins. Then, Mr. Jenkins decides to give the kids group assignments. Each committee gets to go to a different place in town and learn about it. Adam’s committee is assigned to study Blackwell House and decide if it’s really haunted. The kids think their assignment is pretty strange, but Adam is excited.  He wants to be a ghost hunter like on Ghostbusters!

HauntingGradeThreeMost of the group members are misfits in one way or another. Norma Hamburger is a shy girl, frequently teased about her last name. Debbie Clark is a talkative girl who’s really into science. Chuck Webber, Adam’s best friend, is the class clown, always telling stupid jokes (and one of the main people who teases Norma about her name). Danny Biddicker is strong and good at sports, but he worries that he’s not as smart as the others. Joey Baker feels overshadowed by his large family, so he tells tall tales to get attention. The other kids don’t understand and get annoyed with his lies. By working together, they not only learn the secret of Blackwell House, but they learn more about each other and become a real team and friends.

In the end, there is a reasonable explanation for the haunting of Blackwell House.  The kids take a methodical approach to the mystery, gathering their facts and ruling out various possibilities along the way.  Joey gets a chance to be a real hero, Danny proves to himself and everyone else that he’s smart and has good ideas, and Adam gets a new life ambition.

HauntingG3Pic

One other thing that I thought was interesting is that Adam, the main character in the story, is African American, but it’s never mentioned in the text of the story.  You only know because it’s shown in the pictures.  It’s just a little detail and not important to the story, but I thought it was interesting in a story that encourages kids to notice details.  I also liked it that Adam isn’t defined by race or appearance as so many characters in kids’ books are.  He stands by himself as an interesting character with his own ideas, courage, and leadership abilities.

This is the first book in the Third Grade Ghosthunters series.  It is currently available online through Internet Archive.

Posted on by TracyC

The Ghost that Came Alive

GhostCameAlive 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.

GhostCameAlivePicThey 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.