Book cover of Wait Till Helen Comes: a Ghost Story

Book description

Twelve-year-old Molly and her ten-year-old brother, Michael, have never liked their seven-year-old stepsister, Heather. Ever since their parents got married, she's made Molly and Michael's life miserable. Now their parents have moved them all to the country to live in a house that used to be a church, with a…

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Why read it?

2 authors picked Wait Till Helen Comes as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

This is the 1986 middle grades book that got me hooked on haunted house stories. I loved it because it was about a family recently moving to a house near a spooky pond and a lonely girl who finds something in the woods.

I, too, had just moved to a new house, on a pond, in the woods, when I read it. I, too, felt energies in the wild places I explored, especially when I discovered historical remains of a time past, which I often did. I read this book again recently, and it was still a page-turner that gave…

From Ariel's list on haunted house stories for everyone.

When you’re an avid reader as a child, there are few books that leave a distinct impression—an everlasting feeling that stays with you for the rest of your life. After all, how can one book stand out among one hundred? Well, Wait Till Helen Comes was one of those books for me.

Hahn is a master storyteller, weaving in the chilling elements that seem to jump off the page and into the comfort of your reading chair. It’s a heartbreaking story about two stepsisters, one who befriends a ghost who lures children into her pond to drown. Full of manipulation…

From Lindsey's list on ghost stories for young readers.

If you love Wait Till Helen Comes...

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The Catalysts by Joseph Guzzo,

Red is a shelter cat adopted by the Gioppolo family. Fatty is a nameless stray who wanders into Red’s backyard and begins a tentative friendship with him. She’s had a horrible encounter with a human before, so she’s wary of joining the family. After seeing that Red appears to have…

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