Wait Till Helen Comes...

I am so delighted to announce that my boys have FINALLY shown an interest in reading with me. After years of forcing them to sit and listen for the "required" 20 minutes, after years of moans and groans and whines, my diligence has finally paid off. They are actually interested in reading. So the last few days we have been scrounging through my old dusty books, trying to find just the perfect story to read. They finally settled on Wait Till Helen Comes, a ghost story by Mary Downing Hahn. This book isn't normally what I review on this site, but I couldn't pass up the chance to highlight this fun YA novel. Filled with mystery, nail-biting moments, and fun, believable characters, this is just the sort of story to hold your interest. I first stumbled on Mary Downing Hahn when I was a young girl and her books quickly became my favorites.

Publisher's Notes:

Beware of Helen...

Heather is such a whiny little brat. Always getting Michael and me into trouble. But since our mother married her father, we're stuck with her...our "poor stepsister" who lost her real mother in a mysterious fire.

But now something terrible has happened. Heather has found a new friend, out in the graveyard behind our home -- a girl named Helen who died with her family in a mysterious fire over a hundred years ago. Now her ghost returns to lure children into the pond...to drown! I don't want to believe in ghosts, but I've followed Heather into the graveyard and watch her talk to Helen. And I'm terrified. Not for myself, but for Heather...

My Review: Heather makes everyone's life miserable. Always trying to get Molly and her brother Michael into trouble, she is hard to live with, but when Molly's mother and her new husband Dave announce their new family is moving to the country, Molly doesn't think things can get much worse. When the family moves into a little church in the middle of nowhere, Heather soon discovers an old tombstone hidden in the brambles near the old cemetery. Frightened by some unknown premonition, Molly does her best to keep Heather away from the strange tombstone, but when Heather starts talking to an unseen presence things begin to get scary fast. This is definitely a fun story. I thought the character's were very believable and the story-line flows at a good pace. I would recommend this book for children 8 or older. Mary Downing Hahn's knack for story-telling shows evident in this fun, short read. I give it 5 stars!