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Reviewed by:
  • The Girl behind the Glass
  • Deborah Stevenson
Kelley, Jane . The Girl behind the Glass. Random House, 2011. [192p]. Library ed. ISBN 978-0-375-96220-2 $19.99 Trade ed. ISBN 978-0-375-86220-5 $16.99 E-book ed. ISBN 978-0-375-88996-7 $16.99 Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 4-7.

It wasn't the twins' idea to move out of the city—it's their teenaged older sister, Selena, who couldn't cut it in the New York schools—and Hannah and Anna, eleven, are particularly suspicious of the creepy old house the family is temporarily renting. Soon Anna has found herself a social niche at school, though, leaving Hannah solitary for the first time in her life. As the lonely girl spends more time in the house, she becomes increasingly aware of the supernatural presence there. That presence is sufficiently frightening that merely seeing it elicits a fatal heart attack in Hannah's teacher—and the unhappy specter now wants Hannah to be its new best friend. Mood is all-important in ghost stories, and Kelley nails it right from the start: the narration lacks even enough identity for an "I" pronoun, but it's clearly coming from some disturbing supernatural aspect of the house that has strong opinions and the ability to read human thoughts. A sharp wit flashes at times, but more often the book cannily plays on emotions in its isolation of Hannah and its hinting at vague but clearly sinister possibilities in store. This has a pleasing amount of chill for readers who've moved beyond Marion Dane Bauer's gentler elementary spooky tales; they'll be glad of the peaceful resolution for ghost and Hannah alike, but they'll relish the genuinely unease-inducing menace along the way. [End Page 525]

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