Dunkle, Clare B. The House of Dead Maids.

Dunkle, Clare B. The House of Dead Maids
Henry Holt/macmillan children's pub group 2010 146p 15.99 978-0-8050-9116-8 ghost - Rites & ceremonies- Orphans - Bronte family E-BN


Tabby Aykroyd tells the strange tale of a her time as a nanny to a poor orphan boy at a ghost-filled mansion with bizarre rituals and ceremonies. An orphan and still a small child herself, Tabby Aykroyd was taken to a haunted mansion to be a nursemaid to a small wild orphan boy without a name. Together they roamed the old mansion discovering hiding places and quite gardens to pass the time at play. At night the housekeeper locks them into the bedroom telling them that it is for their safety but every night,angry ghost haunt the bedroom trying to tell them something. Tabby is terrified but willing to discover the truth behind the ghost haunting. Her charge she discovers needs a name but she feels that she should not be the one to name him so she calls him himself. The master of the house has taken the barely six year old child in and tells him that he is master of the house. That is all the child needs to hear and acts accordingly but Tabby must reign in his temper and bad manners.

Then the day comes when the reason they were both brought to the house becomes clear to Tabby. It is with horror that she discovers that both she and the child are to be sacrificed for the land.
The ending of the story is full of surprises and shocks that will lead you to the book written by Emily Bronte.

A scary story not to be read at night. The descriptions of the ghost are quite terrifying and creepy. Some readers may wonder about justice and the way it is used in the book but for others it is only a prelude to the book Wuthering Heights.

Supernatural Diaz, Magna