Coquitlam Public Library

The Girl in the Locked Room, Mary Downing Hahn

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The Girl in the Locked Room

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Mary Downing Hahn

Ghost story master Mary Downing Hahn unrolls the suspenseful, spine-chilling yarn of a girl imprisoned for more than a century, the terrifying events that put her there, and a friendship that crosses the boundary between past and present. A family moves into an old, abandoned house. Jules's parents love the house, but Jules is frightened and feels a sense of foreboding. When she sees a pale face in an upstairs window, though, she can't stop wondering about the eerie presence on the top floor-in a room with a locked door. Could it be someone who lived in the house a century earlier? Her fear replaced by fascination, Jules is determined to make contact with the mysterious figure and help unlock the door. Past and present intersect as she and her ghostly friend discover-and change-the fate of the family who lived in the house all those many years ago. Ghost story master Mary Downing Hahn unrolls the suspenseful, spine-chilling yarn of a girl imprisoned for more than a century, the terrifying events that put her there, and a friendship that crosses the boundary between past and present. "An enthralling ghostly tale."--School Library Journal "This gentle paranormal mystery is perfect for young readers."--Booklist "Hahn's mystery offers an atmospheric setting, a child ghost, and eerie circumstances."--Publishers Weekly Mary Downing Hahn has written thirty-six novels, including Wait Till Helen Comes,Took, and most recently, One for Sorrow. Her wildly popular books have received more than fifty child-voted state awards as well as an Edgar Award. Mary travels widely and is a dedicated photographer. She lives in Columbia, Maryland. www.marydowninghahnbooks.com 1 The Girl The girl is alone in the locked room. At first, she writes the day of the week, the month, and the year on a wall. She means to keep a record of her time in the room, but after a while she begins skipping a day or several days. Soon, days, months, and years become a meaningless jumble. She forgets her birthday. And then her name. But what does it matter? No one comes to visit, no one asks her name, no one asks how old she is. At first, the room seems large, but soon it shrinks-?or seems to. It becomes a prison. The key disappeared long ago. No matter-?she's afraid to leave. They're waiting for her to open the door. She feels their presence, faint in the daytime but solid and loud at night. Their boots storm up the steps. They hammer on the door. They yell for her to come out. But how can she? The door is locked from the outside. Even if she wanted to, she could not obey their commands. She huddles in the shadows, her eyes closed, her fingers in her ears, and waits for them to leave. The trouble is, they always come back. Not every night, but often enough that she always waits to hear their horses gallop toward the house, to hear their boots on the stairs, to hear their fists on her door. She used to know who they were and why they came, but now she knows only that they are bad men who will hurt her if they find her. They say they won't, but she doesn't believe them. So she huddles in the wardrobe, under a pile of old dresses, and doesn't move until she hears their horses gallop away. Every morning, the girl looks at a date written on the wall-?June 1, 1889. She doesn't remember why she wrote the date or what happened that day. Indeed, she isn't even sure she wrote it. Maybe someone else, some other girl, was here once. Maybe that girl wrote the date. Someone, perhaps that other girl, certainly not herself, drew pictures on the wall. They tell a story, a terrible story. The story frightens her. It makes her cry sometimes. In a strange way, she knows the story is true, the story is about her. Not the girl she is now, but perhaps the girl she..

juvenile