Jade Green: A Ghost Story » (Reprint)

Phyllis Reynolds Naylor includes many of her own growing-up experiences in the Alice books. She writes for both children and adults and is the author of more than one hundred and twenty-five books, including the Alice series, which Entertainment Weekly has called "tender" and "wonderful." In 1992 her novel Shiloh won the Newbery Medal. She lives with her husband, Rex, in Gaithersburg, Maryland, and is the mother of two sons, both grown and married.  Visit Phyllis online at alicemckinley.wordpress.com

Mark Elliott has a BFA in illustration from the School of Visual Arts. He has illustrated a number of book covers and his work has been exhibited at the Society of Illustrators and the Art Directors Guild. Mark lives on a sheep farm in the Hudson Valley region of New York.

At first glance the large brown house at the end of Stone Street seems so forbidding that Judith Sparrow wants to turn back. But turn back to where?

Recently orphaned, she has no alternative other than to be taken in by her stern uncle Geoffrey, who agreed to the arrangement with one peculiar provision: Judith could bring with her whatever belongings she liked except for anything green. The color green is strictly forbidden in his house.

Upon arrival at the house, Judith is determined to make the best of it and indeed is cheered by the warmth and charm of Mrs. Hastings, her uncle's housekeeper, if less so by her older cousin Charles, who seems to alternate between friendliness and a certain suspicious animosity. Even her uncle seems willing to open up to her at times.

But then strange, ghostly things begin to happen, and Judith finds her happiness in her new home, including a budding romance with Zeke, the miller's son, compromised by terrifying experiences she can share with no one, not to mention the ghastly stories she hears about the household's past.

And Judith must wonder if her one small transgression of the rule — her having concealed in her trunk a small green picture frame given to her by her mother — has somehow caused it all by bringing that past to life again.

KLIATT

Naylor, the award-winning author of over 100 books for children and young adults, has penned another winner in this fast-paced spellbinder. Fifteen-year-old orphan Judith Sparrow moves in with Uncle Geoffrey, Cousin Charles, and Mrs. Hastings. Through town gossip, Judith learns the story of Jade Green, the girl who lived in the Sparrow house until she committed suicide with a meat cleaver. Judith begins seeing Jade Green's white-gloved hand playing the piano, scurrying across the floor, and chopping gashes into the cutting board with a cleaver. Though scared of the hand, Judith becomes more afraid of the leering Cousin Charles. During the climax, a hurricane, Charles attempts to rape and kill Judith and admits to killing Jade Green. Jade Green's hand comes to the rescue, choking Charles to death and disappearing forever into the storm's swirling pools of water. This riveting story is a well written and age-appropriate quick read that would appeal to reluctant readers as well. Judith will win the reader's heart in this first-person account of how she works to fit into an odd family, experiences first love, and learns that the living can be as dangerous as the dead. Recommended for YA collections in both school and public libraries. KLIATT Codes: JS—Recommended for junior and senior high school students. 1999, Simon & Schuster, Aladdin, 169p., $4.99. Ages 13 to 18. Reviewer: Kim Harris; YA Libn., Newman Riga Lib., Churchville, NY , September 2001 (Vol. 35 No. 5)