ALA Booklist

Judith Sparrow is pleased that her uncle will take her in after she is orphaned. There's one odd string attached, however. She can't bring anything green into the house. Naturally, Judith does just that--her mother's picture in a green frame. Judith takes a job at a millinery shop, where she learns that her uncle's house is haunted by the ghost of young Jade Green, who died there--by chopping off her own hand and bleeding to death. When Judith begins seeing a creeping hand, she is horrified, especially since she feels responsible for bringing Jade back to the house. The story is curiously adult, with the very predictable villain of the piece Judith's 40-year-old cousin Charles, who forced himself on Jade and unsuccessfully tries the same thing with Judith. Although Charles tells Judith how he made it appear that Jade killed herself, it's not explained clearly enough for the audience. There are some creepy moments here, and Naylor's writing is, as always, satisfyingly smooth, but the story never really exhibits the haunted feel a ghost story should. However, the title and Naylor's name will draw some readers. (Reviewed December 15, 1999)

Horn Book

Taken in by a wealthy uncle, orphaned Judith learns that a former resident of the home--another teenage orphan--died under mysterious circumstances. Set in nineteenth-century South Carolina, this strongly atmospheric gothic tale features a ghostly, disembodied hand that creeps around the house, a menacing old cousin who threatens Judith's honor, and a local delivery boy with romantic intentions.

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

<EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">PW called this period ghost story about an orphaned girl who moves a great distance to live with her only relatives "a satisfying spine-tingler." Ages 10-14. <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">(June)

School Library Journal

Gr 5-8-When Judith Sparrow is orphaned at age 15, she is lucky enough to be taken in by her elderly Uncle Geoffrey in South Carolina, where she helps the cook with housework but is otherwise treated as family. She finds work in a hatmaker's shop and makes friends, but two things mar her happiness. The first is Charles, her 40-year-old unemployed, dissipated cousin, who lavishes unwanted attention on her. The second is the mystery concerning a girl named Jade Green, who used to live in the house but who died gruesomely three years earlier, supposedly by her own hand. Strange scratching noises coming from her closet, a bloodstain on the stairs, and finally a hideous disembodied hand begin to terrorize Judith, until a final showdown with Charles shows Judith the truth about Jade Green's demise. The slightly old-fashioned, first-person narrative matches the period setting of this story, which is unspecified but is set sometime in the horse-drawn past. Judith's adjustment to her new life, her budding friendship with a young man named Zeke, and her growing horror of the supernatural happenings in her new home will absorb readers. Judith isn't a particularly plucky heroine; she must be rescued twice, once by Zeke and once by Jade Green. Nevertheless, this is a satisfying ghost story that demands to be read in one sitting.-Eva Mitnick, Los Angeles Public Library Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.