Jack, who suffers from severe asthma, moves into a house inhabited by tortured spirits that only he can sense: four trapped children and the woman who consumes their souls while purporting to mother them. The Ghost Mother covets Jack's love and possesses his mother in an attempt to gain it. Haunting imagery and fully realized supernatural mythology charge this eerie ghost story.

An evil presence lurks in the 200-year-old farmhouse that Jack moves into with his mother. Jack, who suffers from asthma, can communicate with ghosts (an ability he recognized after his father's death), and on his first day in the house, he senses that it harbors many secrets. Living in the house is a ghost Jack names Ghost Mother, as well as four ghost children of various ages. Readers will quickly figure out that the Ghost Mother is a menacing character who holds the ghost children prisoners. At first, Jack enjoys his conversations with Ghost Mother but then things take a disturbing turn. It seems that Ghost Mother wants to be Jack's mother (""""I never had a son, you know, though I often wished for one of my own""""). In her desperation, she enters Jack's mother's body. When Jack doesn't respond the way she'd hoped, Ghost Mother seeks revenge. A chain of events builds the suspense until Jack's near-death face-off with Ghost Mother. The alternating story in McNish's (The Silver Child) gruesome and chilling tale reveals what happened in the farmhouse 150 years before. Unfortunately, the happily-ever-after ending detracts from the overall creepiness of this intriguing and rather scary ghost story. Ages 10-up.

Gr 4-8-Asthmatic Jack and his recently widowed mother move into an old farmhouse-but they aren't alone. The spirits of four children also inhabit it, but only Jack can see and hear them. Those spirits aren't alone, either. A Ghost Mother rules the roost and has enslaved the ghost children. And now she is after Jack. However, he has a second sight that might help him save the souls of those dead, abused children. Can he act fast enough to save himself and his mother? McNish keeps the pacing and action moving right along. While the story is plot driven, the author gives his characters substance, and his language usage and style are fairly sophisticated. This is a well-crafted story that is weightier than the standard chiller. Filled with suspense, it will keep readers riveted to the pages.-Elaine Baran Black, Gwinnett County Public Library, Lawrenceville, GA Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Twelve-year-old Jack and his mother move into an old farmhouse in the English countryside. Jack loves old things because he has a unique gift: "The way people who had once lived in houses conveyed themselves to Jack-through tiny, fleeting trace memories in furniture." His mother hopes that by surrounding Jack with unfamiliar things that he can touch and communicate with will distract him from missing his recently deceased father. Initially Jack loves the old house, even when he discovers that the woman who lived there before them died in the very bed in which he sleeps. But then he begins to sense the presence of spirits and not just memories. The house has been haunted for more than a hundred years by the Ghost Mother, who has forced four children's spirits to join her. Because the ghost children fear and hate her, the Ghost Mother has decided that she wants a living child to love her and she is not taking no for an answer, even if it means forcing Jack's real mother out of the picture. McNish's vivid descriptions of the ghosts and Jack's interaction with them is so real that just the thought of the icy coldness of the malevolent Ghost Mother's touch will make the reader shudder. Oliver, the strongest willed of the ghost children, develops a coded message to help Jack, but what these children's spirits and Jack endure may well cause the reader to leave the light on at night. Even the most reluctant reader will not be able to put this one down.-Ruth Cox Clark.