The Girl Behind the Glass

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Overview

The house on Hemlock Road used to be someone's home. Until something happened. Something that even after 80 years, can never be forgotten or forgiven . . . .

Eleven-year-old twins Hannah and Anna agree about everything—especially that they don't want to move to the creepy old house on Hemlock Road. But as soon as they move into the house, the twins start disagreeing for the first time in their lives. In fact, it's almost as though something or someone is trying to drive them apart. While Anna settles in, Hannah can't ignore the strange things that keep happening on Hemlock Road. Why does she sense things that no one else in the family does?  Like ...

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Overview

The house on Hemlock Road used to be someone's home. Until something happened. Something that even after 80 years, can never be forgotten or forgiven . . . .

Eleven-year-old twins Hannah and Anna agree about everything—especially that they don't want to move to the creepy old house on Hemlock Road. But as soon as they move into the house, the twins start disagreeing for the first time in their lives. In fact, it's almost as though something or someone is trying to drive them apart. While Anna settles in, Hannah can't ignore the strange things that keep happening on Hemlock Road. Why does she sense things that no one else in the family does?  Like when the hemlock branch outside waves shush, shush. Or at night, if she listens hard enough, it's almost as though someone is trying to talk to her. Someone no one else can hear. Someone angry enough to want revenge. Hannah, are you listening? Is the house haunted? Is Hannah crazy? Or does something in the house want her as a best friend—forever?

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly
Both chilling and lyrical, Kelley's second novel is a ghost story with a cryptic narrator whose identity gradually comes into focus. Hannah and Anna Zimmer, 11-year-old twins, reluctantly move with their family from their beloved Brooklyn to a creepy house on Hemlock Road. Right away, the siblings are unnerved by bizarre disturbances: a haunted closet, mysterious winds, bats in the attic, and a faint voice. The twins initially plot to use the house's eccentricities to terrorize their older sister, Selena, but while Anna begins to adjust to their new life and school, Hannah does not, becoming resentful and committed to deciphering the house's mysteries. As befits a story swirling with familial secrets and betrayals, the tensions within the Zimmer family are especially well-observed, and Kelley (Nature Girl) conveys an impressive amount of emotion with few words. The ethereal tone and steady parceling out of warning, clues, and bits of information ("And yet something had happened in the shadow of those rocks. It changed the place forever. It could never be forgiven") maintain the novel's intrigue and will keep readers invested in the unfolding mystery. Ages 9–12. (Aug.)
Children's Literature
Twins Hannah and Anna are skeptical of their parents' decision to move to a creepy old house on Hemlock Road. They blame their sister, Selena for the loss of their city life-style. When Selena is frightened by something she thinks she sees in her closet, the twins decide it would be fun to scare her. What snares readers right away is the terrifyingly cold voice of a "watcher." The story is being told by someone the characters cannot see, and she is very, very angry. As Anna and Selena settle in and make friends, Hannah becomes increasingly isolated and angry. She does not like school, or Anna's new friend Georgia, and she begins to feel the presence that haunts the house. Hannah is horrified when her teacher comes to visit and has a heart attack after she "sees" something. The teacher dies and Hannah begins to "hear" and feel the spirit more clearly. She learns her name: Ruth. And because Ruth is telling the story, we know she died tragically and felt abandoned, particularly by her sister. She loved books (especially The Bastables), and cared about bats and mice. She cares about Hannah, too. In an increasingly dangerous, disorientated state, Hannah ventures out one night to follow Ruth, and nearly drowns. Can Ruth reconcile with her sister? Will her spirit ever rest? This is a gripping read with high appeal, vivid language and a great plot. Reviewer: Dawna Lisa Buchanan
School Library Journal
Gr 4–6—When yet another family moves into the house she died in and has been haunting for more than 80 years, a ghost tells her story. She makes for an oddly detached narrator; she can read thoughts, but not emotions. Her motives are never entirely clear-does she want to save the attic's resident bats? drive apart the 11-year-old twin sisters who just moved in? finally be laid to rest?-but the creep factor is never in doubt. Suggest this one to fans of Mary Downing Hahn who can't get enough chills.—Laurie Slagenwhite Walters, Peachtree Montessori International, Ann Arbor, MI
Kirkus Reviews

It takes a haunted house to break the bond of identical twins.

If Hannah and Anna's older sister, Selena, had tested high enough to place into a good school in their Brooklyn neighborhood, their parents wouldn't be building a home in the suburbs and the 11-year-olds certainly wouldn't be living temporarily in the decrepit old house on Hemlock Road, where locals have claimed to see a peculiar set of green eyes peering back at them. The sisters notice oddities immediately, from an unidentifiable horrid smell to bats in the attic to unexplained breezes. What Hannah and Anna, who have always been close enough to read each other's minds, don't notice right away is how they not only don't understand each other anymore, but often don't even like each other. Readers observe the twins' changes through a seemingly third-person narration that subtly morphs into a first-person narration. Is the vengeful narrator the house itself, a monstrous beast or an angry inhabitant from the past? Readers slowly discover the narrator's identity as it, seizing on Hannah's separation from her sister, tries to manipulate her into a supernatural friendship, and Hannah uncovers information about a shell-shocked solider from World War I, a jealous sister's rivalry and a tragedy from 80 years ago.

Mounting creepiness with well-placed spine-tingling moments make this scary story perfect for fans of Mary Downing Hahn.(Ghost story. 9-12)

Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9780375862199
  • Publisher: Random House Children's Books
  • Publication date: 8/7/2012
  • Pages: 192
  • Age range: 9 - 12 Years

Meet the Author

JANE KELLEY is the author of the middle-grade novel, Nature Girl (Random House, 2010). She lives in Brooklyn with her husband, her daughter, and a black cat who sometimes cries in the night for no apparent reason. You can visit her website at JaneKelleyBooks.com.


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