A Message from the Match Girl

by Janet Taylor Lisle

Overview

In search of the truth about his heritage, Walter only finds more mystery

Walter Kew has grown up without a past. Orphaned since birth and raised by his grandparents, he knows nothing about his parents, who died in an accident. Obsessively curious about the mother he never knew, he turns to the occult, using Ouija boards, crystal balls, and spells to reach out to the other world. But he’s never had any luck—until now. Walking home from school, Walter hears what he thinks is his mother’s voice—faint, but very real. Although he can’t quite understand her words, he’s convinced she’s trying to tell him something. With his friends Georgina and Poco, he looks for clues. Their quest takes them to a statue of the Little Match Girl in the park, where infant Walter was once photographed with his mother. As the three investigators chase the mystery, Walter will learn more about his past—and his present—than he ever thought possible.  This ebook features a personal history by Janet Taylor Lisle including rare images and never-before-seen documents from the author’s own collection.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781453271865
Publisher:	Open Road Media
Publication date:	01/29/2013
Series:	Investigators of the Unknown , #3
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	121
Lexile:	620L (what's this?)
File size:	9 MB
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Janet Taylor Lisle (b. 1947) is an author of children’s fiction.  After growing up in Connecticut, Lisle graduated from Smith College and spent a year working for the volunteer group VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America) before becoming a journalist. She found that she loved writing human interest and “slice of life” stories, and honed the skills for observation and dialogue that would later serve her in her fiction. Lisle took a fiction writing course in 1981, and then submitted a manuscript to Richard Jackson, a children’s book editor at Bradbury Press who was impressed with her storytelling. Working with Jackson, Lisle published her first novel, The Dancing Cats of Applesap, in 1984. Since then she has written more than a dozen books for young readers, including The Great Dimpole Oak (1987) and Afternoon of the Elves (1989), which won a Newbery Honor. Her most recent novel is Highway Cats (2008). 
Janet Taylor Lisle (b. 1947) is an author of children’s fiction. After growing up in Connecticut, Lisle graduated from Smith College and spent a year working for the volunteer group VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America) before becoming a journalist. She found that she loved writing human interest and “slice of life” stories, and honed the skills for observation and dialogue that would later serve her in her fiction. Lisle took a fiction writing course in 1981, and then submitted a manuscript to Richard Jackson, a children’s book editor at Bradbury Press who was impressed with her storytelling. Working with Jackson, Lisle published her first novel, The Dancing Cats of Applesap, in 1984. Since then she has written more than a dozen books for young readers, including The Great Dimpole Oak (1987) and Afternoon of the Elves (1989), which won a Newbery Honor. Her most recent novel is Highway Cats (2008).

Read an Excerpt

Chapter One

AT FIRST, Walter Kew hardly knew he was being haunted. His mother's voice came so softly, like a thought that might have been his own. He would be walking home from school or slouching on the front steps of his house, and the wind would ruffle his hair like an invisible hand. Then he would hear her.

Not "Hello, Walter, how are you doing down there on earth?" Or "It's been a while since I've seen you, dear. Are you remembering to brush your teeth?"

Walter's mother didn't talk like other mothers. She had died nine years ago when he was a baby, so her words had to travel across dark oceans of time. When they finally reached Walter, they were as faint and uncertain as ghosts.

She spoke in tones that Walter sensed more than heard. He would sit perfectly still, head cocked to one side, and her voice would come whispering into his mind. Then it drifted off before he quite caught her meaning, and nothing he did would bring her back again. He was sure of one thing. She wanted to tell him some thing.

"How do you know?" Walter's friend Georgina Rusk asked him. "How do you even know it's your mother? You can't remember what her voice sounded like. You were too little when she died to remember anything about her. This voice could be anyone's, from anywhere. Or maybe it's no one's and you're making it up." She gave him a narrow glance.

Walter pulled his baseball cap down low over his eyes. "I know it's my mother," he said. "People don't make mistakes about things like mothers."

"Since when?" asked Georgina. "They're like everyone else."

"No they aren't. You don't know. You see yours every day. All these years I've been trying to get through to mine. I've tried spellsand dreams and crystal balls. Even when I asked the Ouija board, I was never sure I got her. Now, at last, she's making contact with me-except there's some kind of interference on the line."

"Interference! What is this, a credit card call?"

Walter sighed and took off his cap. Georgina's mind was of the practical, earthbound sort. Unknown things like ghosts were too shadowy for her. As for ghost voices trying to get through-

"You mean dirt interference?" she asked him, suddenly serious. "From your mother being, you know, buried underground?"

"Not dirt. Something outside this world." Walter's eyes flicked away. They were the palest blue, almost white in certain lights. "Spirit-seeing eyes," their friend Poco Lambert called them. At school, teachers snapped their fingers under his nose: "Control tower to Walter! Please come in!"

"It's an ages-old communication problem," he informed Georgina now. "I'm not the only one who's had trouble. Only a few people in history have ever heard what the dead were trying to tell them."

"That is certainly okay with me," Georgina said. "Who needs a lot of ghosts calling up and telling you things? There are enough living people trying to do that already.... Nothing against your mother," she added quickly. "I'm sure she was a very nice person."

"But that's the whole point. She still is!" Walter cried. "My mother's still out there, and now she wants to come back."

Copyright ) 1995 by Janet Taylor Lisle

Editorial Reviews

In this "poignant" addition to the IOU (Investigators of the Unknown) series, an orphan receives messages apparently from his dead mother. "The depiction of a sensitive child yearning for truth is breathtakingly clear," said PW in a starred review. Ages 8-12. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Gr 3-6Walter Kew is a boy who is haunted. He believes his mother's ghost is trying to contact him, but he is also haunted by his own past, or more appropriately, his lack of one. Told by his grandmother that his parents were killed when he was a baby, Walter longs to know more about them. His intense desire seems to bring his mother's presence from ``across dark oceans of time.'' At first he merely senses her voice ``like a thought that might have been his own,'' but soon a mysterious message is found near the statue of the Little Match Girl in Andersen Park. As tokens from Walter's infant past begin to appear, he uncovers a little of the truth about himself. These facts also expose some of the anger and hurt he feels at being abandoned. Concerned about his well being, his two friends Poco and Georgina try to find their own way to the truth, for as Poco says, ``You have to have stories about yourself.'' The theme is gently handled and never overburdens a fast-moving and suspenseful tale. As in the other well-written books in the series, Lisle sustains interest with a mystery but doesn't quite resolve all the questions at the end, leaving it to individual readers to bring their own understandings to the story. The characters are believable middle graders, each with their own idiosyncrasies, and the presence of Juliette, a remarkable Siamese, adds a further touch of magic and mystery.Barbara Kiefer, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York City

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