This is about two young girls who have to go live with their Aunt when their mother is put in an institution. Their dad leaves them with their aunt as he has to make a living. In this little area there is a church that is mostly abandoned because Long Lanking is there with the ghosts of the little children he steals and he's got his eye on the youngest of the two sisters. I would not give this to my 13 yr. old grandson despite the age recommendation. Will recommend for my book club.
This was my high school book club's October selection (I am the club advisor). We try to pick a "scary sounding" book during this month. The students had a difficult time getting into it, and found some of the wording hard to understand. (the author uses a lot of British vernacular, and we are in the U.S.) Many of the students gave up on it, and never finished it! I think we had maybe three students actually read the entire book out of the 10-15 who are in our group. I found it interesting, but VERY slow. Nothing exciting really happens until almost the end of the book. The characters are great, but there needed to be more to the whole thing. I personally had no trouble with the wording, but if you are buying this for a young adult, have a dictionary handy! Ha!
