The Stanley family has been through some changes in the last few months. After their mother died, the children: David, Janie, Esther, and Blair, learned to cope, with David, the oldest, often being in charge while their father was at work. Then another change brought Molly to the family as their new stepmother. She was short and cheerful and pretty, and she was an artist. The kids all liked her. They needed more space, so they moved to an old, larger house in the country known as the Westerly House. They adjusted to that, but then Amanda arrived. She was Molly’s daughter, and had been living with her father, but now would be living with the Stanleys. Amanda was strange and difficult, but interesting. She and her mother Molly did not get along. Amanda was what we’d now call Goth: interested in the occult and raising spirits, dressing in odd dark clothing she’d found at thrift stories. She brought her pet crow, which did not seem to like her either.

As the Stanley children got to know Amanda, she invited them to join some of her activities, like a midnight seance, and she arranged a series of tasks they had to complete to become her magic initiates. This was all kind of fun, but then more strange things began to happen that were frightening. stones suddenly flying through the air in the house, and at night, things were smashed with lots of noise. Amanda said it was a poltergeist, and she did research at the library that uncovered a secret about the Westerly House. It had been haunted by a poltergeist decades earlier, too. Molly was the most frightened, which seemed to please Amanda, but then something happened that even frightened Amanda.

A fine exploration of family dynamics and characters, with an interesting supernatural angle. A Newbery Honor Book. Recommended.

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