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Who's There?
When fourteen-year-old Drew and her mute younger brother come to live with their father's estranged relatives after their parents' sudden death, they discover that the house is haunted by ghosts and a deadly family secret
- GenresParanormal
235 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1994
2 people are currently reading
45 people want to read
About the author
Stephanie S. Tolan
40 books96 followersStephanie S. Tolan's earliest memories involve books. Those that were read to her and those she read to herself, often late at night with a flashlight under the covers. She always thought there was a special magic in the little black marks on paper that could turn into whole worlds and real people. Born in Ohio and raised in Wisconsin, she wrote her first story in the fourth grade. It was thrilling to discover she could make the magic herself, and she decided then and there to be a writer.
Other ambitions came and went, but writing stayed on, and she majored in creative writing at Purdue University, then went on to a Master's Degree in English. Marriage and the sudden addition to her life of three young stepsons, and then a son, forced writing into the nooks and crannies, but she wrote poetry and plays for adults as she taught college English. In the mid-seventies, Stephanie began working in the Poets-in-the-Schools program in Pennsylvania. Her first group of students were fourth and fifth graders, and she found among them a new generation of intense readers, still using the flashlight-under-the-covers trick.
The difference, she felt, was less in the children themselves than in the fast-changing world they lived in. Her writing for children and young adults, beginning with Grandpa -- And Me in 1978, has reflected that contemporary world.
Stephanie Tolan is also well known as an advocate for extremely bright children. She co-authored the award-winning nonfiction book, Guiding the Gifted Child, and has written many articles about the challenges gifted "asynchronous" children and adults face as they find a way to fit into their world. She lectures throughout the country to audiences of parents, educators and counselors attempting to find ways to meet the children's needs. Her experiences with these "amazing, off-the-charts" young people inspired the themes of Welcome to the Ark, a powerful novel about four brilliant young misfits in a world teetering on destruction.
Stephanie Tolan currently lives in Charlotte, NC, with her husband.
Other ambitions came and went, but writing stayed on, and she majored in creative writing at Purdue University, then went on to a Master's Degree in English. Marriage and the sudden addition to her life of three young stepsons, and then a son, forced writing into the nooks and crannies, but she wrote poetry and plays for adults as she taught college English. In the mid-seventies, Stephanie began working in the Poets-in-the-Schools program in Pennsylvania. Her first group of students were fourth and fifth graders, and she found among them a new generation of intense readers, still using the flashlight-under-the-covers trick.
"They brought back to me that special reading joy that most adults, even the readers among us, have lost, and I wanted to try my hand at writing for those kids, so like myself at their age and yet so different."
The difference, she felt, was less in the children themselves than in the fast-changing world they lived in. Her writing for children and young adults, beginning with Grandpa -- And Me in 1978, has reflected that contemporary world.
Stephanie Tolan is also well known as an advocate for extremely bright children. She co-authored the award-winning nonfiction book, Guiding the Gifted Child, and has written many articles about the challenges gifted "asynchronous" children and adults face as they find a way to fit into their world. She lectures throughout the country to audiences of parents, educators and counselors attempting to find ways to meet the children's needs. Her experiences with these "amazing, off-the-charts" young people inspired the themes of Welcome to the Ark, a powerful novel about four brilliant young misfits in a world teetering on destruction.
Stephanie Tolan currently lives in Charlotte, NC, with her husband.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
June 18, 2020
This book has everything that I as a kid loved, mystery, ghosts, and a boy and girl. I read this is middle school, then read it again sometime later. I love ghost stories and this was perfect in that regard. This is why I love reading, because of good stories like this that had everything you wanted.
I remember her riding bikes with the boy, maybe it was implied or stated that they liked each other. There was also a smelling of rose perfume I think, if I remember correctly, and some letters or something that tied to the ghost of the woman. I wish I remembered more, but it's been too long since I've read it.
By the second time I read, I wish there had been more romance even though they were kids. I always liked romance, even in YA novels, so I wish there had been more of that. But this is an interesting read and it will keep readers interested.
I first read this in middle school and this is the third time I've read it. I love ghost stories and there was a boy in here and that is right up my alley. It's been so many years since I last read this. I didn't remember that Drew had a little brother or that their parents had been killed and they were orphaned and living with a friend's family.
There was some mystery surrounding why her dad had never mentioned Rose Hill or that they had a grandpa and an aunt. Their aunt didn't explain why her dad never talked about it, and she dismissed her paintings of Rose Hill with Rose bushes by the drive.
I remembered roses on the wallpaper of a room, and her needing a journal and one appearing in a desk. The aunt bought her a new one at the end.
Grandfather reacted badly to meeting them, a grumpy, mean old man. He said Evan was nothing like him, and Aunt Jocelyn later told them their dad and her had had a younger brother named Evan who died at age 6 in an accident. She was also closed up about the roses that used to be there.
I perked up at the mention of Will, who comes once a week to weed the flowers and tend to the yard and garden. He's near her age. Drew is 14. He told her of how mad Aunt Jocelyn got when he suggested planting roses, and how he'd seen a blonde woman in the upstairs window a few times. Drew explained away that she'd probably had a rough day with her grandpa and asked "You don't believe in ghosts, do you?" She thought he was a kid with a big imagination. I can't stand heroines who don't believe in ghosts.
Aunt Jocelyn reacted badly when Drew mentioned she and Will had gone to the pond. She didn't want her or Evan going anywhere near there so of course we knew the woman had drowned in the pond.
Drew had a little bit of an attitude problem. She kept thinking of what the Tildens had done with them, trying to trick Evan into talking by asking him different kinds of questions, and Tillie for giving her a stuffed unicorn that she didn't like. It was nice of her to give you a gift when she didn't have to. It's not their fault their house didn't feel like home. Mrs. Tilden even said Tillie thought of her as a sister, and Drew thought something like "She didn't have a sister." And they were just trying to help Evan through the grief process; what's wrong with that? It was like she was determined not to like them. And she was all in with the new family she didn't even know she had, just because they were family.
Drew had tried to get into the center room but the door wouldn't open as if it was blocked, and just like in the attic when she'd tried to open the box, she felt freezing cold and smelled the nauseating smell of roses. When Will asked if she'd been in the room, she didn't answer and said she didn't believe in ghosts.
Will asked to help her try to open the room, and she didn't want to experience the cold again, and so she said Aunt Jocelyn wouldn't like it. He told her to invite him over and they'd go through the things in the attic. I was like why would Aunt Jocelyn not want the boy who's been doing all the yard work to come into the house? That was so unfair.
Drew had found a stuffed bunny in the attic and kept waiting to take it for when she had permission, but Evan beat her to it. He claimed it had appeared in his room and he'd never been in the attic. All without speaking, of course, only responding to her questions, because he doesn't talk. Drew heard voices coming from his room and thought he was singing and would be speaking soon. When I had heard of their uncle who'd died as a boy, I remembered that element of the story and knew whose voice it was in Evan's room.
When Drew and Will went to the library, she noticed the kid's section was named after Amalie and Evan Broderick. Aunt Jocelyn said Amalie had been her step-mother and she'd drowned with Evan in the pond.
It really bothers me when characters doubt that there's a heaven. Drew didn't even want to think about it, felt that people are just gone like they'd never been. "So what did it matter if there was another life after?" "...everyone they ever mattered to got left behind." Um, no. The point of an afterlife is that everyone will be in that afterlife, so you don't lose anyone. No one would just "be gone" like she thinks. How could it not matter if there was an afterlife??
I didn't like how she handled death and heaven. Aunt Jocelyn said "if there's a heaven" and she hopes there is. Drew also said "whatever has stolen her first life--God, fate, the universe--has given her this one, not to take its place but to let her continue..." I didn't like how the author said God stole her life.
Will and Drew investigated the drawing room, and Amalie eventually appeared as mist and her arrival was heralded by cold and that nauseating rose smell. Drew felt evil and was so scared she pulled Will out without letting him ask Amalie anything. But after talking to Will and hearing him explain that's how ghosts manifest, using heat and the area growing cold, she started feeling bad. She thought Amalie was the one consoling Evan and tried to put up with the cold so she could learn the message they thought Amalie was trying to relate. She kept wondering why she got the cold feeling and Evan got singing.
And then she finally put together that the A on the box she'd found when she first got there stood for Amalie and the feelings she'd experienced meant that Amalie had been there.
When she went through the box she found letters to Amalie from a friend, commenting on how sending Jocelyn to art school would be getting rid of her and how Broderick was a fool and Evan was a brat and Amalie couldn't be the mom to someone else's kids and she'd established her reputation. She also ordered her to destroy her journal in which she's written everything down.
I was so pleased that Drew had the wherewithal to put those letters under her mattress, and she pushed the dresser against her door at night. Not that it kept Amalie from coming, but it was a good try. That night Amalie stared with hatred and she had confirmation that Amalie wasn't who everyone thought she was. Her dad had been the only one who didn't like her.
Aunt Jocelyn annoyingly didn't think the letters proved anything, and believed Amalie that her friend was crazy. She said Drew's dad had found the letters and the argument with grandpa when he'd left.
I liked when Drew wondered if Amalie would win, get to keep the house and family when she didn't need it, and her and Evan would have to leave when they were the ones who needed it. Drew said Amalie hadn't won yet.
Drew told Will everything about the letters and her dad and Aunt Jocelyn's reaction. They went to search Amalie's writing room for the journal and Jocelyn caught them and blew up on them, called Will a stranger and forbade him from ever coming into the house. I couldn't stand her.
When Will had first showed Drew the pond, I remembered that she's been out at night and ran from the ghost and got stuck in the pond. But Evan came and yelled her name, speaking for the first time, and she stopped before she went too deep. She was even able to pull herself out.
It was much-needed when Drew had spent the night in Evan's room and had learned that Evan their uncle had been visiting Evan and singing to him, and he knew where the journal was. Amalie guarded the location and was too dangerous to go near. Will had the idea to stay with Evan while they lured Amalie away from the writing room so Drew could look for the diary. It was suspenseful and had some much-needed action. I just wish it had happened sooner in the book.
With Evan the ghost's help, Drew found the journal. But Evan had been scared into the pond and Drew and Jocelyn had to pull him it. Jocelyn finally learned the truth of Amalie, but she wasn't going to tell her dad and ruin his great love. I wish she had. I wanted him to feel so bad at believing his gold digging young wife over his son who is now dead too. He deserved that.
I actually teared up as Evan one started singing his song and Jocelyn said he used to sing that all the time, and Evan said he was going. A rely emotional moment, and Jocelyn got to say bye to her brother. I had expected an apology of some admission of being so wrong and blind about Amalie, and not believing her own brother about this stranger.
Drew realized they were home and the book ended just like that. I was so disappointed that nothing happened between her and Will, that there wasn't a hint of love. Somewhere I thought they had kissed or held hands or something, but there was nothing like that. I wanted to at least know how old he was, and if they'd been at school together.
It was funny how Will had suggested that the ghost had been jilted by a lover and was waiting at the window for him. Drew asked why did she have to be the jilted one, and suggested she had been forced to marry someone but fell in love with someone else, and her rich husband killed her. And it was funny that neither Drew nor Will thought Amalie's poems were any good. Will saw why it was privately printed and thought they couldn't have been printed any other way. And when Drew got done reading Amalie's book of poetry, she felt like she'd read her way through an entire greeting-card store. When Will had the idea to stay with Evan and lure Amalie out, he said all he'd have to do is think what a bad poet she was, memorize one of the really schmaltzy poems if he got scared.
The pacing is a little too slow.
This is one of the best ghost stories because it has depth. It's not as generic as a lot of stories. Yes, it has cold spots and a convenient way of manifesting and flying after people in a way I don't really believe is realistic, but on the whole it felt mostly unique. I was a bit bothered that as soon as Drew arrived at Rose Hill she saw movement in the window. It's just like a Betty Wren Wright novel where the heroine sees something in the window as soon as she arrives. It's not the first or last ghost novel to have a murder solved and a murderous ghost outed, but it was different in that their dad had known about her and his daughter solved the case he hadn't been able to. Amalie was remembered to be so nice but it was the exact opposite. And they lured her away to get to the proof of her evilness. It was way too easy that Amalie had written down her nefarious plot to drown a 6 year old boy and make it look like an accident. That's like murder 101. You don't leave a trace of evidence. Who would be stupid enough to lay out a detailed plan of how they're going to carry about a murder? Way too convenient.
I remember her riding bikes with the boy, maybe it was implied or stated that they liked each other. There was also a smelling of rose perfume I think, if I remember correctly, and some letters or something that tied to the ghost of the woman. I wish I remembered more, but it's been too long since I've read it.
By the second time I read, I wish there had been more romance even though they were kids. I always liked romance, even in YA novels, so I wish there had been more of that. But this is an interesting read and it will keep readers interested.
I first read this in middle school and this is the third time I've read it. I love ghost stories and there was a boy in here and that is right up my alley. It's been so many years since I last read this. I didn't remember that Drew had a little brother or that their parents had been killed and they were orphaned and living with a friend's family.
There was some mystery surrounding why her dad had never mentioned Rose Hill or that they had a grandpa and an aunt. Their aunt didn't explain why her dad never talked about it, and she dismissed her paintings of Rose Hill with Rose bushes by the drive.
I remembered roses on the wallpaper of a room, and her needing a journal and one appearing in a desk. The aunt bought her a new one at the end.
Grandfather reacted badly to meeting them, a grumpy, mean old man. He said Evan was nothing like him, and Aunt Jocelyn later told them their dad and her had had a younger brother named Evan who died at age 6 in an accident. She was also closed up about the roses that used to be there.
I perked up at the mention of Will, who comes once a week to weed the flowers and tend to the yard and garden. He's near her age. Drew is 14. He told her of how mad Aunt Jocelyn got when he suggested planting roses, and how he'd seen a blonde woman in the upstairs window a few times. Drew explained away that she'd probably had a rough day with her grandpa and asked "You don't believe in ghosts, do you?" She thought he was a kid with a big imagination. I can't stand heroines who don't believe in ghosts.
Aunt Jocelyn reacted badly when Drew mentioned she and Will had gone to the pond. She didn't want her or Evan going anywhere near there so of course we knew the woman had drowned in the pond.
Drew had a little bit of an attitude problem. She kept thinking of what the Tildens had done with them, trying to trick Evan into talking by asking him different kinds of questions, and Tillie for giving her a stuffed unicorn that she didn't like. It was nice of her to give you a gift when she didn't have to. It's not their fault their house didn't feel like home. Mrs. Tilden even said Tillie thought of her as a sister, and Drew thought something like "She didn't have a sister." And they were just trying to help Evan through the grief process; what's wrong with that? It was like she was determined not to like them. And she was all in with the new family she didn't even know she had, just because they were family.
Drew had tried to get into the center room but the door wouldn't open as if it was blocked, and just like in the attic when she'd tried to open the box, she felt freezing cold and smelled the nauseating smell of roses. When Will asked if she'd been in the room, she didn't answer and said she didn't believe in ghosts.
Will asked to help her try to open the room, and she didn't want to experience the cold again, and so she said Aunt Jocelyn wouldn't like it. He told her to invite him over and they'd go through the things in the attic. I was like why would Aunt Jocelyn not want the boy who's been doing all the yard work to come into the house? That was so unfair.
Drew had found a stuffed bunny in the attic and kept waiting to take it for when she had permission, but Evan beat her to it. He claimed it had appeared in his room and he'd never been in the attic. All without speaking, of course, only responding to her questions, because he doesn't talk. Drew heard voices coming from his room and thought he was singing and would be speaking soon. When I had heard of their uncle who'd died as a boy, I remembered that element of the story and knew whose voice it was in Evan's room.
When Drew and Will went to the library, she noticed the kid's section was named after Amalie and Evan Broderick. Aunt Jocelyn said Amalie had been her step-mother and she'd drowned with Evan in the pond.
It really bothers me when characters doubt that there's a heaven. Drew didn't even want to think about it, felt that people are just gone like they'd never been. "So what did it matter if there was another life after?" "...everyone they ever mattered to got left behind." Um, no. The point of an afterlife is that everyone will be in that afterlife, so you don't lose anyone. No one would just "be gone" like she thinks. How could it not matter if there was an afterlife??
I didn't like how she handled death and heaven. Aunt Jocelyn said "if there's a heaven" and she hopes there is. Drew also said "whatever has stolen her first life--God, fate, the universe--has given her this one, not to take its place but to let her continue..." I didn't like how the author said God stole her life.
Will and Drew investigated the drawing room, and Amalie eventually appeared as mist and her arrival was heralded by cold and that nauseating rose smell. Drew felt evil and was so scared she pulled Will out without letting him ask Amalie anything. But after talking to Will and hearing him explain that's how ghosts manifest, using heat and the area growing cold, she started feeling bad. She thought Amalie was the one consoling Evan and tried to put up with the cold so she could learn the message they thought Amalie was trying to relate. She kept wondering why she got the cold feeling and Evan got singing.
And then she finally put together that the A on the box she'd found when she first got there stood for Amalie and the feelings she'd experienced meant that Amalie had been there.
When she went through the box she found letters to Amalie from a friend, commenting on how sending Jocelyn to art school would be getting rid of her and how Broderick was a fool and Evan was a brat and Amalie couldn't be the mom to someone else's kids and she'd established her reputation. She also ordered her to destroy her journal in which she's written everything down.
I was so pleased that Drew had the wherewithal to put those letters under her mattress, and she pushed the dresser against her door at night. Not that it kept Amalie from coming, but it was a good try. That night Amalie stared with hatred and she had confirmation that Amalie wasn't who everyone thought she was. Her dad had been the only one who didn't like her.
Aunt Jocelyn annoyingly didn't think the letters proved anything, and believed Amalie that her friend was crazy. She said Drew's dad had found the letters and the argument with grandpa when he'd left.
I liked when Drew wondered if Amalie would win, get to keep the house and family when she didn't need it, and her and Evan would have to leave when they were the ones who needed it. Drew said Amalie hadn't won yet.
Drew told Will everything about the letters and her dad and Aunt Jocelyn's reaction. They went to search Amalie's writing room for the journal and Jocelyn caught them and blew up on them, called Will a stranger and forbade him from ever coming into the house. I couldn't stand her.
When Will had first showed Drew the pond, I remembered that she's been out at night and ran from the ghost and got stuck in the pond. But Evan came and yelled her name, speaking for the first time, and she stopped before she went too deep. She was even able to pull herself out.
It was much-needed when Drew had spent the night in Evan's room and had learned that Evan their uncle had been visiting Evan and singing to him, and he knew where the journal was. Amalie guarded the location and was too dangerous to go near. Will had the idea to stay with Evan while they lured Amalie away from the writing room so Drew could look for the diary. It was suspenseful and had some much-needed action. I just wish it had happened sooner in the book.
With Evan the ghost's help, Drew found the journal. But Evan had been scared into the pond and Drew and Jocelyn had to pull him it. Jocelyn finally learned the truth of Amalie, but she wasn't going to tell her dad and ruin his great love. I wish she had. I wanted him to feel so bad at believing his gold digging young wife over his son who is now dead too. He deserved that.
I actually teared up as Evan one started singing his song and Jocelyn said he used to sing that all the time, and Evan said he was going. A rely emotional moment, and Jocelyn got to say bye to her brother. I had expected an apology of some admission of being so wrong and blind about Amalie, and not believing her own brother about this stranger.
Drew realized they were home and the book ended just like that. I was so disappointed that nothing happened between her and Will, that there wasn't a hint of love. Somewhere I thought they had kissed or held hands or something, but there was nothing like that. I wanted to at least know how old he was, and if they'd been at school together.
It was funny how Will had suggested that the ghost had been jilted by a lover and was waiting at the window for him. Drew asked why did she have to be the jilted one, and suggested she had been forced to marry someone but fell in love with someone else, and her rich husband killed her. And it was funny that neither Drew nor Will thought Amalie's poems were any good. Will saw why it was privately printed and thought they couldn't have been printed any other way. And when Drew got done reading Amalie's book of poetry, she felt like she'd read her way through an entire greeting-card store. When Will had the idea to stay with Evan and lure Amalie out, he said all he'd have to do is think what a bad poet she was, memorize one of the really schmaltzy poems if he got scared.
The pacing is a little too slow.
This is one of the best ghost stories because it has depth. It's not as generic as a lot of stories. Yes, it has cold spots and a convenient way of manifesting and flying after people in a way I don't really believe is realistic, but on the whole it felt mostly unique. I was a bit bothered that as soon as Drew arrived at Rose Hill she saw movement in the window. It's just like a Betty Wren Wright novel where the heroine sees something in the window as soon as she arrives. It's not the first or last ghost novel to have a murder solved and a murderous ghost outed, but it was different in that their dad had known about her and his daughter solved the case he hadn't been able to. Amalie was remembered to be so nice but it was the exact opposite. And they lured her away to get to the proof of her evilness. It was way too easy that Amalie had written down her nefarious plot to drown a 6 year old boy and make it look like an accident. That's like murder 101. You don't leave a trace of evidence. Who would be stupid enough to lay out a detailed plan of how they're going to carry about a murder? Way too convenient.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 8, 2024
I first read this book in like 6th grade and it’s one I have never forgotten. I bought my own copy and give it a reread every year or two and honestly this story still holds up twenty-some years later.
It is such a good, haunting mystery. Such a compellingly tragic story as all the pieces fall into place, the mystery is unraveled, and the truth is revealed. This could easily be turned into a movie, it’s a shame it wasn’t.
Overall I cannot recommend this book to adolescents and adults alike. I know it’s technically a children’s book but it’s still such a great read even for adults.
5 out of 5 stars. Well deserved.
It is such a good, haunting mystery. Such a compellingly tragic story as all the pieces fall into place, the mystery is unraveled, and the truth is revealed. This could easily be turned into a movie, it’s a shame it wasn’t.
Overall I cannot recommend this book to adolescents and adults alike. I know it’s technically a children’s book but it’s still such a great read even for adults.
5 out of 5 stars. Well deserved.
October 17, 2013
This is one of my favorite ghost novels. I first read this when I was in middle school (6th grade I think b/c I had to get my parents approval to read Young Adult (YA) novels. - 7th grades didn't need parental approval). I scared the living H*LL out of me. I have sense gone back and have noticed things that are a little too unbelievable or too outstretched but parts of the book still gets me. I have and am still a HUGE fan of the supernatural - Ghost related - novels, shows, etc. This was and is still in my recommended to read list if your looking for some ghosts. I love the subtle yet drastic descriptions that leaves me contemplating if I smelling the perfume in my own room. The author is descriptive yet leaving out enough for young teens imaginations to run wild.
July 12, 2016
I certainly liked it when I read it in 1997. I wrote "anyone who likes a good ghost mystery should read this mystery. It's very similar to The Ghost of Mercy Manor."
October 13, 2020
En av mina bästa bokupplevelser som barn!
September 27, 2016
I'm trying to clean out my library, so had to read this to see if it was worth keeping. It was good enough, but not enough for me to keep.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews