When the World Stopped

by Anne E. Schraff

When Mark's mother died 12 years ago in a fall at home, Mark was there in his bed. He has recurring memories of the accident and is afraid that his father was involved. With the help of his grandfather, Mark finally learns the truth.

100 pages, Library Binding

First published September 1, 2005

About the author

Anne Elaine Schraff grew up in Cleveland, Ohio. She received both her bachelor's and master's degrees from California State University at Northridge and taught high school for ten years.

Anne paid her way through college by writing short stories for magazines. Since college she has written hundreds of stories and over eighty books including historical fiction, biographies, science books, and her favorite, fictional books for young people. She is published as both Anne Schraff and Anne E. Schraff.

Her background, which she describes as "multicultural, lower middle-class neighborhood, including African Americans, Mexican Americans, Arab Americans, and Filipino Americans," is her greatest inspiration when writing.

Reviews

[Lizbeth R · Rating 5 out of 5]

“When the world stopped”, in my opinion this is a really good book. It taught me that you shouldn’t judge/blame anyone before knowing the truth. Mark experienced his mother’s death, and for about 12 years he has been traumatized with the idea that his own father killed his mom when they had an argument. Mark was about four years old when this happened so he doesn’t remember much, but he does remember hearing his mom’s voice yelling and a man’s voice, although the man’s voice didn’t sound like his dad’s voice Mark was almost sure that it was his dad. Mark remembered being under his bed when they were arguing, he was scared because of the screams, but then he heard someone fall of the stairs and everything got quiet, a few hours later he knew his mother was dead. For the next 12 years the relationship between Mark and his father wasn’t really good, they both didn’t really have any communication, and Mark was kind of scared of his own father. Mark just wanted to talk to someone about what had happened that night, but he didn’t know who to. Every Sunday Mark went to have dinner with his grandparents, and one day he told them about the tragedy that happened that night. His grandparents couldn’t believe it and so they talked to his dad about it. Mark’s dad got pretty upset, because he said that he was at work when that happened, and that it was just all in Mark’s imagination. Mark’s mom had an accident nobody pushed her, and the voices he heard were in the TV, but Mark was sure that it wasn’t an accident. Mark moved into his grandparents’ house. He decided to try and investigate more; Mark and his grandpa went to his old house, there was an old lady who used to be their neighbor, she told them what she knew, but it wasn’t much. The old lady told them about her granddaughter who stayed with them that night, she says that she saw everything through the window, the lady gave them her address were they could find her, both Mark and his grandpa went and looked for her. They found her at her house where she told them what she saw that night. She heard yelling from both a man and a women, but she thought it was just an argument that the couple were having. After a while she didn't hear anything, and she saw a guy go out and left with his car. Around 11 o'clock she saw another car park in front of the house, after that many police and ambulance cars arrived to the house. They had more hints, about Mark's mothers death, but that wasn't enough. Mark had a friend who's mom was Mark's mom bestfriend in high school. She gave him an album where they had pictures of Mark's mom and her friends. Mark found a picture where she is with a guy who is better looking than his dad, Mark thought to himself that maybe if his mom would of marry that guy she would still be alive. Mark and his grandpa decided to go and look for that guy, Mark and his grandpa went to this junk car place were they found the guy's dad. He told them that his son was really in love with Mark's mother. After she got married with Mark's dad his love to Mark's mom grew bigger and bigger. When Mark's parents got married, that guy would go almost every night to Mark's house to visit his mother. Many he times proposed her to escape with him, but she always denied. The night she died he was with her, he asked her to leave with him, but she said "no", she told him that she loved her husband and son very much, and that she wasn't willing to leave her family over him. The guy got really angry, and that's when they started arguing, and without knowing he pushed her down the stairs. When he saw she was dead he got scared, and left. The guy confessed all this to his dad, and after the murdered he turned into an alcoholic until one day he died. Mark and his grandpa felt bad because they blamed the wrong person. After they knew the truth Mark went to his father and told him what happened that night, he apologized to him and after so many years his dad told him "I love you", and Mark felt like he really mean it. Mark felt like he could be in peace now that he knew the truth.

[Nuvia Ramirez · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book was interesting it talks about how a little kid named Mark grew up being lonely. Mark was laying down in his bedroom in the night when he heard her mom arguing with some, a man's voice was yelling really loud. Mark stayed in his bed because he was scared so he didn't come out of his room, instead he covered himself with his blankets. A few minutes had passed when he heard a big noise that sounded like stomps going down the stairs. Mark's very late that day Mark's father came home and that's when he saw his wife Belle Lee Crosley laying down dead next to the stairs. Mark had never told anybody about what he heard that night, he always thought that his mom died because of his dad. Mark couldn't keep it in him he had to tell someone about this so he told his grandparents about it. They all started investigating Harry Ryder , Mark's father, about what had really happened that night, but Harry Ryder kept on saying that when he got home from work Belle Lee was already dead. Mark and his grandfather believed that Harry was the one that killed her, they were able to find some to explain what had really happened that night . Allison Kennerly was able to help Mark and his father who killed Belle Lee. The actual person who killed Belle Lee was Reggie not Harry Ryder.

[Savanna Lackey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book because it was a mystery that you had to figure out.