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A Cry in the Night
SOFTBOUND - GLUED BINDING
- GenresChildrensParanormal
154 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1990
5 people are currently reading
68 people want to read
About the author
Carol Ellis
93 books93 followersCarol Ellis is an American author of young adult and children’s fiction. Her first novel, My Secret Admirer, was published in 1989 by Scholastic as part of their popular Point Thriller line.
She went on to write over fifteen novels, including a few titles in the Zodiac Chillers series published by Random House in the mid-1990s, and two titles in The Blair Witch Files series for young adults, published by Bantam between 2000 and 2001.
She went on to write over fifteen novels, including a few titles in the Zodiac Chillers series published by Random House in the mid-1990s, and two titles in The Blair Witch Files series for young adults, published by Bantam between 2000 and 2001.
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December 13, 2024
THE WORKS OF CAROL ELLIS, 1945-2022
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
My mother, Carol Ellis, passed away on November 5th, 2022. While she'd been retired for some time, she spent years making her living as an author for children and young adults. When I was a kid, I was tremendously proud of her status as a writer, but she always seemed vaguely embarrassed by it. As I grew older, she told me she didn't enjoy the process of writing, and I'm sure that was part of the problem but there was also something deeper. My mother was an extremely self-deprecating person, inclined to critique herself to a fault. As such, I think she was uncomfortable with her public status. Also, as an avid reader herself, I think she decided early on she would never measure up to the books and authors she admired. It saddened and confused me to hear her dismiss her writing and, from time to time, even become cynical about the whole concept of telling stories. This never lasted very long because she enjoyed reading too much, but it was still depressing. Later on, I would occasionally try to change her perspective by pointing out the long and (in my view) proud tradition of popular fiction authors, people who, yes, wrote largely for money but gave years of joy to millions of readers. She would just shrug and say something like "Sure, but I wasn't even that good." Even in the past few years, when I would tell her how so many people online would respond with comments like "Oh wow, I LOVED your mom's books growing up!" if I mentioned her in a comment to a post or video, she would brush it off. "Doesn't it make you happy, knowing people still like your work?," I'd ask. She'd shrug or look away and reply, "Sure, I guess so."
Despite her indifference, my mother's career as a YA and children's author was substantial. A conservative estimate would put the number of books she wrote or co-wrote somewhere north of 50, and there were shorter works as well. She's best remembered as a fixture of Scholastic's Point Thriller line from the late 80s to the mid 90s, but her work ranged over several genres and publishers, her career lasting from the late 1970s till 2017; in the weeks following her death, I started discovering material she never even mentioned to me.
Through the years, despite sharing my mother's passion for reading, I rarely read her work. While she didn't exactly come out and say so, it was pretty clear she'd prefer I not. There were occasional exceptions and, towards the end of her career, I sometimes assisted her, both as a researcher and as an uncredited co-author. But her main body of work seemed like something she didn't want to get into much, so I largely avoided it. Now I've lost her forever and, partially to distract myself from the grief but also to try and create some sort of memorial to her, I've decided to read through her works and comment on them here.
As I mentioned, my mother's writing career was extensive. A large portion of her work was ghostwriting for others and even a fair amount under her own name were series works where she was more less told what to write. There were also nonfiction works which were pretty tightly controlled by the editors as well. While I know she gave every project her all (no matter how little she enjoyed some of them) and no doubt put her stamp on all she wrote, I'm primarily interested in the peak of her career, that is novels written under her own name and over which she had at least some degree of artistic control. This comes out to 20 or so books. While I have most of these works, there are still some I'll have to search for online and in used bookstores.
There's no point in pretending these "reviews" will be objective. All the books will get 5 stars, although I will be honest about elements of my mom's work I don't care for. Mixed in with my comments on the books will be memories of the creation of those I was old enough to be aware of, memories of my mother and her thoughts and comments on the books, and thoughts about the culture and industry that shaped her career.
I have no illusions that my mother was some sort of literary genius. But her work touched many readers nonetheless. She was also an incredible human being, one of the kindest people anyone could hope to meet. I will miss her terribly for the rest of my life. My hope is these commentaries will act as a tribute to her and bring back some good memories for those who grew up with her work, just as they preserve some cherished memories for me of a very cherished person.
A CRY IN THE NIGHT
It was not my original plan to have this 1990 ghost story for younger readers be the last of my mother's primary novels that I reviewed as part of this memorial project. However, as time went on, I thought that it would be admirably suited to conclude this series, and serve as a fun Halloween read. This all worked out quite well; “A Cry in the Night” is a superb book of its type. Naturally I'm biased in favor of all my mom's output, but I think anyone can see from these reviews that I'm not blind to the books' flaws. It was a real joy to end this project on a book that was so top-notch, although I'm also finding myself deeply saddened to be coming to the end of this part of mourning my mother. I say “this part” since I'll be mourning her the rest of my days, of course. Also, “A Cry in the Night,” both as a story and in my memories of its creation, brings up some feelings that are hard to face but, I hope, ultimately fruitful.
First off, some basic background and context about this book. It was published by Scholastic as part of their Apple Paperbacks line for younger readers. Scholastic was my mother's primary publisher throughout her career, most famously of her many contributions to the Point Horror series of teen thrillers. However, this was the only novel my mom published as part of the Apple line. Readers who came of age in the 1980s and 1990s may well remember Apple Paperbacks for their distinctive cover designs, frequently featuring purple-trimmed frames, closing in a triangle at the top, with an apple next to the triangle's base. The most famous books that appeared as Apple Paperbacks were Ann M. Martin's legendary Baby-Sitters Club series but the line also seemed to specialize in supernatural-themed stories, most notably the works of Betty Ren Wright. I recall Wright's signature novel, 1983's “The Dollhouse Murders,” being present in our house when I was a kid, but I don't know if it was sent to my mother for her to model “A Cry in the Night” after, although things like that were quite common.
However the project began, I know my mom really enjoyed planning and writing “A Cry in the Night.” For quite a while after it came out, she would talk about how much fun the historical research involved in it was, and how she thought it came out quite well as a book. This was quite a statement for her, since she was inclined to be very self-critical and, all her life, tended to think her writing had little or no value. Even more tremendous was that “A Cry in the Night” was, I'm fairly certain, the only one of her books that she urged me to read. Usually my mother either just didn't address this or, occasionally, actively discouraged me from reading her work, or other books like it. More broadly speaking, she always pushed me to read in a general sense, but rarely weighed in on what I should read. However, I got the sense that she wanted me to shoot higher, maybe even too high, so that I'd always be a curious and striving reader. Bless her for that, by the way. But she was clearly proud of “A Cry in the Night” and, knowing I enjoyed ghost stories, did make an effort to get me to read it. But I didn't, and I think that hurt her feelings. Now I wasn't a jerk about it, and I did actually start it at one point, not long after it was published. I'm not sure what made me stop. It may have just been restlessness; for the longest time, I was unfortunately good at not finishing books, even when I was enjoying them. This seems most likely, but it also could have been awkwardness. As proud as I always was of my mom's writing career, it was hard to think of her books as separate from her as a person. And since she usually seemed indifferent to them, her excitement about this particular one may have just been hard for 9-year-old me to process. Whatever the reason or reasons, I never finished “A Cry in the Night.” I remember my mom asking if I liked it, and I said I did and would get back to it. She accepted that but clearly didn't find it convincing, and that was that. Just a few years ago, I brought “A Cry in the Night” up in the context of her saying she didn't enjoy writing her books very much. “You liked writing that one, didn't you?,” I said. “I remember you saying so.” She just looked kind of blank for a moment, then finally said, “Yeah, I liked that one.” This is rough for me to remember, but it's part of my story with this book so I feel it has to be recorded. I wish I'd read “A Cry in the Night” when she asked me to, even if it was just to make her happy. I would have enjoyed it, too, I believe but, above all, she deserved to have someone tell her how good it was. To put a sharper point on it, she deserved to have me tell her how good it was, and I failed her there.
Deepening the pain, when I started “A Cry in the Night” I discovered that its plot concerned a protagonist who had recently lost her mother. On a logical level, I don't believe in things like signs and mystical patterns. But I must say, sometimes it's hard to avoid the sense that such things are happening. It's probably just my mind wanting to see a pattern. Still, hard to deny the impact. Getting back to the novel itself, my mom handles this aspect of the story with a lot of deftness. I was surprised, given this was a book for young readers published in 1990, how frank it was about parental loss and the struggles kids sometimes have establishing a relationship with a stepparent. Actually, I shouldn't have been all that startled since my mom tended to handle this kind of thing really well.
Moving to other aspects of this book's story, “A Cry in the Night” concerns twelve-year-old Molly Bishop traveling to the (fictional) town of Lynnton, Massachusetts. Her father has business there and decides to bring the family along for a kind of summer work vacation. Lynnton is a popular tourist site due to its Puritan-era colonial buildings and other historical reconstruction-style attractions. Anyone glancing at the cover can probably guess that supernatural events start occurring to Molly, and that they're connected to Salem witch trial-adjacent events in the distant past.
One thing I particularly loved about what my mom did here is the atmosphere. Lynnton is wonderfully evoked and, while it's not pushed too hard, you genuinely get a sense that you're in a real place, with its own geography and characteristics. Aside from that, the summertime setting comes off beautifully. While taking my personal bias into account, there were honestly times where my mom's prose flirted with the poetic here. Even if that's an overstatement, “A Cry in the Night” certainly gives off a sense of time and place quite exquisitely for a kids' novel. The characterizations are also strong, and Molly's relationship with her younger brother Sam is a particular treat, humorous at times, but also loving and almost poignant on occasion. Certain elements that are common in my mom's work (and probably the work of many similar authors) such as the pluckiness of the young heroine and red herrings, are present but better managed than usual.
Back to the atmospheric element, it serves the story particularly well when the scary elements take center stage. Speaking of those, I've written before about how my mother wasn't usually a fan of supernatural-themed stories. She was a huge mystery fan and most of her most famous books really fall into that category, whatever the packaging. “A Cry in the Night” is an unambiguous ghost story but of a very particular type, one that my mom tended to be warmer towards. I would call it “gentle” or “soft” horror. Or maybe “horror” should be dropped altogether and it should just be called a ghost story. But then “A Cry in the Night” is genuinely unnerving (for its age group) at times, so I'm a bit flummoxed about precisely how to define it. The ghostly elements feel almost elemental, like they're baked into the landscape, and are limited by it as well. Part of that serves to keep things fairly tame, as is appropriate for the targeted age group, but it also feels almost...realistic, at least as far as a ghost story can be. I'm not sure if this makes much sense but a good summing up would be that, if ghosts were real, I imagine they'd resemble the ghost in this book: spooky, for sure, but very fleeting.
Some horror fans would probably find all this a little too vanilla and I get that. I enjoy this kind of eerie but ultimately gentle ghost story, but it does pose some problems. While I loved “A Cry in the Night,” it certainly wasn't free of those. Things wrap up awfully fast and, while the conclusion is quite touching, I wanted more of a sense of finality on a number of fronts. Having the ghost be a bit more proactive might have helped although the story still works on its own terms. I wonder if any readers of the aforementioned Betty Ren Wright's works will tell me they recognize this general style from her books; it certainly wouldn't surprise me.
As a bit of a digression, I just happened to discover a book earlier this year that could possibly have had an influence on “A Cry in the Night” and, in any event, was certainly a kind of spiritual ancestor. During the summer (of 2024), I chanced upon “A Chill in the Lane” by Mabel Esther Allan, a 1974 British novel for young people, also published by Scholastic. Its subtitle, simply “A Ghost Story,” is part of why I feel that term would fit “A Cry in the Night” so well. Aside from that, the similar title structure, shared publisher, and sharing of certain details (witches, a young girl vacationing somewhere, gentle but still eerie use of the supernatural), seriously intrigues me as to the possibility of influence, even though the stories are ultimately quite different. I have no memory of ever having seen “A Chill in the Lane” around our house, or of my parents mentioning it, but I could have just forgotten. But even if the connections between the books are purely coincidental, they're both excellent examples of this type of historically-minded, soft supernatural story for younger readers.
Speaking of the historical aspects, that was something else I loved about “A Cry in the Night.” My mom did serious research for it but factors it in gently, which helps the book feel grounded in reality without becoming tedious. Even better, she addresses the horrors of religious fanaticism and the persecution it bred head on. This was something that always horrified her throughout her life and, while she never becomes preachy or age inappropriate in this book, readers would have been stimulated to think and ask questions about how and why people turn to this kind of bigotry. In this book, my mom once again demonstrates an admirable ability to integrate moral lessons for young readers without talking down to them or damaging the entertainment aspects of the storytelling.
I've written before about how my mother was primarily an author for teenagers and sometimes struggled with her books for younger readers. While “A Cry in the Night” isn't flawless or exactly typical of her work, it is a superb example of her successfully tackling an unusual project and truly making it her own. I don't know how well it sold but it certainly deserved to be a hit!
EPILOGUE
I began this series of “reviews” shortly after my mom passed away in late 2022. While the twenty-one books I've covered are far from my mother's only works, I do feel they are her principal ones, so I now (in late 2024) consider this project to have run its course. It's possible I've missed a book or two, however, and I will reopen this series if that ever turns out to be the case. For now though, I'm wrapping things up.
Before I do so, I wanted to provide a quick guide to my mom's works, for those who are interested. I would say they fall into three categories: teen romances, teen mystery/thrillers, and books for younger readers. The second category is by far the largest at ten books, and is made up of her contributions to Scholastic's Point Horror line and her three Zodiac Chillers for Random House. Two of the Zodiac books have hints of the supernatural but, otherwise, the second category is devoid of that, while all the books in the third category (six in total) have supernatural/fantastic elements. The first category (five books) is the most neglected; as I've previously written I was largely unaware of it until after my mother passed away. Nonetheless, the romance novels are how she established herself as an author, both for herself and in the YA/kids' literary marketplace.
In terms of quality, naturally I will always love and cherish them all. However, my own “best of” rundown is as follows: among the teen romances, “Summer to Summer” is the best and, in my view, either her first or second best novel overall. In the teen mystery/thriller category, I would say it's a near tie between “Camp Fear” and “Silent Witness.” “Silent Witness,” in my view, grapples with “Summer to Summer” as her finest overall achievement. I'll also add an honorable mention for “The Body” which, among the mystery/thrillers, isn't as deep as “Camp Fear” or “Silent Witness” but is a kind of textbook example of the Point formula, executed at its very best. Among her books for younger readers, I'd say “A Cry in the Night” is the finest, and the best example of her dealing with a more otherworldly theme while still preserving her personal interests and style. Certainly these five books would give any reader a good sense of my mom as a writer in peak form.
To conclude, thank you so much for reading. If you ever enjoyed any of my mother's books, please keep her in your thoughts and try to be kind, to other people, cats, dogs, etc. Love you forever, Mommy!
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
My mother, Carol Ellis, passed away on November 5th, 2022. While she'd been retired for some time, she spent years making her living as an author for children and young adults. When I was a kid, I was tremendously proud of her status as a writer, but she always seemed vaguely embarrassed by it. As I grew older, she told me she didn't enjoy the process of writing, and I'm sure that was part of the problem but there was also something deeper. My mother was an extremely self-deprecating person, inclined to critique herself to a fault. As such, I think she was uncomfortable with her public status. Also, as an avid reader herself, I think she decided early on she would never measure up to the books and authors she admired. It saddened and confused me to hear her dismiss her writing and, from time to time, even become cynical about the whole concept of telling stories. This never lasted very long because she enjoyed reading too much, but it was still depressing. Later on, I would occasionally try to change her perspective by pointing out the long and (in my view) proud tradition of popular fiction authors, people who, yes, wrote largely for money but gave years of joy to millions of readers. She would just shrug and say something like "Sure, but I wasn't even that good." Even in the past few years, when I would tell her how so many people online would respond with comments like "Oh wow, I LOVED your mom's books growing up!" if I mentioned her in a comment to a post or video, she would brush it off. "Doesn't it make you happy, knowing people still like your work?," I'd ask. She'd shrug or look away and reply, "Sure, I guess so."
Despite her indifference, my mother's career as a YA and children's author was substantial. A conservative estimate would put the number of books she wrote or co-wrote somewhere north of 50, and there were shorter works as well. She's best remembered as a fixture of Scholastic's Point Thriller line from the late 80s to the mid 90s, but her work ranged over several genres and publishers, her career lasting from the late 1970s till 2017; in the weeks following her death, I started discovering material she never even mentioned to me.
Through the years, despite sharing my mother's passion for reading, I rarely read her work. While she didn't exactly come out and say so, it was pretty clear she'd prefer I not. There were occasional exceptions and, towards the end of her career, I sometimes assisted her, both as a researcher and as an uncredited co-author. But her main body of work seemed like something she didn't want to get into much, so I largely avoided it. Now I've lost her forever and, partially to distract myself from the grief but also to try and create some sort of memorial to her, I've decided to read through her works and comment on them here.
As I mentioned, my mother's writing career was extensive. A large portion of her work was ghostwriting for others and even a fair amount under her own name were series works where she was more less told what to write. There were also nonfiction works which were pretty tightly controlled by the editors as well. While I know she gave every project her all (no matter how little she enjoyed some of them) and no doubt put her stamp on all she wrote, I'm primarily interested in the peak of her career, that is novels written under her own name and over which she had at least some degree of artistic control. This comes out to 20 or so books. While I have most of these works, there are still some I'll have to search for online and in used bookstores.
There's no point in pretending these "reviews" will be objective. All the books will get 5 stars, although I will be honest about elements of my mom's work I don't care for. Mixed in with my comments on the books will be memories of the creation of those I was old enough to be aware of, memories of my mother and her thoughts and comments on the books, and thoughts about the culture and industry that shaped her career.
I have no illusions that my mother was some sort of literary genius. But her work touched many readers nonetheless. She was also an incredible human being, one of the kindest people anyone could hope to meet. I will miss her terribly for the rest of my life. My hope is these commentaries will act as a tribute to her and bring back some good memories for those who grew up with her work, just as they preserve some cherished memories for me of a very cherished person.
A CRY IN THE NIGHT
It was not my original plan to have this 1990 ghost story for younger readers be the last of my mother's primary novels that I reviewed as part of this memorial project. However, as time went on, I thought that it would be admirably suited to conclude this series, and serve as a fun Halloween read. This all worked out quite well; “A Cry in the Night” is a superb book of its type. Naturally I'm biased in favor of all my mom's output, but I think anyone can see from these reviews that I'm not blind to the books' flaws. It was a real joy to end this project on a book that was so top-notch, although I'm also finding myself deeply saddened to be coming to the end of this part of mourning my mother. I say “this part” since I'll be mourning her the rest of my days, of course. Also, “A Cry in the Night,” both as a story and in my memories of its creation, brings up some feelings that are hard to face but, I hope, ultimately fruitful.
First off, some basic background and context about this book. It was published by Scholastic as part of their Apple Paperbacks line for younger readers. Scholastic was my mother's primary publisher throughout her career, most famously of her many contributions to the Point Horror series of teen thrillers. However, this was the only novel my mom published as part of the Apple line. Readers who came of age in the 1980s and 1990s may well remember Apple Paperbacks for their distinctive cover designs, frequently featuring purple-trimmed frames, closing in a triangle at the top, with an apple next to the triangle's base. The most famous books that appeared as Apple Paperbacks were Ann M. Martin's legendary Baby-Sitters Club series but the line also seemed to specialize in supernatural-themed stories, most notably the works of Betty Ren Wright. I recall Wright's signature novel, 1983's “The Dollhouse Murders,” being present in our house when I was a kid, but I don't know if it was sent to my mother for her to model “A Cry in the Night” after, although things like that were quite common.
However the project began, I know my mom really enjoyed planning and writing “A Cry in the Night.” For quite a while after it came out, she would talk about how much fun the historical research involved in it was, and how she thought it came out quite well as a book. This was quite a statement for her, since she was inclined to be very self-critical and, all her life, tended to think her writing had little or no value. Even more tremendous was that “A Cry in the Night” was, I'm fairly certain, the only one of her books that she urged me to read. Usually my mother either just didn't address this or, occasionally, actively discouraged me from reading her work, or other books like it. More broadly speaking, she always pushed me to read in a general sense, but rarely weighed in on what I should read. However, I got the sense that she wanted me to shoot higher, maybe even too high, so that I'd always be a curious and striving reader. Bless her for that, by the way. But she was clearly proud of “A Cry in the Night” and, knowing I enjoyed ghost stories, did make an effort to get me to read it. But I didn't, and I think that hurt her feelings. Now I wasn't a jerk about it, and I did actually start it at one point, not long after it was published. I'm not sure what made me stop. It may have just been restlessness; for the longest time, I was unfortunately good at not finishing books, even when I was enjoying them. This seems most likely, but it also could have been awkwardness. As proud as I always was of my mom's writing career, it was hard to think of her books as separate from her as a person. And since she usually seemed indifferent to them, her excitement about this particular one may have just been hard for 9-year-old me to process. Whatever the reason or reasons, I never finished “A Cry in the Night.” I remember my mom asking if I liked it, and I said I did and would get back to it. She accepted that but clearly didn't find it convincing, and that was that. Just a few years ago, I brought “A Cry in the Night” up in the context of her saying she didn't enjoy writing her books very much. “You liked writing that one, didn't you?,” I said. “I remember you saying so.” She just looked kind of blank for a moment, then finally said, “Yeah, I liked that one.” This is rough for me to remember, but it's part of my story with this book so I feel it has to be recorded. I wish I'd read “A Cry in the Night” when she asked me to, even if it was just to make her happy. I would have enjoyed it, too, I believe but, above all, she deserved to have someone tell her how good it was. To put a sharper point on it, she deserved to have me tell her how good it was, and I failed her there.
Deepening the pain, when I started “A Cry in the Night” I discovered that its plot concerned a protagonist who had recently lost her mother. On a logical level, I don't believe in things like signs and mystical patterns. But I must say, sometimes it's hard to avoid the sense that such things are happening. It's probably just my mind wanting to see a pattern. Still, hard to deny the impact. Getting back to the novel itself, my mom handles this aspect of the story with a lot of deftness. I was surprised, given this was a book for young readers published in 1990, how frank it was about parental loss and the struggles kids sometimes have establishing a relationship with a stepparent. Actually, I shouldn't have been all that startled since my mom tended to handle this kind of thing really well.
Moving to other aspects of this book's story, “A Cry in the Night” concerns twelve-year-old Molly Bishop traveling to the (fictional) town of Lynnton, Massachusetts. Her father has business there and decides to bring the family along for a kind of summer work vacation. Lynnton is a popular tourist site due to its Puritan-era colonial buildings and other historical reconstruction-style attractions. Anyone glancing at the cover can probably guess that supernatural events start occurring to Molly, and that they're connected to Salem witch trial-adjacent events in the distant past.
One thing I particularly loved about what my mom did here is the atmosphere. Lynnton is wonderfully evoked and, while it's not pushed too hard, you genuinely get a sense that you're in a real place, with its own geography and characteristics. Aside from that, the summertime setting comes off beautifully. While taking my personal bias into account, there were honestly times where my mom's prose flirted with the poetic here. Even if that's an overstatement, “A Cry in the Night” certainly gives off a sense of time and place quite exquisitely for a kids' novel. The characterizations are also strong, and Molly's relationship with her younger brother Sam is a particular treat, humorous at times, but also loving and almost poignant on occasion. Certain elements that are common in my mom's work (and probably the work of many similar authors) such as the pluckiness of the young heroine and red herrings, are present but better managed than usual.
Back to the atmospheric element, it serves the story particularly well when the scary elements take center stage. Speaking of those, I've written before about how my mother wasn't usually a fan of supernatural-themed stories. She was a huge mystery fan and most of her most famous books really fall into that category, whatever the packaging. “A Cry in the Night” is an unambiguous ghost story but of a very particular type, one that my mom tended to be warmer towards. I would call it “gentle” or “soft” horror. Or maybe “horror” should be dropped altogether and it should just be called a ghost story. But then “A Cry in the Night” is genuinely unnerving (for its age group) at times, so I'm a bit flummoxed about precisely how to define it. The ghostly elements feel almost elemental, like they're baked into the landscape, and are limited by it as well. Part of that serves to keep things fairly tame, as is appropriate for the targeted age group, but it also feels almost...realistic, at least as far as a ghost story can be. I'm not sure if this makes much sense but a good summing up would be that, if ghosts were real, I imagine they'd resemble the ghost in this book: spooky, for sure, but very fleeting.
Some horror fans would probably find all this a little too vanilla and I get that. I enjoy this kind of eerie but ultimately gentle ghost story, but it does pose some problems. While I loved “A Cry in the Night,” it certainly wasn't free of those. Things wrap up awfully fast and, while the conclusion is quite touching, I wanted more of a sense of finality on a number of fronts. Having the ghost be a bit more proactive might have helped although the story still works on its own terms. I wonder if any readers of the aforementioned Betty Ren Wright's works will tell me they recognize this general style from her books; it certainly wouldn't surprise me.
As a bit of a digression, I just happened to discover a book earlier this year that could possibly have had an influence on “A Cry in the Night” and, in any event, was certainly a kind of spiritual ancestor. During the summer (of 2024), I chanced upon “A Chill in the Lane” by Mabel Esther Allan, a 1974 British novel for young people, also published by Scholastic. Its subtitle, simply “A Ghost Story,” is part of why I feel that term would fit “A Cry in the Night” so well. Aside from that, the similar title structure, shared publisher, and sharing of certain details (witches, a young girl vacationing somewhere, gentle but still eerie use of the supernatural), seriously intrigues me as to the possibility of influence, even though the stories are ultimately quite different. I have no memory of ever having seen “A Chill in the Lane” around our house, or of my parents mentioning it, but I could have just forgotten. But even if the connections between the books are purely coincidental, they're both excellent examples of this type of historically-minded, soft supernatural story for younger readers.
Speaking of the historical aspects, that was something else I loved about “A Cry in the Night.” My mom did serious research for it but factors it in gently, which helps the book feel grounded in reality without becoming tedious. Even better, she addresses the horrors of religious fanaticism and the persecution it bred head on. This was something that always horrified her throughout her life and, while she never becomes preachy or age inappropriate in this book, readers would have been stimulated to think and ask questions about how and why people turn to this kind of bigotry. In this book, my mom once again demonstrates an admirable ability to integrate moral lessons for young readers without talking down to them or damaging the entertainment aspects of the storytelling.
I've written before about how my mother was primarily an author for teenagers and sometimes struggled with her books for younger readers. While “A Cry in the Night” isn't flawless or exactly typical of her work, it is a superb example of her successfully tackling an unusual project and truly making it her own. I don't know how well it sold but it certainly deserved to be a hit!
EPILOGUE
I began this series of “reviews” shortly after my mom passed away in late 2022. While the twenty-one books I've covered are far from my mother's only works, I do feel they are her principal ones, so I now (in late 2024) consider this project to have run its course. It's possible I've missed a book or two, however, and I will reopen this series if that ever turns out to be the case. For now though, I'm wrapping things up.
Before I do so, I wanted to provide a quick guide to my mom's works, for those who are interested. I would say they fall into three categories: teen romances, teen mystery/thrillers, and books for younger readers. The second category is by far the largest at ten books, and is made up of her contributions to Scholastic's Point Horror line and her three Zodiac Chillers for Random House. Two of the Zodiac books have hints of the supernatural but, otherwise, the second category is devoid of that, while all the books in the third category (six in total) have supernatural/fantastic elements. The first category (five books) is the most neglected; as I've previously written I was largely unaware of it until after my mother passed away. Nonetheless, the romance novels are how she established herself as an author, both for herself and in the YA/kids' literary marketplace.
In terms of quality, naturally I will always love and cherish them all. However, my own “best of” rundown is as follows: among the teen romances, “Summer to Summer” is the best and, in my view, either her first or second best novel overall. In the teen mystery/thriller category, I would say it's a near tie between “Camp Fear” and “Silent Witness.” “Silent Witness,” in my view, grapples with “Summer to Summer” as her finest overall achievement. I'll also add an honorable mention for “The Body” which, among the mystery/thrillers, isn't as deep as “Camp Fear” or “Silent Witness” but is a kind of textbook example of the Point formula, executed at its very best. Among her books for younger readers, I'd say “A Cry in the Night” is the finest, and the best example of her dealing with a more otherworldly theme while still preserving her personal interests and style. Certainly these five books would give any reader a good sense of my mom as a writer in peak form.
To conclude, thank you so much for reading. If you ever enjoyed any of my mother's books, please keep her in your thoughts and try to be kind, to other people, cats, dogs, etc. Love you forever, Mommy!
November 28, 2025
A cry in the night by Carol Ellis was nostalgic to read again. I’ve been fortunate to inherited a lot of old books throughout my childhood, and this was one of the books I reread a lot.
The book contains important topics such as step-parents and losing a parent, while it also has implements of the supernatural.
It was a fun reread, and it still hits me hard emotionally. I’ll give it 3,5/⭐️
The book contains important topics such as step-parents and losing a parent, while it also has implements of the supernatural.
It was a fun reread, and it still hits me hard emotionally. I’ll give it 3,5/⭐️
June 2, 2022
I like the way the author intertwines the problems of a current day girl and a colonial ghost in in a colonial village somewhat like Williamsburg. The historical aspect is fun and the characters are realistic.
June 7, 2017
3.5 stars.
March 4, 2024
This probably would have been just enough to keep me edge when I was a kid. Love stumbling across these books that we devoured so as kids!
July 31, 2011
Molly is spending three weeks in a restored colonial town and she starts seeing a weeping ghostly girl. What could have happened to haunt the girl's spirit these past three hundred years? My daughter and I read this one together: it's a light ghost story and a good introduction to the Salem witch trials and colonial times. The adult characters are realistic and I appreciated that the characters learned and changed through the course of the book.
October 7, 2015
I received the book for free through Goodreads Giveaways. A very interesting story and mystery in one. Molly gets interested because she sees Rebecca when no one else does. And as she and her brother Sam work on that, they get closer to their new step-mom, and with the help of Mr Bradbury, it all works out.A great read for all kids.
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