Familiar and Haunting: Collected Stories - Hardcover

Pearce, Philippa

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0066239648 ISBN 13: 9780066239644

Publisher: Greenwillow Books, 2002

Synopsis

Familiar

Here are stories of everyday life, as familiar as a piece of rope and

... as haunting as fear: Mike knows that he can't swing over the river on the knotted rope, but with everyone watching him, he has to try. ... as haunting as a stranger: Who is the frightened-looking girl stealing plums from Nicky's grandparents' precious tree?

... as haunting as cruelty: How can Joe escape from his mean cousin Dicky during a family reunion?

Haunting

And here are stories with a supernatural twist, as haunting as the eerie whistling from the hill above Burnt House in the middle of the night and

... as familiar as guilt: A boy forgets the mysterious bottle his cousin loaned him, but when he sneaks out at night to retrieve it, the shadowy whistlers close in on him.

... as familiar as loneliness: A ghost who's unbearably lonesome makes his neighbors suffer until a girl with a sense of the absurd shows him how things could be different.

... as familiar as love: The ghost of a boy comes back to save his father from dying in a ferocious storm.

Peopled with vivid, unforgettable characters, this collection of thirty-seven stories is by turns mysterious, humorous, strange, and sad, but it is always familiar, always haunting, and always surprising.

About this title

About the Author

Philippa Pearce is the author of many books, several of which are considered classics both in the United States and in her native England. Her award-winning titles include Tom's Midnight Garden, which received the Carnegie Medal and was an ALA Notable Book; The Battle of Bubble and Squeak, which received the Whitbread Award; and Mrs. Cockle's Cat, which received the Kate Greenaway Medal.

Reviews

Grade 5-8 An aptly named collection by one of England's most accomplished writers for young people. The stories will be familiar to some readers because many of them were published in the U.S. in What the Neighbors Did and Other Stories (1973; o.p.), The Shadow-Cage and Other Tales of the Supernatural (1977, both Crowell), and Who's Afraid and Other Strange Stories (Greenwillow, 1987). But another kind of familiarity, that of emotion, pervades these tales. The selections are filled with many characters, ordinary everyday youngsters, often alone, who are careful watchers of the world around them. Pearce's superb writing brings into sharp focus their perceptions and feelings, so that readers sense that they have been there before, experienced the sensation, been overcome with the same emotion. The supernatural stories are clever and mildly unsettling, often containing a strange twist or an eccentric touch-a child imprisoned in a cage of shadows, a dog who rids a house of rats that inhabit a boy's dreams, even a ghost sitting at the top of an apple tree. The realistic tales are haunting, too, in their own way because the characters and situations linger long after the book is closed. This delightful collection is one that readers will return to again and again. -Barbara Scotto, Michael Driscoll School, Brookline, MA
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Fans of Philippa Pearce will savor each of the 37 tales in Familiar and Haunting: Collected Stories. The volume brings together entries from The Rope and Other Stories, published in Great Britain in 2001; and from three books previously published in the U.S. as well: What the Neighbors Did and Other Stories (1973); The Shadow Cage and Other Tales of the Supernatural (1977); and Who's Afraid? and Other Strange Stories (1987).
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Gr. 5-8. Gathered from three collections previously published in the U.S., plus one that was not, these 37 short stories will please readers who appreciate subtle atmosphere, the complexities of peer and sibling relationships, and ghosts. Central characters tend to be shy or fearful and are often involved in acts of kindness or compassion (Charlie's big sister helps him to recall a happy outing from a time before their parents' bitter divorce), and more than half of the stories involve supernatural elements, from conventional ghosts to haunted places or things--a heedless businessman makes the nearly-fatal mistake of trying to cut down a corpse guarded by an eldritch spirit; an old woman is haunted by the ghost of herself, as a child; a chance-discovered witch's spell imprisons a lad. The ranks of Pearce's loyal following on this side of the pond (she lives in Cambridge, England) will likely swell. John Peters
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: Greenwillow Books
• Publication date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0066239648
• ISBN 13: 9780066239644
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 400