Pixie, Robbo, Claudia, Colin and Ralph all have one thing in common - two emergency numbers for two different homes. Thrown together for the night in a tower of creepy, dark old Harwick Hall, each child tells his or her own story, mirroring the feelings about living in the modern step-family.

About the Author

Anne Fine has written numerous highly acclaimed and prize-winning books for children and adults. The Tulip Touch won the Whitbread Children's Book of the Year Award; Goggle-Eyes won the Guardian Children's Fiction Award and the Carnegie Medal; Flour Babies won the Carnegie Medal and the Whitbread Children's Book of the Year; and Bill's New Frock won a Smarties Prize. Anne Fine was named Children's Laureate in 2001 and was awarded an OBE in 2003.

Reviews

In classic thriller fashion, it is a wild and stormy night when five British schoolchildren arrive ahead of their classmates for a week-long field trip at "haunted" Old Harwick Hall. With the aid of flashes of lightning, the two girls and three boys find a long-abandoned secret room containing a mysterious journal. All signs point to a ghost story, but Fine (Alias Madame Doubtfire; Flour Babies) adroitly sidesteps the obvious. The story recounted in the journal, about a boy who runs away from the sinister influence of a loveless stepfather, inspires the five students, all of whom also have "steps," or step-parents, to share their own sagas. And what engrossing, heartrending stories they are: of hurting but still humorous kids picking their way through a minefield of embittered or uncommunicative-or just plain immature-parents, insecure or reluctant stepparents and resentful step-siblings. Fine has an uncanny gift for dialogue, and her protagonists voice subtle perceptions in the clearest and most natural of terms. She wrests the fullest emotions from her scenarios, presenting daily life in all its comedy and drama. An immensely humane work. Ages 10-up. (May)

Gr 4-7‘The tantalizing title and eerie opening will immediately pull readers into this skillfully crafted story. In fact, this novel is really five stories within a story that are induced by a story, like a nesting puzzle. When five school kids are sent ahead to a class overnight in a spooky house, they discover a hidden tower room that contains an old, dusty album, written by Richard Clayton Harwick, labeled "Read and weep." As they read Richard's sad tale of how he made the decision to leave home because of his dislike for his stepfather, it triggers the realization of why the five of them were grouped together. Their names were asterisked on the bus list because each one had to put two addresses on the permission slip for the trip; each of them has divorced or remarried parents. As Rob, Colin, Ralph, Claudia, and Pixie tell their stories, comprehension and compassion for the problems, fears, and concerns children face in similar family situations today fall into place step-by-step, story-by-story. These kids are genuine, their stories are poignant, and the book as a whole is affecting without being maudlin, didactic, or bibliotherapeutic. "Fine" writing and a surefire success, like the author's earlier efforts.‘Julie Cummins, New York Public Library