The Shadows
The Books of Elsewhere: Volume 1
-
- $6.99
-
- $6.99
Publisher Description
For fans of Small Spaces, Coraline, A Series of Unfortunate Events, and James Howe's Bunnicula classics comes the first book in the award-winning, New York Times bestselling Books of Elsewhere series.
This house is keeping secrets . . .
When eleven-year-old Olive and her parents move into the crumbling mansion on Linden Street and find it filled with mysterious paintings, Olive knows the place is creepy—but it isn’t until she encounters its three talking cats that she realizes there’s something darkly magical afoot. Then Olive finds a pair of antique spectacles in a dusty drawer and discovers the most peculiar thing yet: She can travel inside the house’s spooky paintings to a world that’s strangely quiet . . . and eerily sinister. But in entering Elsewhere, Olive has been ensnared in a mystery darker and more dangerous than she could have imagined, confronting a power that wants to be rid of her by any means necessary. With only the cats and an unusual boy she meets in Elsewhere on her side, it’s up to Olive to save the house from the shadows, before the lights go out for good.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Poet West's debut novel is a quirky and clever beginning to the Books of Elsewhere series. The Dunwoodys, "a pair of more than slightly dippy mathematicians," and their 11-year-old daughter, Olive, have just moved into an old Victorian house. Olive has learned to be independent, given her parents' aloofness ("Her persistently lackluster grades in math had led her parents to believe that she was some kind of genetic aberration"). She explores the house's eccentricities and discovers that, by donning a pair of spectacles, she can enter the house's many unsettling paintings. Inside one, she encounters nine-year-old Morton, who brings to her attention the secrets that the house and its late owner are keeping. With the help of three talking house cats, Olive works to patch together clues to save the painting-dwellers from their dark fate. The house is as much a character as are Olive, Morton, and her family, and a wicked sense of humor tempers the book's creepiness. A suspenseful plot and insight into childhood loneliness handily amplified by Bernatene's moody and dramatically lit b&w illustrations will have readers anxiously awaiting the next book. Ages 9 11.
Customer Reviews
People!!!
You have to read this book! I stayed up all night reading The Shadows and I just couldn't stop. I even got little chills when I was reading all alone in my room thinking that something was going to come and scare me!
Olive Dunwoody (main character) is very curious and when she finds these magical spectacles she learns that they give her the power to go through paintings. There are also 3 cats (Haratio, Harvey, and Leopold) that guard the house and help Olive learn about the mysterious paintings. They also get her out of some sticky situations.
I thought it was a very great book and I hope you will read and enjoy it!!!!!
This book is interesting, creepy, and awesome! ❤️
This book is so dramatic, creepy, and awesome! I give this 5 stars because it's now one of my favorite books! I can't wait to read the rest of these books!
So Good
This is such a good book- i am not even in to reading & I have been reading for such a long time now... You should really get it😃