Book Description

The year 1775 is an explosive one — both for the colony of Virginia and 11-year-old John Nicholas’s family. The tensions are rising between England and the colonies, and Virginians disagree on how to act. Like many, John’s father, Robert Carter Nicholas, hopes to find a peaceful solution, but John’s older brother George and his company of the Williamsburg militia think Virginians need to fight for their rights. John feels caught in the middle between the two people he admires most. Can they both be right? ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Good start in a trilogy that makes me wish there were more
Margaret Ledoux is 12 years old, has straight brown hair, and is 20 pounds overweight. Her beautiful mother died when she was only two. Her father is a famous film director. Margaret has been in one boarding school after another because she keeps getting into trouble. She hates her latest school and everyone there.

If Margaret thought her life stank like week-old gym socks, it gets worse in the first chapter. Daddy is getting married again to a beautiful starlet named Kiki. Kiki doesn't want to live in their old house with all the memories of Margaret's mother, so it's going to be sold. Worse, Kiki doesn't think she can be a mother to a 12 year-old, so Margaret is being sent to Houston to live with her mother's mother for the summer.

Margaret doesn't want to meet Kiki. She's so upset that she can't get away fast enough even if she hasn't seen her Grandma since she was too young to remember her.

Grandma is nice and younger looking than Margaret expected. Grandma is hoping they'll have a nice, quiet summer together, getting to know each other. It doesn't work out that way, of course.

The first night, a neighbor and her two little kids come over because a guy with a gun is at their house. They're staying with Grandma awhile. The guy with the gun makes the news. That brings Uncle Dennis with an enormous hairball on legs called Flowerpot [no joke] because he wants Grandma to be protected. The "guard" dog turns out to be good for big, slobbery licks and tearing around the house.

Aunt Janet is all upset because her husband is very busy being a doctor and can't read her mind, so she uses the news as an excuse to come over with a burglar alarm and her two kids. Now Margaret has to share her room with little cousin Debbie, who can hog a bed worse than a cat. Her brother, Jason, is no angel either.

Aunt Sharon isn't upset with her husband, but she's worried about Grandma, too, so *she* comes to add to noise and crowding.
The aunts and uncle want Grandma to sell her house and move into a secure apartment. Grandma doesn't want to. They won't listen.

Margaret isn't used to this. She's got to get away. One of the local radio stations is having a contest for a dream vacation at the beach. Margaret buys over 200 post cards and fills them out to enter that contest. Meanwhile, the jerk with gun is out on bail...... ... Read more

Reviews (37)

Could have been spookier
Joan Lowry Nixon crafts a competent ghost story with a likeable heroine, but the plot could use a little less mystery and a little more ghostly interference. But fans of haunted houses and mysterious family secrets will enjoy this a great deal.

Lia is an unspectacular member of a family known for its impressive women. When her great-grandmother dies, she tells Lia that their ancestral house, Graymoss, must be preserved -- even though it is thought to be hideously evil. However, Lia's blindly optimistic parents have an obsessive dream of adopting a dozen "unadoptable" children, and are determined to turn Graymoss into a home for those kids. Lia is less than thrilled about the idea, both because of the disruption of her life and because of the ghosts.

Before leaving, Lia purchases a bag of voodoo gris-gris that will repel ghosts. And soon she finds that she needs it -- strange gusts of wind, a crashing window, a falling book, and a strange indentation in her bed. Her parents refuse to believe that there is anything strange about the house, but Lia can feel a malevolent presence. Armed with gris-gris, a cryptic diary and a collection of Poe's stories, she must try to banish the evil forces from Graymoss.

Nixon crafts a good story with plenty of sprinkled clues, family conflicts, and a big creaky house with no bathrooms. Her dialogue is pleasantly solid and believable, without fake witticisms or overly complex monologues. It's easy to imagine real people saying these words. Her portrayals of the family and their differing views on Graymoss were exceptionally done. And the mystery clues sprinkled in the Poe book and the old diary from a Civil War Southern belle were also clever and pulled the various threads of the story together.

Unfortunately, this book is not particularly scary. The ghostly interludes are few and far between, and even when they do surface, they are not particularly detailed or frightening -- Nixon seems to be stuck on plaster faces that move and gusts of wind, because the "boo!" effects never progress beyond that. She also inserts a lukewarm love interest and a subplot about the unadoptable kids. While these are good in themselves, they seem rather pointless as nothing is really done with them.

Lia is a likeable heroine; she's really accomplished nothing noteworthy, but doesn't allow that fact to get her down. She also shows extraordinary patience with her dewy-eyed parents, who for all their talk about "reality" seem to have very little grasp on it. Their reckless plans to adopt "unadoptable" kids (who are often unadoptable for very good reasons) will have many readers rolling their eyes. Her grandmother exhibits a different kind of irritating stubbornness, but one that readers will warm to much more readily.

Despite the drawbacks, this is a pretty solid historical mystery -- but the realm of the juvenile horror story is still John Bellairs's. If you like family secrets and a few "boo!" moments, this might be your speed.

Mysterious House
I enjoyed reading the book, "The Haunting" by Joan Lowery Nixon. In "The Haunting" Lia is the main character who's 15 and an only child. In the book her great grandmother dies and in her will she leaves this house for Lia's mother, with Charolette's diary. The house is supposedly haunted and no one's lived in it for the past hundred years. The diary is full of stories from when Charlotte lived there. Lia's parents have big plans for when they move into the house. They are going to adopt a dozen kids and live in Graysmoss. Lia doesn't like the idea of having a dozen kids running around. Lia and her parents go and visit Graymoss, her parents love the house but they have to have it inspected before they move in. Right before they were leaving Lia's mother saw an indention in the bed that wasn't there before. Read to discover what really happends. I thought it was a great book, it was suspensful and exciting to read.

The most scary book ever!!
The Haunting, by Joan Lowery Nixon, is a scary suspense filled book. If you love being scared out of your mind, then this book is for you. It is about a girl named Lia, whose mother has inherited a platation home by the name of Graymoss. As soon as her mother finds this out, she immediately decides they must visit Graymoss to see if they can live in it. Lia's parents dream is to adopt lots of children and since Graymoss is a huge beautiful home, they want to live in it. They are aware of the spooky tellings of Graymoss. That is, that there are frightening things that happen at night, however, Lia's mother does not care what people say. Lia believes these tellings and one night decides to try and get rid of the evil by going to Graymoss after dark. See what happens to Lia when she hears whispers and expierences things pulling at her. Overall, I loved this book and you will too!

creepy
The book was suspensful, and I thought it was pretty good.
The thing about this book was that they had you wait way to long for the actual climax to happen, so you got bored with it. Besides that the book was really creepy and it also added some extra things like insecurities. Over all this book isn't my favorite, but I liked it.

Was it a choice, this book would have gotten zero stars
This book was a disappointment at best. The entire story line was a Poe story mixed with your generic teenage drama. I was expecting an intriguing story, after hearing only good things about the author, but I was let down. The majority of the book was introducing the characters and setting, and when the action finally developed at the end of the book, the plot was insultingly simple. The long beginning leads you to think there will be a complex story line, but instead it develops the same as many other teenage drama books. Also, the book gives the appearance of being a book for older, high school aged teens, the language seems to be geared more towards younger, elementary school aged children. I am more than surprised that anyone could think Nixon is a great author, or that this book is a "must read." ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Check Into Danger
On a visit to Piney Point Manor, an elegant seaside resort, Sean and Brian Quinn investigate a series of thefts that have baffled local police, and someone tries to frighten the brothers off. This series i recomend for all young readers. ... Read more

Reviews (17)

An Alright Book
It was a good book, but it had too much going on in it. It was kind of hard to keep track of what was going on. It is a good book to read, though.

Best book ever
WOW i really dont like to read but after this i love it! This book was so interesting..i love how she kept the suspense up...it was a little confusing with everything that was goin on but in the end i was in shock to find out what happened...i engourage u to read it even if you dont like to read!

Wonderful!
This book was great and each chapter left me with a cliffhanger! I couldn't wait to read more of the book. It was awesome! I loved it! Nixon did a great job!

Great!!!
This book was so cool. Takes you right into it! Very creepy. Not a disapointment at all!!

The Best
I rate this book five stars because of its great mystery. The book is about a daughter and her mom. The mom was a journalist, she was the one who mostly started the mystery. One night Katie ( the daughter) heard some noises coming fom outside, she got out of bed to see who or what it was. If you want to know who or what it was read the book Shadowmaker. The part I like in the book is when Katie heard the noises because I like the temptation of wanting to know what will happen. What I didn't like is the book moved alone to slow. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

I can't beleive this book is for children!
I can't beleive this book is for ages 9-12. It has adult topics and themes. I don't know what the author was thinking. ... Read more