Tuesday, May 10, 2011

The Shadows

The Shadows by Jacqueline West  241 pp.

This is the first book of a new chapter book series called "The Books of Elsewhere." I read this in my search for possible contenders for my 4th-6th grade book club. Olive and her mathematic professor parents move into a ramshackle Victorian house complete with the furniture and artwork. While her parents are engrossed in their work, Olive is free to explore the creepy old house and discovers that the paintings are not what they seem. Not only are they permanently attached to the walls, there are things in the pictures that move. By donning a pair of old spectacles she found, Olive is able to enter the paintings and discovers that the people in them have been trapped there by the artist/magician, Aldous McMartin. With the help of three mysterious talking cats Olive learns the true story of the paintings. One of the trapped subjects is McMartin's granddaughter, Annabelle, who has tea with Olive in one of the paintings. Olive believes Annabelle is another of McMartin's victims, but things are not as they appear....

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