The House of Dead Maids

Gr 6 Up—Clare B. Dunkle's gothic tale (Holt, 2010) sets 11-year-old Tabby Aykroyd at a mysterious house on the English Moors where ghosts abound and the servants all seem to know a secret that is somehow connected to her and to the nasty boy who thinks himself "the master." Narrator Emily Gray masterfully moves from one character to the next as she voices the blasphemies of the young "master," the haughty superiority of the imperious housekeeper, and the cavalier demeanor of the older master and the townspeople who shun Tabby's attempts to become one of them. While the story is short, the tension is high, and Gray narrates chilling scenes of dead girls coming to bed for a warm embrace and toy dolls being found with steel needles running through them. Tabby's voice gets more secure as she begins to take control of her life, going from victim to victor, and listeners will celebrate the climatic scene of live burial when she repeatedly uses her wits to outmaneuver the evil forces around her, including the self-serving desires of "the young master." The story continues to reveal its connection to Brontë legacy. Young Tabby ends up at the home of the Brontës, and on many evenings she shares with the girls tales from the mysterious house from whence she escaped. Tabby is modeled after the Brontës' actual servant and the young master goes from being a "heathen git" to "Heathcliff in this prequel to Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights.—Edie Ching, University of Maryland, College Park