Patricia ClappRecensioni

I read this when I was a kid and I remember liking it. I didn't finish it when I tried to re-read it though. My tolerance for books that I don't enjoy has diminished over the years.

Perfectly meets the longings of having little people inhabit the dollhouse.

loved this story, super creepy. great ending.

I’d never heard of this book or author, but I saw it mentioned in a discussion in a Borders Facebook group, and I was intrigued. Based on the discussion, I expected it to be scarier, but it was still enjoyably creepy. I liked the first-person narration and the old-fashioned, atmospheric writing. Every time I see a lawn globe, I’ll think of this book and give it a wide berth.

“There are times when the midsummer sun strikes cold, and when the leaping flames of a hearthfire give no heat. Times when the chill within us comes not from fears we know, but from fears unknown-and forever unknowable.”
― Patricia Clapp, Jane-Emily

Does anyone remember this eerie and fascinating little book from days gone by?

This is a chilling little read from my childhood years that I have reread since then and find just as creepy as back then. OK..Maybe not just as creepy..but still creepy nonetheless!

I remember after reading this just feeling the eeriness and the ominous feelings. And does anyone look at reflecting Balls in the same way again?

This is one of those timeless tales that can be enjoyed by anyone in any age group and despite the fact that it is a pretty small book and I am an adult now..that Emily..that reflection.. Yowsa!

I have always enjoyed this book. Particularly as the main character, Constance Hopkins is one of great-grandmothers.

A pretty good ghost story, but outdated, patriarcal, and (the one time the book mentions a person of color) kinda racist.

I didn't remember much but, as soon as I flipped through the copy, it came back. I'll leave the stars because it's incredibly informative about Vicksburg and the outsider view is a nice take. But I didn't particularly want to know anything more about any of the characters. They seemed rather flat against the tragic backdrop of the Civil War.

This came to mind because a neighbor was telling stories about his relation to Stephen Hopkins. I thought "wasn't that the father..." and indeed it was. My library has weeded this book, which vexed me greatly, because...

I feel like modern YA authors often borrow from that terrible interview question: "What is one of your weaknesses?" You know, the one where you say something like "I'm OCD about deadlines" and they're supposed to think that's a good thing.

So many authors often seem to think "My protagonist can't be perfect. They need a fault," so they give them a character trait like, say, being an introvert. But then, at the end of the book, it's that very "negative" trait that attracts the main guy/gets them the job/saves the country.

Constance(the character) is rude, proud, racist, vain, and negative. And I love it. Not because those are qualities that we should strive for, but because Clapp walks us on a journey of growth in a lot of those areas. She doesn't do it perfectly and, at the end, Constance is still far from perfect, but we are shown that, yes, people have nasty traits and yes people can change. There's a point where one of the settlers does something terrible. And Constance and a friend are talking about that person and they get to that event and, because of the uncomfortableness of it, essentially say "I don't know what to think and I'm just going to pretend that nasty thing didn't happen because I can't really deal with it." Clapp is very aware, not perfectly, but largely, of the way human beings behave when asked to look back at the sticky, nasty, morally-reprehensible events of life---we justify, ignore, evade it because we don't like dealing with the conflict. I thought that her portrayal was very realistic---though not at all one we should emulate.

The middle-end-ish is a bit drawn out and boring, probably because not much historically seemed to happen, though I did like the discussion about fishing tactics.

FYI:
I'm a descendant of John Cooke- the guy who didn't get the girl. And, no, that's not a spoiler. You pretty much know by the second chapter. :)

Also am very disappointed that they're marketing this (on the GR blurb) as a romance... it is, at the end, but the first half is mostly, well, not. I mean, 50 people die.

This book terrified and delighted me as a child. It was a book I remembered as an adult, but did not recall the title. It took a while, but finally Professor Google helped me narrow it down and purchase it. It scared me just as much reading it as an adult.

I loved this book when I was a kid; nice to see that it is available again in print so that my daughter can read it, too.

Before I can tell you my opinion on the plot of this old children's book, let me tell you about the smell of the book. Yes, the smell.

My library ordered a copy of an old 1973 Yearling paperback from another library and it came with the most delightful musty old book smell. I inhaled several times each time I picked up the book. It took me right back to childhood, back to the musty old used bookstores we used to frequent and the smell of the paperbacks in our basement. It smelled like a book SHOULD smell and I had long forgotten that scent. Oh, to be 12 again and discovering this book in the kid's section of Jerry's Used Book Store on Federal. . . .

Interestingly enough, I never read this book as a kid. Never stumbled across a copy.

It read like a sixties pre-teen romance novel. In fact, there is so much romance you tend to forget it's actually a horror story. It takes place in the early 1900's (although the dialog seems more modern to me) and it's the story of a young girl named Jane who becomes obsessed with another girl who has been dead for 20 years named Emily. Emily is evil and Emily has power. Jane and her sister are staying in Emily's house for the summer with their grandmother who happens to be Emily's mother. The teenage sister has a real romance going that's fairy princess like but it's a good mix of good and evil. Not too scary for an adult but I think I would have liked it when I was young.

And the smell! Just like it was found in a haunted attic somewhere.

Read as a kid.

Not a beloved favourite from my youth--I just read it for the first time, and I'm 54 at present.

The viewpoint character did almost nothing except yearn to be held by a big strong man—it's amazing to me how up-to-date someone like Jane Austen can feel, and how terribly dated and stilted some works from only half a century ago are by comparison!

The ghost's antics failed to elicit any concern from me, let alone actual horror. I wasn't dazzled by the actual sentences (if little happens, but it's beautifully depicted, that's its own reward). Nobody particularly seemed like an actual, authentic person (let alone an interesting actual authentic person), so this was disappointing.

(I realise it's a book for children, but that's very little excuse. The best of childrens literature can hold its head high against the best of adult fiction, I don't lower the bar for them).

(Note: 5 stars = amazing, wonderful, 4 = very good book, 3 = decent read, 2 = disappointing, 1 = awful, just awful. I'm fairly good at picking for myself so end up with a lot of 4s). I feel a lot of readers automatically render any book they enjoy 5, but I grade on a curve!

One of my favorite books of all times, omg. I try to read this once a year or so. Funny story: I had to read this in sixth grade, after which we took a field trip to Plimoth Plantation. "Constance" was on the Mayflower while we were there, and I started asking her about all kinds of stuff that happened in the book - gossip about other pilgrims, etc. She just looked at me like I had two heads....I felt really dumb. My teacher just stood there and kept prodding me to ask more - mean!

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My biggest regret about reading Patricia Clapp's book is that the author is no longer alive. I would have liked to be able to thank and ask many questions. I am a direct descendant of Constance Hopkins and have read the two books about her father's life and some of his own writings and short journal references to him but the information about her life is sparse and hardly anything about her children. I would have like to ask the author about more about Constance's life and her friendship with Priscilla Alden and so much more.

But I am grateful for the description of the frightening epidemic that killed so many of the people who came over on the Mayflower. I pictured the Common House tall and strong and lined with rows of pallets of those stricken with the disease. I had the good fortune of visiting the replicas of that and the small dark house that Constance lived in when I visited that area.

The author brought to life the sight, sound and thoughts of my ancestor and I an truly thankful for that. I want to encourage more people to explore their ancestry and seek article and books about their ancestors.

Although the setup for the story was a bit clunky and I was not totally convinced all the history was completely correct, once the story got going it was very interesting. I knew some of the story of the siege of Vicksburg but the reality of it was portrayed very effectively. I had a bit of trouble with the Southern Belle character and her over the top accent, she seemed utterly ahistorical, but overall a well-done YA novel.

A book told in two different stories, each about children who are over the top mean. The first Emily Jane is a haunting tale of a young child whose parents have died. With her Aunt, she travels to Massachusetts to spend a summer with her grandmother. The house is old, well kept and lovely. The gardens too are spectacular. Soon, when Emily looks into the glass ball sitting carefully on a pedestal, she sees the face of Jane, the nasty daughter of her grandmother. Jane died long ago, but appears to reside inside the lovely glass ball. Increasingly Jane takes over Emily.

The second tale The Witches' Children is the story of the witch hunts in Salem Mass. in the 1600's, and the nasty girls who were responsible for the deaths of so many innocent people. There is nothing new to learn, but the story is well told.

Reprinted, this older book is written in a wonderful way that calls the reader to continue the journey.½

The first story in this book, Jane-Emily, is a quaint little ghostly yarn about a young girl Jane who is haunted by her aunt Emily who died in childhood. Jane is a sweet, sensitive child while her aunt Emily was in life hell on wheels. Louisa, Jane's young aunt tries to make sense of Jane's ramblings about the wishes of the dead Emily. At first she thinks it's nonsense but quickly comes to the realization that something more sinister is afoot.

The second story is a retelling of the events surrounding the Salem witch trials. I am familiar with the story so there wasn't much new to uncover here. At first the story was extremely dry but as it went on I found myself enjoying it more. The story is told from the viewpoint of the servant girl Mary who lived in John Proctor's house. At first she joins in with the other girls in the village pretending to be bewitched and falling into hysterics. It is a amusing distraction in an otherwise uneventful life. But as serious consequences begin to occur from their actions and real people begin to be hurt by their lies, Mary begins to rethink her actions. As a side note the real Gallows hill where the Salem population hung their neighbors for witchcraft has been recently confirmed to be Proctor's Ledge and it's located next to a Walgreens. This is a very interesting article on the subject: http://www.salemnews.com/news/local_news/proctor-s-ledge-in-salem-confirmed-as-w... As for the story itself, it's informative if you don't know very much about the subject but all Crucible fans can take a pass.

I've always liked the reflecting balls that decorate certain lawns. My dad and I decided a long time ago that the owners of same belonged to a secret club or coven, and the different colors denoted different levels of initiation into the Mysteries. We came up with some genuinely scary scenarios, some of which involved Very Sharp Knives.

This book, with a haunted reflecting ball at its center, didn't scare me. It seemed to me to be mostly a love story with a top-dressing of ghostliness. I didn't connect with the narrator or the young girl, Jane. I didn't get the love interest's appeal. I liked the grandmother and the cook and the senior Dr. Adam, but I'm afraid I didn't like the book very much at all.

I Jane-Emily is an atmospherically creepy story with a similar tone to Shirley Jackson's novels, and I enjoyed it. It's not as strong as Jackson's work (though what is?) and gets a little bogged down with the romance part, but there's still a pretty good feel to this book. Once you pull out the romance it reminded me a little of The Watcher in the Woods, which was one of my favorite movies as a kid. (Reading the book as an adult, I was surprised to see how little resemblance there was between it and the movie. Still good and creepy, but a totally different story.)

The Witch's Children half of this book was a little dull, though. It's not much more than a fictionalized account of one of the "possessed" girls who sparked the Salem witch trials. I know that sounds like it could be really interesting... but sadly, it wasn't.

4 stars for Jane-Emily; 3 for Witch's Children.

*I'm open to all recommendations--a Google search for "classic horror novels" brought up a lot of results for Stephen King. Um, not exactly the kind of classic I'm looking for, guys. With all the librarians on my GoodReads friend list, surely somebody can help me out? (Hmph, most of you are children's and teen folks. We don't do a lot of grown-up reading, do we?)

A Bossy boots recommendation. A well written period piece, with enough jumps and suspense to make things interesting. A solid read, and well done.

I loved the first story more then Witches children but I still really like this book. I was reading the first story for ever because I just fell in love with it. I'm not one for gosts and scary stuff but this book was amazing! So well wirten.
As for Witches Children I liked the history aspect of it. I love seeing how much society has changed over the years. now we wouldn't even think of haning a witch,if they exsist.

This is two bite-size novels in one book. The first, Jane-Emily is about a little girl who is haunted by the ghost of her dead aunt, also a child, the summer she goes to visit her grandmother. (4/5)
The second, Witches' Children, is a novelization of the Salem Witch Trials, told from the pov of John Procter's bound girl. (3/5)