Customer Reviews

The Ghost on the Stairs (Haunted (Aladdin))

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I LOVED this book. My daughter who is 11 could not put this book down. She read it so quickly and is asking for more! I highly recommend this book for girls and boys (and adults) who like mysteries. You should definately read this book! Happy Reading!

I really enjoyed this- the young, skeptical protagonists get dragged from place to place as their mother and stepfather film a Ghost Hunters-esque type show, and no one is more surprised than they when the younger sister sees a real ghost! By turns touching, and with genuinely creepy moments, this is a wonderful addition to ghost lore fiction and I can't wait to read the rest of the series!

Both my nine year old daughter and I have read The Ghost on the Stairs, and we both agree it's a fantastic story, ripe with suspense and filled with likable, tangible characters. I love the brother, Jon, the narrator of the story, whose "wise-old-teenager" reactions to what's going on around him are hysterical. My daughter really relates to Tania, the sister, and also to Maggie, who are both strong female figures. This is a nice read for anyone, I'd say, from seven years old and up, and the fact that it's a series makes it all the more appealing. We've also read the Riverboat Phantom (loved it, too! Lots of interesting historical information), but my daughter is one up on me: she received The Knight in the Shadows for Christmas and read it one day over vacation - she couldn't put it down.

This is a very entertaining book. As I finished a chapter, I was amazed how I was driven to read the beginning to the next chapter. The characters pull you into the story, then the story keeps you reading.

There were numerous times where I got chills. Sometime chills came with what is totally expected, the "spooky factor", and other times the chills came with building excitement and/or suspense. Especially toward the end!

Great Book very entertaining, and kept my interest throughout! Can't wait to read the next Haunted book "The Riverboat Phantom."

My 10yo daughter says: "I was not impressed with this book. It does have very likable characters, as the other reviews said, but it's really predictable. In every chapter I knew what would happen (almost). The author should have added more creativity in the book. A typical ghost story."

I really enjoyed this captivating story about siblings whose parents host a ghost hunter-type television series. I particularly loved how the author paired the science of ghost hunting with the story's paranormal elements. But what I loved most of all, was the way my 4th grade daughter got sucked into the story. She's a reluctant reader so it was a joy to see her completely absorbed in a book; she immediately started the second book in the series when she finished, and can't wait for more. Thank you, Chris Eboch!

For me, this book was very fun, but I bet that for its intended audience (8-14 year-old's) it would be not only fun, but also truly scary - which, of course, is what you want from a good ghost story. The narrator is Jon, a 13-year-old boy with an 11-year-old sister, Tania. Their parents are divorced, and Mom is traveling the country with their (relatively new) step-dad, Bruce, producing a TV show which tries to establish the "facts" about ghosts in various spooky places around the country. Bruce is fairly affectionately sent up by Jon as a credulous show-man, easily taken in by weak reasoning and colorful psychics, and one of the many pleasures of the book is Jon's intelligent and scientific analysis of the supernatural goings-on as they unfold. It's great to have a skeptic as a narrator of a ghostly yarn, and even better to see him weighing all the possibilities as things get weirder and spookier. Jon himself doesn't see ghosts --- his sister Tania does, and this only makes the story-telling that more multi-layered and interesting. The relationship of the two kids is realistic and touching, especially with the extra knowledge that they once had a younger sister, now tragically dead, and this is what drove their parents apart and led their mom into the realm of spiritualism. The mystery of the sad, incoherently grieving ghost in the hotel of the old Colorado silver town is handled with delicacy and without resort to the easy clichés of the genre, and the climax (which I won't give away, but which involves a great deal of bravery and compassion on Tania's part) is truly satisfying and spine-tingling.

Having spent time in a house I think was haunted, I'm pretty tough on ghost stories when they don't strike me as "realistic." (I know that sounds weird.) The Ghost on the Stairs is both spooky in a convincing way and very entertaining because the characters are strong, humorous, and sassy. The inclusion of the TV "ghost hunters" show as a foil is a terrific touch. Great balance of spooky, funny,and engaging.

How do you make a life-long reader? You let them read great books just for fun! Chris Eboch is going to make a lot of readers with this new series. She has a knack for chills, thrills, and the type of cliff-hanging chapter endings that keep young readers turning the pages.
Whether you are looking for a great story or a book to encourage readers, Eboch shows us how it's done.

K. Hamilton

The Ghost on the Stairs - This first title in the Haunted ghost-whisperer adventure brings something new to the generally bland popcorn series books that glut the big box stores and the discount havens -- depth and heart. Siblings, Jon and Tania, are fleshed out characters, not cardboard cutouts. Their first adventure will engage and challenge the minds of young readers and open up interesting questons. With a perfect mix of chills and thrills, Jon and Tania investigate the ghost haunting a Colorado hotel and discover a spooky way to help that ghost find peace. A fast, riveting read! Great book for upper elementary students.