Help! I'm A Prisoner In The Library [Mass Market Paperback]

Eth Clifford (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 9 and up | Grade Level: 4 and up | Series: Help! I'm...

Two girls spend an adventure-filled night trapped inside the public library. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Clifford's extraordinary talents as a writer who keeps the action and surprises coming underpin her new antic adventure, its many moods ably depicted in Hughes's 15 drawings." Publishers Weekly

--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

About the Author

Eth Clifford's best-known title, Help! I'm a Prisoner in the Library (1979), concerns a situation she would no doubt welcome. A passionate reader as a child, she became a dedicated author and editor with scores of her own titles on library shelves. Clifford was born on Christmas Day in New York City and moved several times as a child. She remembers learning to read in a one-room schoolhouse set in an apple orchard, and she discovered the public library when her family later moved to Philadelphia. At age sixteen, she met her future husband at a poetry reading in Brooklyn, and it was he who encouraged her to begin writing while he was stationed in the South Pacific during World War II. Clifford began with short stories and soon published her first adult novel, Go Fight City Hall (1949), which was a Reader's Digest Book of the Month and was excerpted in humor anthologies. Clifford, her husband, and their daughter later moved to Indiana, where they lived for twenty years. While there, Clifford contributed to many social studies, science, and language arts textbooks for children, and this work eventually developed into her primary interest -- writing children's fiction. Clifford's books for children cover a wide range of ages and subject matter. Her youngest readers can match their sleuthing abilities against an animal detective in Flatfoot Fox and the Case of the Missing Eye (1990), handsomely illustrated by Brian Lies. Middle-grade readers enjoy Clifford's deft combination of suspense and humor in a mystery adventure series of five novels about Mary Rose and Jo-Beth Onetree, the sisters who were first introduced in Help! I'm a Prisoner in the Library, which won the 1982 Young Hoosier Award. Among the story's appealing elements are the believable relationship between the practical and responsible Mary Rose and her younger, very dramatic sister and the real sense of fear generated as the girls feel their way through the darkened rooms of the old mansion turned library. Subsequent adventures find the sisters sleuthing in such places as a ghost town and a shoe museum. All five books were illustrated by George Hughes. Clifford often incorporates interesting factual information into her humorous works. Children reading Harvey's Marvelous Monkey Mystery (1987) have an opportunity to learn about the companion monkeys who are trained to perform useful services for their physically challenged owners. In The Rocking Chair Rebellion (1978), a book for teens that includes contemporary problems, a young girl finds herself involved with the distresses of the elderly when she volunteers to work for the aged. This book was made into an "ABC Afterschool Special." Some of Clifford's books are written with a simplicity of style coupled with an emotional resonance that appeal to readers of all ages. The Remembering Box (1985) is a quiet and beautifully told story of the legacy that a Jewish grandmother gives her grandson and the understanding between them that allows the boy to accept her death. Clifford once called her ambition the desire to "rival Scheherazade and tell one thousand and one stories." She has succeeded in creating a readership that looks to her for a variety of books, all with strong characterization, sensitive treatment of relationships, authentic detail, and wonderful adventure.

--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 9 and up
  
• Mass Market Paperback: 96 pages
• Publisher: Scholastic Paperbacks (February 1, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0590443518
• ISBN-13: 978-0590443517
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,091,154 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Better than you think, October 23, 2005

By 

Anna M. Ligtenberg "AnnaLovesBooks" (Chicago) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Help! I'm A Prisoner In The Library (Mass Market Paperback)

ISBN 0590443518 - Both Amazon and the book cover say this book is for ages 9-12, and that's the first mistake, in my opinion. I can't imagine a child over 10 enjoying it. Younger children, especially those whose parents will read it to them, are a more likely audience. The surprises and scary moments aren't going to impress older kids. That doesn't make it a bad book, it just makes it more appropriate for a younger group.

Serious, sensible Mary Rose kept pointing out gas stations to her father, but she was out-numbered. Both her father and her younger sister, Jo-Beth, are the sort to leave things for the last minute. That was how the girls ended up on the side of the road in a snowstorm, waiting for their father to return with a full gas can. Jo-Beth suddenly realized that she simply had to get to a bathroom, too late to go with her father... and that was how the girls found themselves locked in a scary library in a blizzard overnight, with lifesized dolls that seem to watch them and a bird that talks. When the power goes out and the moaning from the second floor begins, the fun's just getting started!

Help! I'm a Prisoner in the Library! is too cute to compete with the likes of Goosebumps for the older set, but the pre-Goosebump kids will enjoy this one, especially if Mom or Dad will read along with them on some not-too-dark winter's night.

- AnnaLovesBooks

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fantastic read-aloud, October 4, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Help! I'm A Prisoner In The Library (Mass Market Paperback)

This is a book that my 5-year-old son could not wait to continue each night. It's exciting and not too scary for most children his age. He loved it and we are looking forward to reading more books about the characters.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Help I'm A Prisonor In The Library, October 26, 2001

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Help! I'm A Prisoner In The Library (Mass Market Paperback)

I would recomend this book to those who like scary mysteries with a good ending. This book is about two girls that go in a library
and get locked in. Their minds start playing tricks on them. They heard a thud. Then a pause, then another thud. Then two girls went upstairs and saw a woman on the floor. She looked dead.
Read the rest of the book and find out if the girls were ever saved and who was on the floor.