Customer Reviews

Jade Green: A Ghost Story (Turtleback School & Library Binding Edition)

5 star:		(82)
4 star:		(32)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

Young, orphaned Judith moves into an old house where strange things happen, especially at night. Sound like a formula novel? It is. But it's a genuinely scary one, with a ghostly prescence that just may not be evil, and an ominous guy that's very human and just may be more wicked than the ghost. Creepy fun with a cool ending to top it off.

Jade Green: A Ghost Story is another good book by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, and it's a great ghost story!

15 year old Judith's parents have both died, her mother in the madhouse, so she goes to live with her uncle. He said one strange thing, however - not to bring anything green. She can't part with a small, green silk frame that her mother gave her, however, so she takes it secretly.

Soon after Judith reaches her new home, strange things begin to happen - she hears of a girl, Jade Green, who died by her own hand in the same house, 3 years ago. Terrifying things begin to happen, and she doesn't know what to do!

A romance with the boy next door, a new job, and avoiding her threatening, grown cousin, complicates things further, and she wonders if things will ever be all right.

This was a great book, with an exciting plot, well developed characters, and things that were truly scary! I'd recommend this for ages 12 and up.

It has a catchy begining, an intense middle, and a wonderfull ending. Even though this book has bad stuff for kids under 10 (a man tries to rape a girl and his throat is slashed) it is wonderfull! Everyone should read it.

The year is 1887, and fifteen-year-old Judith Sparrow, has just been left an orphan. With no other relatives who will take her in, Judith travels to South Carolina where she will take up residence with her Uncle Geoffrey. However, there are two secrets that she must carry with her to her Uncle's home. One, that her Mother died in a madhouse, plagued by grief; two, that she has ignored her Uncle's only rule of bringing nothing green inside the house. Judith wishes that she could abide by that rule, but it's impossible, seeing as how she adores the photograph of her Mother that is bound within a gorgeous green silk frame. Besides, a little frame can't do that much damage. And Judith just wants to feel happy, and have a family to call her own, which is exactly what she gets in South Carolina, a family and new friends. The best of which is the miller's son, Zeke Carey. But Judith soon learns that Uncle Geoffrey's home holds a secret. And the small picture frame that she has hidden in the bottom of her trunk quickly unleashes a powerful force that can't be stopped. One that will destroy everything that Judith has grown to love.

I have read many novels by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, but I don't think any have been as exciting, and adventure-filled as JADE GREEN. The twists and turns that capture each page of JADE GREEN are marvelous, and leave the reader begging for more. Readers who enjoy a good historical mystery novel, will adore JADE GREEN and find themselves devouring the entire novel in one sitting, as it is too good to put down.

Erika Sorocco
Book Review Columnist for The Community Bugle Newspaper

BOOK REVIEW

The book Jade Green is an amazing ghost story about an orphaned girl named Judith and her experiences at her uncle's house. There is the cheering cook, Mrs. Hastings, her forty-year-old cousin, Charles, and her stay-put uncle, Uncle Geoffrey. Judith enters the town of Whispers and she hears a mysterious scratching at the back of her closet on the first few nights of her stay. From town gossip, Judith learns about the death of a girl named Jade Green-a girl who lived in her uncle's house before Judith and died a horrible death on the attic stairs. Jade Green bled to death by cutting of her hand. As it turns out, Jade loved the color jade-green. Suddenly, Judith knows the reason she was forbidden by her uncle to bring anything green into the house. She fears that by smuggling in a small green picture frame, given to her by her mother, she has awakened the sleeping ghost of Jade Green. It turns out that during nighttime or whenever Judith is alone in the house, the ghostly hand of Jade Green comes out which scares Judith. It plays the piano, it can climb up walls, it can do anything a normal hand can do. Since this is so, Judith wonders about her life and how it can be taken away by the hand. After, a horrible flood has taken away Whispers, her rapist cousin Charles come to try to kill her. He says that all he asked for is a kiss and since she didn't give it to her, he will ask for more than that. At that point she thinks that it will be the last of her life until the ghostly hand appears once again. It climbs up her bedpost and suddenly choke Charles to death. Then she leaves the town with her beloved Zeke.
One reason why I liked the book was because it had a unique storyline. I never read a book that had ghosts that were good and that saved somebody's life. Also, The author made the reader interested by adding things at the end of the chapter that makes one want to read more.
One reason why I disliked the book was because it was a little too scary for me. Sometimes the author wrote the description so well that I actually got scared of it.
If there was something that I would do to change some part of the book, I would choose to alter the characteristics of the character. Some of the characters don't match the characteristics. For example, Charles-Judith's forty-year-old cousin shouldn't be a rapist, he should just be a normal person that doesn't have a good relationship with Judith. The author should also think of better names for the characters unless she/he purposely chose those names.

The book Jade Green was great,freaky,and the book wasn't like most scary books where you know if the ghost is bad or good right away and with a human spirit wandering around, and the end came out totally unexpected. I loved it and it gave me the creeps(which is what ghost stories are supposed to do)
Its about this bold orphan girl named Judith Sparrow who comes to live with her Uncle in a spooky old house. The very peculiar thing is that her Uncle specifically tells her not to bring anything green but Judith cannot possibly leave a green frame that her mother had made with her picture in it. So she brings it.
She meets her awful cousin who has a terrible reputation(not to mention he fits it), a caring uncle, and nice cook. Hiding the frame deep in her closet, nobody knows she has something green in the house. Then she starts hearing noises. Weird scratching sounds. She believes its just rats at first, then the story leaks out ...
Meanwhile she works in a hat shop befriending the other girl who works there and finds herself a little more than friends with a boy named Zeke.
She cant bear the frights anymore so she gives the green frame to Zeke but Jade won't let her be. Why? And what does Jade want? ... Read the book, I absolutly recomend it.

This was the best book I have ever read. It was soooooo scary. It had a little romance in it but not too much. It was very surprising every chapter. I couldn't put it down. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes very scary and surprising books with really great endings.

Phyllis Reynolds Naylor's Jade Green provides an outstanding ghost story as it tells of Judith, a new orphan who awakens a ghost in her new home with her uncle. A creeping hand and a dangerous secret affect her newfound home and threaten her in this excellent story of suspense.

Judith is a fifteen-year-old orphan. Her mother has recently died in a mental institution, and her father died years before. Her uncle far away in South Carolina has agreed to take her in, under the condition that she not bring anything green into his house. Judith is torn--her mother gave her a photograph of herself in a green silk frame, and Judith can't bear to part with it. She decides that it would be okay to bring it into the house, as long as it stays hidden in her trunk where her uncle will never see it.

When Judith moves into town, she starts to hear things about her family. A few years before, there was a girl Judith's uncle took in, named Jade Green. She was also an orphan, and she killed herself in the house. Jade Green's favorite color was green, and it is thought that having green in the house may cause her ghost to come back.

Then strange things start happening to Judith. She hears noises coming from her trunk at night. She sees a white glove on the stairs to the attic where Jade Green died. And she sees a disembodied hand in the house. Do these things really exist? Is Judith going mad like her mother? Or is it a clever trick by her creepy forty-year-old cousin Charles, who is worried Judith will be written into his wealthy father's will?

There were really good characters in this story, and Judith was a strong main character. The ending was good; I liked how things worked out. However, the book was a bit predictable; I felt like I had too many hints about what was going on.

Wow! I couldn't put this book down. The author graduallydivulges pieces of information, so the reader can figure out what'sgoing on. Judith has come to live with her uncle after she is orphaned to the dismay of her lazy, philandering cousin. She soon learns that a girl, Jade Green, "died" in the house. Gradually parts of the dead girl's life and death are revealed and the ghost makes appearances in the form of a severed hand! Very creepy, but great. I gave it 4 stars since I wanted more to the end, I felt it stopped short.