Stonewords: A Ghost Story (Harper Trophy Books) [Paperback]

Pam Conrad (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 10 and up | Grade Level: 5 and up | Series: Harper Trophy Books

The first time Zoe met Zoe Louise, Zoe was four years old. Zoe Louise was more than 100. From that day on -- living in the same house, separated by a staircase and a century -- Zoe and Zoe Louise have been an important and permanent part of each other's lives.

Now Zoe is older. And although Zoe Louise never grows up, she is changing in dreadful, frightening ways. Time is running out for Zoe's frightening ways. Time is running out for Zoe's best friend -- and Zoe is the only one who can help her. To do so, she must travel back 100 years in time and somehow alter the past. But in changing the past, must she also change the present? If she saves her friend's life, will she lose Zoe Louise forever?Zoe's grandparents think that Zoe Louise is Zoe's imaginary friend. The truth, however, is that Zoe Louise lived in Zoe's house a century ago, and her ghost has returned to solve a terrible mystery. . . . An eerie and gripping time fantasy. Conrads spare, vivid prose sustains the suspense, drawing readers inexorably toward a climax as satisfying as it is unexpected. SLJ.

1990 Boston GlobeHorn Book Award for Fiction Honor Book1990 Notable Trade Books in the Language Arts (NCTE)1991 Choices (Association of Booksellers for Children)Children's Books of 1990 (Library of Congress)1991 Books for the Teen Age (NY Public Library)1991 Best Juvenile Mystery (Mystery Writers of America)Parenting Honorable Mention, ReadingMagic Award1995 California Young Reader AwardZoe's grandparents think that Zoe Louise is Zoe's imaginary friend. The truth, however, is that Zoe Louise lived in Zoe's house a century ago, and her ghost has returned to solve a terrible mystery. . . . An eerie and gripping time fantasy. Conrads spare, vivid prose sustains the suspense, drawing readers inexorably toward a climax as satisfying as it is unexpected. SLJ.

1990 Boston GlobeHorn Book Award for Fiction Honor Book1990 Notable Trade Books in the Language Arts (NCTE)1991 Choices (Association of Booksellers for Children)Children's Books of 1990 (Library of Congress)1991 Books for the Teen Age (NY Public Library)1991 Best Juvenile Mystery (Mystery Writers of America)Parenting Honorable Mention, ReadingMagic Award1995 California Young Reader Award

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Zoe was overjoyed to find a playmate already in residence when she came to live in her grandparents' old house. The girls shared everything, toys, a playhouse, even the same name--everything except time: Zoe Louise is a visitor from another century. As Zoe grows up she begins to wonder about Zoe Louise's strange behavior. She follows her back in time to learn the terrible truth--that only she can prevent her soulmate's untimely death. For a ghost story, Conrad's latest novel is a surprisingly comforting tale of nurturing and forgiveness told in a direct, graceful style. Zoe, abandoned by her mother, adopts the life struggle of a ghost as her cause, and in winning is able to accept and love her mother just a little. This is a warmly poetic, atmospheric story shot through with bursts of fear, desperation and very real suspense. Ages 10-up.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From School Library Journal

Grade 5-9-- In a cemetery on an island off the northern coast of America, Zoe's unstable mother weeps for the dead, while Zoe stares at a gravestone with a single legible inscription: her own name. This scene sets the mood for an eerie and gripping time fantasy by a talented writer. Zoe tells her story, beginning when she is five and comes to live with her devoted, nurturing grandparents. She immediately discovers that their 19th-century house is haunted by Zoe Louise, a beautiful child dressed in old-fashioned clothes, eagerly anticipating her eleventh birthday party. Zoe Louise becomes Zoe's beloved playmate, invisible to grownups. Stonewords shares many devices with Philippa Pearce's Tom's Midnight Garden (Lippincott, 1984); comparison of the two books could stimulate a fascinating literary discussion. Conrad's Eden of backyard and playhouse becomes sinister when Zoe's mother appears and takes Zoe into the woods, where a bank of roses marks the border of an earlier garden. The roses were planted 100 years ago, Zoe's mother says, by a mother whose daughter Zoe died on her eleventh birthday and now lies buried in the cemetery. Then Zoe Louise turns spectral, decaying before her playmate's eyes, and the modern Zoe is impelled into the past, where she finds herself locked in a struggle with fate, her best friend's life at stake. Conrad's oblique evocation of horror is as intense as her portrayal of madness in Prairie Songs (Harper, 1985). The spare, vivid prose sustains the suspense, drawing readers inexorably toward a climax as satisfying as it is unexpected. --Margaret A. Chang, Buxton School, Williamstown, MA
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 10 and up
  
• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: HarperCollins (August 2, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0064403548
• ISBN-13: 978-0064403542
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.2 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #306,937 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What a super story., May 22, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Stonewords: A Ghost Story (Harper Trophy Books) (Paperback)

I read this book at 32, and I just loved it. I found the writer's style to be lovely, almost poetic at times. I appreciated the fact that the main character had some problems in her life (like her absent mother) but she had people to care for her, and she works through problems and comes out all right. The ghost story aspect was never used solely for scares or horror. It's a great read and at the same time, a story that stays with you. That's not something that can be said about all "ghost" books. Thank you, Ms. Conrad.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars awsome book!, October 14, 2001

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Stonewords: A Ghost Story (Hardcover)

I would definitely recomend this book to anyone who likes stories about ghosts. It is one of my all time favorite books. I like how the author describes what is going on in the book. I can read the book and seemm like it is real. Like it is really happening. I can escape the real world when I read this book.
!!!!!*****!!!!!five stars!!!!!*****!!!!!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Smartly written, gently suspenseful, November 5, 2000

By 

Darren in Kansas City "Darren in Kansas City" (Kansas City, MO United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Stonewords: A Ghost Story (Harper Trophy Books) (Paperback)

I've heard terrific things about the late Pam Conrad's novels, so I introduced myself to her with Stonewords. The story wasn't as richly textured as the author's writing style, but this is surely a title that any ghost story fan will appreciate.