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The Shadows (The Books of Elsewhere, Vol. 1) [Deckle Edge] [Hardcover]

Jacqueline West
4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (50 customer reviews)

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Book Description

June 30, 2010 10 and up 770L (What's this?)
Old Ms. McMartin is definitely dead. Now her crumbling Victorian mansion lies vacant. When eleven-year-old Olive and her dippy mathematician parents move in, she knows there’s something odd about the place—not least the walls covered in strange antique paintings. But when Olive finds a pair of old spectacles in a dusty drawer, she discovers the most peculiar thing yet: She can travel inside these paintings to a world that’s strangely quiet . . . and eerily like her own Yet Elsewhere harbors dark secrets—and Morton, an undersized boy with an outsize temper.

As she and Morton form an uneasy alliance, Olive finds herself ensnared in a plan darker and more dangerous than she could have imagined, confronting a power that wants to be rid of her by any means necessary. It’s up to Olive to save the house from the dark shadows, before the lights go out for good.

Jacqueline West weaves a tale at turns haunting, moving, and darkly

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The Shadows (The Books of Elsewhere, Vol. 1) + Spellbound (The Books of Elsewhere) + The Second Spy (The Books of Elsewhere)
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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Amazon Best Books of the Month, June 2010:  Hair-raising adventures can be found close to home this summer. Soon after 11-year-old Olive Dunwoody moves into a rundown Victorian mansion with her nerdy mathematician parents, she realizes something isn’t quite right. It's full of oddities like strange paintings hanging on the walls and a trio of talking cats lurking in the shadows. While Olive's parents busy themselves solving math problems, she decides to work out the mysteries of the dusty old pictures by plunging headlong into the world on the other side of the frames. But, will she be able to escape the hidden dangers of Elsewhere? From the first few pages of The Shadows: The Books of Elsewhere, middle grade readers will be hooked on this spooky new series. --Lauren Nemroff

From School Library Journal

Grade 4–6—Olive Dunwoody and her mathematically minded parents move into an old Victorian home complete with the deceased owner's furnishings. Olive first notices that something is wrong when she can't take the paintings off the wall. She sees things moving in them. Then, while rummaging through the drawers, she finds a pair of glasses and tries them on. Olive can now enter the paintings and talk to the people in them. She is warned by a talking cat named Horatio not to spend too much time in there or to lose the glasses. She meets Morton in a painting and learns that he was forced into it because of a conversation he overheard. Olive is determined to find out more about the house and its history. But who can she trust? Her neighbors, the talking cats, or the people in the paintings? The expressive black-and-white illustrations contribute to the overall spooky mood of the story. The plot moves quickly as Olive pieces together clues. Recommend this book to reluctant readers and fans of Neil Gaiman's Coraline (HarperCollins, 2002).—Samantha Larsen Hastings, West Jordan Public Library, UT
(c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Product Details

  • Age Range: 10 and up
  • Hardcover: 256 pages
  • Publisher: Dial; First Edition edition (June 30, 2010)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0803734409
  • ISBN-13: 978-0803734401
  • Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.9 x 0.9 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (50 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #574,315 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

For more visit JacquelineWest.com

A two-time Pushcart nominee for poetry, Jacqueline West lives in Red Wing, Minnesota. The Books of Elsewhere, Jacqueline's award-winning fantasy series for young readers, is published by Dial in the USA and will also be published in Italy, Spain, Greece, Turkey, Indonesia, Sweden, Norway, France, Germany, and Catalan.

Jacqueline's poetry has appeared in a variety of print and online publications and has garnered several awards, including a Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg prize and two Pushcart nominations. Cherma, her series of poems about Wisconsin's Bohemian immigrants, was published in March 2010 by the University of Wisconsin's Parallel Press chapbook series.

Customer Reviews

4.7 out of 5 stars
(50)
4.7 out of 5 stars
Readers will be looking forward to the second installment in the Books of Elsewhere series. KidsReads  |  15 reviewers made a similar statement
I'd recommend this to anyone with children, or anyone who just likes a good book. Jack  |  14 reviewers made a similar statement
If you're looking for a fun Middle Grade read, you should seriously check this book out. M. Bounds  |  11 reviewers made a similar statement
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
30 of 32 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Eleven-year-old Olive Dunwoody leads a lonely life. She is blessed to have the love of her parents, but they are very dedicated mathematicians who work at the university, so she doesn't have much in common with them. She also doesn't appear to have much luck making friends. The kids at school and in the apartment building never want to include her, even when the teachers insist. And as soon as Olive steps away, they seem to forget all about her.

With her record for making friends (or the lack thereof), Olive isn't expecting any different results when her parents buy the ancient mansion on Linden Street and they move into the new neighborhood. It will be just the three of them in this huge house, and the loneliness looms in all of the strange corners and empty rooms. It must have been similar for the previous owner; old Ms. McMartin lived there all by herself, along with her three cats. That is, until she died, right there in the mansion.

Olive does find parts of the house interesting, such as the zillions of paintings scattered on the walls, and the closets and drawers filled with old clothes and various items, including a pair of old glasses. But other locations are a bit creepy, like the gloomy basement where she feels like she's being watched, and the one painting in the hall where she could swear she sees a white shape moving through the trees. And then things really start to get weird.

Olive gets a visitor in the middle of the night. One of old Ms. McMartin's cats slips in through her bedroom window and introduces himself. His name is Horatio, and he comes with a warning: something in the house doesn't want them there. And then Olive discovers that when she puts on those old glasses, she can actually climb into the paintings. But Olive, beware.
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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars strong haunted house mystery July 1, 2010
Format:Hardcover
The Dunwoody family move into a fixer upper Victorian mansion left vacant when elderly Ms. McMartin died. Eleven year old Olive finds the house odd, but her mathematical minded parents see nothing out of the ordinary starting with the inability to remove the strange drawings from the wall, but upon a closer look she sees things moving inside the paintings.

Looking around the house, Olive finds glasses that she puts on for fun. Instead of blur, she realizes she enter the pictures and travel in a realm that sort of looks like her natural one, but seems shadowy and too quiet to the stunned tweener. Horatio the cat warns her not to stay too long in their world and never lose the glasses if she is on this side of the frame. Olive also meets raging Morton who claims he is from her side of the divide, but was thrown into the picture world because he knew too much. As she learns more about the house and its contents, Olive fears something evil wants to keep her silent in order for her not to reveal what the darkness wants to do to the light.

With illustrations from Poly Bernatene enhancing the strong haunted house mystery, Jacqueline West provides an exhilarating middle school age tale. Fast-paced, young readers will want to join courageous Olive as she investigates the goings-on inside the painting world and the house, but is unsure who to trust with her growing concerns especially in light of her parents thinking logically that she is playing make believe.

Harriet Klausner
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Love This Book! July 14, 2010
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Last night I finished up THE BOOKS OF ELSEWHERE: THE SHADOWS, and ohmigosh it was good.

It's one of those books where the adult in me thinks, (cue high-pitched nasally adult voice) "Oh, I really like this story. What nice atmosphere. How unique," and the kid in me is like, (cue my real voice) "Ahhh! That's scary. Wow--cool. I want to do that! She did what? The end? Where's the next book!?!?"

I was lucky enough to interview the author, Jacqueline West, here: [...].

THE SHADOWS is a fast paced read set in Olive Dunwoody's new home--a crumbling Victorian house brimming with rooms to explore and curiosities to discover. Her slightly absent minded, but brilliantly (and hilariously) mathematical parents have no clue what kinds of secrets their home holds. Olive, however, finds herself unraveling a dark and deadly mystery, aided only by three cats and a bratty boy.

Atmosphere: Really old house with hidden rooms, paintings you can travel through, cool old spectacles, creepy basements, that prickle at the back of your neck when you know something's not right, overgrown backyards, nosey neighbors, and cats with attitude. In a word: awesome.

Language: Jacqueline West is also an award winning poet, and she has this beautiful knack for clear, concise, and completely unique description. There's also lots of witty dialogue that kept me smiling and laughing throughout the book.

If you're looking for a fun Middle Grade read, you should seriously check this book out. There's also a pretty cool website for the book that includes sample chapters and clips from the audiobook:[...].
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Strong heroine; good sidekicks; engaging storyline October 5, 2011
Format:Paperback
The other reviews of this book are a bit over the top. This is not an exhilarating work of genius. It is, however, a very engaging tale with a fine cast of characters and a light and restrained touch.

Olive is a fine protagonist. She has spunk, and, unlike Lou Grant, I like spunk. She keeps a level head, she is alert and perceptive. She is a fine character to root for. Her parents are vague, but in an amusing rather than dismissive way. I'm a little tired of modern books where the parents are distant and sort of jerky, for no good reason. Here, the parents care about Olive in their distracted way, and she is very tolerant of them in a bemused sort of way. I think this would amuse kid readers without making anyone the fool or the bad guy.

Olive's "haunted" house is populated by three cats who serve as her dramatic and comedic foils. They are actually pretty funny in a bantering sort of way, and are not either cutesy or overwritten.

The villains are mostly off stage and should not be too unnerving for a young reader. The scary parts are actually pretty brief, and while they are effective they aren't inappropriately intense. The overall vibe of the book is actually more of an atmospheric mystery/adventure, not horror. It's also nice to have fantasy/magic that is manageable, without a lot of world building and magic systems, or overly complex exposition of the plot or the haunted world.

The general quality of the writing is also well above the "serviceable" level. Ms. West has a nice touch for dialogue, and some of her descriptive passages are well above the usual for this kind of book. So, it's nice to be able to recommend this book as well written.

There seem to be a number of books coming out with strong girl leads and good writing.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars Guess what
I met Jacqueline West at school for an assembly.she autographed my hand and the bookmark I earned by winning a guessing game
Published 10 days ago by Samir
4.0 out of 5 stars Cute!
Enjoyable book to read aloud to the family. Even a grown up will be wondering what happens next...and yet it is simple enough for the young kids to follow the story.
Published 17 days ago by nicole m
5.0 out of 5 stars A Fun Adventure
The Shadows The Books of Elsewhere is a fun adventure for children and parents alike. A fun book to read with my children because the writer takes us into a new world.
Published 23 days ago by Trish Hopkins
5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing and astoundingly great fun!
Just wonderful! I found book 2 in a discount store and before then had never heard of the 'books of elsewhere'. Boy am I glad I picked it up! Read more
Published 28 days ago by kathie metzger
5.0 out of 5 stars McKenna DID I like this book or not. Question mark.
My friends were right. The books of elsewhere are awesome! I can not wait to read the other 3 books. My favorite cat is Harvey. He is pretty crazy. Olive is really daring. Read more
Published 1 month ago by napster
5.0 out of 5 stars AWESOME book
It was really cool book. I liked it a lot. I want to read the the next book to.
-Quinn Barsdis
Published 1 month ago by O.D. Jones
4.0 out of 5 stars Scary for some
My daughter is 10. Her friend loves this author and has read almost all her books. My daughter said she can only read it during the day, because it's too scary for her to read just... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Renee F. Pellett Gabriel
3.0 out of 5 stars Okay
This book was good but i dont like the 3 cats make them three dogs other than that the book was fine.
Published 3 months ago by Micah is boss
5.0 out of 5 stars The Shadows (Series from Books Of Elsewhere)
This is such a well-written book! The vocabulary and the way the author describes situations and thoughts are so wonderful, clever and vivid! Read more
Published 3 months ago by sydney
5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome
This is the first book that I have read from Jacqueline West... And it's so amazing!!! The best part is when Olive defeated McMartin. Read more
Published 3 months ago by By Michelle
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