The Window [Paperback]

Jeanette Ingold (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 2003

Mandy survived the terrible accident that killed her mother, but she was left blind and alone. Now she lives with relatives she doesn't know, attends a new school, and tries to make friends--all the while struggling to function without sight.
Her unpredictable life takes its strangest turn when she begins to hear the oddest things through the window of her attic room. In fact, what she hears--and seems to "see"--are events that happened years ago, before she was even born. . . .

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 6-9-Mandy, blinded in an automobile accident that killed her mother, goes to live with her two great uncles and a great aunt whom she has never met. Once on the family homestead in northern Texas, she travels to her grandmother's teenage years when she leans out of her attic bedroom window. Through her travels into the past, she pieces together the tragic story of the family she never knew existed and learns much about herself. In the present-day world, Mandy is adjusting to a new school, new friends, and being blind. She makes friends with ease, and their support helps her adjust to all of the other changes she is experiencing. There is no real conflict in this novel. The only real tension arises in the past world and transfers to the present day when Mandy tries to piece together the mystery of her mother's and grandmother's lives. By placing the protagonist in the home of her great uncle and aunt, and by making Mandy's adjustment to her new life relatively smooth, Ingold avoids many of the weaknesses of the YA time-travel genre. Mandy is not running from anything; however, the knowledge she gains through her journeys into the past allows her to see her own life more clearly and to adjust to her new circumstances more easily.
Lucinda Lockwood, Thomas Haney Secondary School, Maple Ridge, BC
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Gr.7^-10. When Mandy is blinded in an accident that kills her mother, the teen goes to live in Texas with relatives, who heretofore have not known of her existence. Another YA novel ringing with excess tragedy? Perhaps, but Ingold does such a good job of bringing Mandy's character to life, along with that of her great-aunt Emma and those of great-uncles Abe and Gabriel, that the reader gladly sticks with the story to find out what will happen. And there's plenty to find out. From almost the moment Mandy enters her new home, her mysterious family history begins to emerge. The girl seems to hear voices from another time and is gradually able to piece together what happened that caused her mother's family life to be unknown for so many years. The voices and time travel devices are deftly handled and make the suspension of belief workable. The real power of the story, however, is the girl's voice, which makes us feel what it would be like to suddenly face the world with no sight, and the touching, albeit unsentimental, efforts of the relatives to accept and love her. As it turns out, Mandy's social adjustment at school is almost too smooth to be convincing, and she may end up overloading a bit on self-knowledge and success, but this is nonetheless a strong and satisfying work. Anne O'Malley --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 12 and up
  
• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Graphia (August 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0152049266
• ISBN-13: 978-0152049263
• Product Dimensions: 7.3 x 4.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,932,079 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Growing up, I liked cameras, my violin, reading, traveling, and running games. I flirted with becoming an actor (briefly, early, before playing a shadow, a flower, and a penguin). I didn't think about writing until I landed in a newsroom, assigned to obituaries, but it's been a straight line since.
I put a modern newsroom in my new novel, PAPER DAUGHTER. I hope you'll enjoy it and my other books for young adults. They include HITCH, a Christopher Award winner, and THE BIG BURN, historical fiction that VOYA called, "A must-read for adrenalin junkies."
Please visit me at www.jeanetteingold.com.

JEANETTE INGOLD's popular fiction for teens and middle school readers includes THE WINDOW, an American Library Association Best Book for Young Adults and International Reading Association Young Adults' Choice; PICTURES, 1918, a Texas Lone Star Reading List book; AIRFIELD, a New York Public Library Book for the Teen Age; MOUNTAIN SOLO, a Missouri Mark Twain Award nominee and Texas TAYSHAS book; THE BIG BURN, a Montana Book Award Honor Book and winner of a Western Writers of America Spur Award for Juvenile Fiction; HITCH, a Society of School Librarians International Best Book; and PAPER DAUGHTER, recipient of an Oppenheimer Gold Seal.
Her short stories include "Moving On," in TIME CAPSUE: SHORT STORIES ABOUT TEENAGERS THROUGHOUT THE TWENTIETH CENTURY, edited by Donald R. Gallo; and "Word Drift," in XANADU 3, edited by Jane Yolen.
She lives and writes in Montana.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Window of Wonders, February 17, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Window (Paperback)

After barely surviving a terrible car accident that killed her mother, Mandy, 15, is left without sight. She is sent to her relatives in Texas, and she has to adjust to a new place, being blind and without her mother. When she is in Texas, Mandy meets two people, Hannah and Ted, who become her very best friends. They don't show her any special treatment, and they completely ignore her diability, just like she wants them to. Aside from her school, Mandy is drawn into the story of her family's past through her bedroom window. She hears the secret stories of what happened to the generations before her. Through the stories, Mandy puts the mysterious pieces of her family's past together. Mandy's personality traits bring out the best in her. She is extremely brave, independent, and a one-of-a kind. She is also not afraid of challanges. Jeanette Ingold, the author of the story, describes her qualities so that you could actually feel like you were in the story. I would definatly recommend this story to others, especially to young girls. The story has strong messages about the value of life and about friendship. It was the kind of story that many could relate to. It never dragged on like most books to, and I couldn't put it down. I truly enjoyed the story and I think many others would too.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Take a glimps through the window, April 15, 2005

A Kid's Review

This review is from: The Window (Paperback)

Have you ever seen pictures in your mind that show what has happened in the past years? In this story you will get a picture in your mind for everything because it is so realistic! I got to see what the world was like for teenager Mandy.
A long time ago in the 90's, a young girl named Mandy was in a deadly car crash in Texas which killed her mother in a seconds time, and also caused her blindness. Now all that Mandy has left are her great uncles and great aunt Emma who she has never even met before. Mandy struggles to face the new world with a whole new picture in her mind. One day Mandy was wondering around the house trying to feel for new things, when she found a closed window, and she wondered why Aunt Emma would have it closed on such a nice day like that. When she slowly opened it, all that she heard was someone yelling, "Gwen! Gwen where are you? Gwen!" She was curious at first as to whom Gwen was, but she researches to find out that it was her grandmother, and her daughter was calling out her name, which was Mandy's mother. Although Aunt Emma is curious as to where Mandy is hearing this, she doesn't know that Mandy is the only human being who can hear this. As Mandy learns more about her past, she faces a public school except a school for the blind where her aunt and uncles wanted her to go. No one worries about her though because they all trust Mandy's best friend Hannah who helps her around. In the end everything comes together and she realizes that she is who she is and she cannot change that fact. She realizes that everything is in gods plan and it is meant to happen.
This is now one of my personal favorite books I would recommend them for anyone ages 8-21. This book gives you the understanding of a blind person's life. If you ever get a chance to read this book I would highly recommend it.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A review on The Window by Jeanette Ingold, January 6, 2005

By 

Elee - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Window (Paperback)

The Window by Jeanette Ingold is a book that lets you see what it's like to be blind and to be going through some of the toughest years of life at the same time. Throughout the book Mandy's opinion changes very dramatically on how she feels about her disability. At first she didn't want to have to depend on anyone for anything. She tried to do everything for herself. But as time went on she learned that asking for help is important because it lets people that are close to her feel needed. And sometimes she really does need their help, and in the book she learned to accept the fact that once you are blind you won't always be able to depend on just yourself. When rating this book I decided to give it 4 stars because yes it was a very good book, but I think that it could have been longer and that the author didn't really do a good job in making the window and what Mandy saw in it relevant to everything else going on in the book. Personally I think that the part about the window was good but it just didn't seem to make sense in the context of the book. I think that it would have been better if the window was some sort of mystery that she had to solve and that it would reveal some secret other than who her grandmother was. But other than that I would recommend this book to all of the girls in the world who are in the same stage of life as Mandy so that they can "see" life through the eyes of someone else who just so happens is not able to really see anything at all.