{"id":1109,"date":"2016-04-21T12:23:30","date_gmt":"2016-04-21T16:23:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/ReadingBites\/?p=1109"},"modified":"2016-03-29T20:26:21","modified_gmt":"2016-03-30T00:26:21","slug":"review-a-drowned-maidens-hair-a-melodrama-by-laura-amy-schlitz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/ReadingBites\/?p=1109","title":{"rendered":"Review: A Drowned Maiden\u2019s Hair: A Melodrama by Laura Amy Schlitz"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/ReadingBites\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/199741.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-1110\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-1110\" src=\"http:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/ReadingBites\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/199741.jpg\" alt=\"199741\" width=\"318\" height=\"447\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/ReadingBites\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/199741.jpg 318w, https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/ReadingBites\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/199741-213x300.jpg 213w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 318px) 100vw, 318px\" \/><\/a>Candlewick Press,2006<\/p>\n<p>ISBN:\u00a0 0763629308<\/p>\n<p>Available: New<\/p>\n<p>Maud Flynn is a troublemaking, unattractive, orphan: the girl most unlikely to be adopted. However, she is the perfect choice for Hyacinth Hawthorne and her elderly sisters. The charismatic Hyacinth convinces Maud to play the part of a ghostly \u201csecret child.\u201d\u00a0 The sisters, posing as psychic mediums able to bring a dead child back to communicate with her wealthy mother, need Maud to carry out their fraud. As Maud studies the life and personality of the girl she will impersonate, she begins to dream of the girl and her death and even meets the girl\u2019s mother. Maud\u2019s experiences make her question the sisters\u2019 motives and affection for her. When the s\u00e9ance intended to convince the dead girl\u2019s mother ends with a disastrous fire, Maud is left behind, and nearly burns to death, Her escape reveals the truth, but as an adopted child, Maud is returned to her legal guardians, and her future does not look to be a pleasant one.<\/p>\n<p>Schlitz creates an ominous atmosphere, descriptive of places, visions, and events, which reaches its creepiest and most terrifying in the final s\u00e9ance. But it is the skillful characterization that makes the book. Maud changes from defiant and unhappy, into a girl eager for the sisters\u2019 love, \u00a0finally becoming a sympathetic, resourceful, and clear-minded character.\u00a0 Hyacinth is almost sociopathic, mercilessly and even gleefully manipulating people to achieve status and wealth. But Schlitz\u2019s triumph is that her characters cannot be contained neatly. They are too \u201cmessy,\u201d and their unpredictability lends them believability. Highly recommended for upper elementary and teen readers looking for a good ghost story.<\/p>\n<p>Contains: \u00a0horrific events<\/p>\n<p>Review by Francesca the Librarian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Candlewick Press,2006 ISBN:\u00a0 0763629308 Available: New Maud Flynn is a troublemaking, unattractive, orphan: the girl most unlikely to be adopted. However, she is the perfect choice for Hyacinth Hawthorne and her elderly sisters. The charismatic Hyacinth convinces Maud to play the part of a ghostly \u201csecret child.\u201d\u00a0 The sisters, posing as psychic mediums able to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[123,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ghosts","category-ya-books"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3Eu9f-hT","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/ReadingBites\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/ReadingBites\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/ReadingBites\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/ReadingBites\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/ReadingBites\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1109"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/ReadingBites\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1109\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1111,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/ReadingBites\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1109\/revisions\/1111"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/ReadingBites\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/ReadingBites\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/ReadingBites\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}