When newly orphaned Buddy and his lawyer-sister Liz receive a strange message from an ancestor, they travel back in time to save her from being han...
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Jul 28, 2011
Adriane
rated it: 
Two orphans get lost in between floors in a mysterious old building and end up in the midst of a family drama several generations in their own past. Dare they save a family member wrongly accused of witchcraft, when doing so might irrevocably alter, or eliminate, their own existence? Anyone who enjoys stories about orphans, pirates, sailing lore, time travel, historic fiction and witches will get a kick out of this salty yarn. Be warned that my family and I might have accidentally learned som
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Sep 26, 2009
Beth
rated it: 
The 13th Floor is not so much a ghost story as it is a story of time-travelling adventure. Twelve-year-old Buddy and his sister Liz (a grown-up lawyer) lost their parents to a plane crash and are about to lose their house in order to pay off their father's debts when Buddy, acting on an old family legend, calls on one of their ancestors, the fierce pirate Captain Crackstone. A ghostly voice on their answering machine directs Liz and Buddy to the 13th floor of an office building. Once they each f
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Dec 26, 2009
Adam
rated it: 
Far below Fleischman's standards, all the best moments of this story are over by chapter 3. After that, it's all paint-by-numbers storytelling and authorial smugness. A tale of New England pirates and witch hunts, the book demonstrates that issues of great moral complexity are nearly always handled with ham-fisted clumsiness in pop culture genres and treated with what Owen Barfield termed "chronological snobbery" (basically, an idea that moderns are ultra-spiffy-cool and intellectual
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Dec 31, 2010
Marika
rated it:
Buddy Stebbins lives alone with his 23-year-old lawyer sister Liz after their parents are killed in a small plane crash. In an outlandish attempt to acquire money in order to pay back their father's debts, Liz and Buddy follow directions that are left on their answering machine by a mysterious ancestor, and inadvertently stumble back in time to the year 1692. Buddy is transported to a pirate ship captained by another of their ancestors, John Crackstone.
Liz and Buddy are entangled in a More...
Liz and Buddy are entangled in a More...
May 30, 2010
Chris
rated it:
This book was a big disappointment. I really liked Fleischman's "Jim Ugly," so I had high expectations for this one, especially since I enjoy time-travel stories. Instead "The 13th Floor" was just silly. A boy and his adult sister, strapped for cash by their parents' deaths, receive an answering machine message from a long-dead ancestor summoning them back to 1690s Boston via a time portal on the 13th floor of a building. So far, corny but good. But then there's pirates and a
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Oct 15, 2009
Cathy
rated it:
Three things I liked:
Thing One: I love a book that's funny.
Thing Two: I love when I learn something from a story (in a perfectly painless way). I learned some pretty interesting things in this ghost story.
Thing Three: I loved the voice of this author. Now I have to go read some more of his books.
I guess that technically, that was three things I loved. Maybe I should change my rating?
Thing One: I love a book that's funny.
Thing Two: I love when I learn something from a story (in a perfectly painless way). I learned some pretty interesting things in this ghost story.
Thing Three: I loved the voice of this author. Now I have to go read some more of his books.
I guess that technically, that was three things I loved. Maybe I should change my rating?
Mar 30, 2010
I am on the part when buddy and her sis got a message from Abigail to got to Zachary Building and upto the 13 floor.Buddy relaizes that was sere his granpa works and he was a pirate. It is pretty great not so scary so far. I am going to stick with it.
May 20, 2010
Theo
rated it:
This book is funny and somewhat true. I advise to read all of it before making any judgements including the authors note. It is fantasy, but not as much so as harry potter or star wars.
Dec 05, 2011
Lisa
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This would be a great book to parallel a social studies unit on the era of the New World/Puritans, etc. It's sort of the humorous version of the Witch of Blackbird Pond, Fleischman style!
Jul 13, 2011
I bought this at a thrift store when I was in middle school. Great, eerie story. Brings back memories.
Mar 12, 2010
Amanda
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the book is good the boy was so worry that he can't find his sisters then he was looking for her.
Sep 24, 2009
Pat
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Great time travel tale involving Salem, MA around the time of the Salem Witch Trials.
Feb 01, 2008
Sarah
rated it:
I liked it better then the other reviewers did, mostly because I didn't expect it to be anything other then what it was. It is a humorous romp through the past, taking on witches and pirates all at once, appealing to both boys and girls. I liked that it was aimed for a younger audience, there are a number of beginning readers about time travel and books for the older grades. This is somewhere in between, and could work for 3-5 graders, depending on what level of reading they are at. It has adven
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Feb 01, 2009
Ledawn
rated it:
Fun pirate/historical fiction/time travel book with orphans. Did I leave anything out?
Jan 10, 2008
Tracey
rated it: 
Children's fiction; Adventure. Not really a "ghost story" per se--deals more with travelling back in time to when the kids' ancestors lived than with actual contact with the dead ancestors in the present. A disappointment.
Dec 26, 2007
Donald
rated it:
I really think this one was geared toward a younger crowd, but I enjoyed it. Give me a door that opens to another world and I am there in a heartbeat.
Nov 10, 2010
Kaethe
rated it:
A super quick read. Fun adventure with pirates and witches and no ghosts at all.
Feb 05, 2012
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