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6th out of 33 books
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31 voters
Jane-Emily
Emily was a selfish, willful, hateful child who died before her thirteenth birthday. But that was a long time ago.
Jane is nine years old and an orphan when she and her young Aunt Louisa come to spend the summer at Jane’s grandmother’s house, a large, mysterious mansion in Massachusetts. Then one day . . . Jane stares into a reflecting ball in the garden—and the face that l...more
Jane is nine years old and an orphan when she and her young Aunt Louisa come to spend the summer at Jane’s grandmother’s house, a large, mysterious mansion in Massachusetts. Then one day . . . Jane stares into a reflecting ball in the garden—and the face that l...more
Paperback, 160 pages
Published
October 28th 1993
by Beech Tree Paperback Book
(first published 1969)
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This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
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I was surprised to see in a bookstore that this VERY scary and original children's book is back in print, in a sweet new edition that includes another novel by the author.
Recommended for those who like well-told, genuinely spooky stories. Not recommended for those who get nightmares easily.
Recommended for those who like well-told, genuinely spooky stories. Not recommended for those who get nightmares easily.
6 likes · like · see review
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
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I found this in the back of the library where I work, where all the sad, musty, cast-out books go, and my eyes being significantly larger than my bookshelves, it went into another large pile of books that I would read someday when I had time.
It was a cute little Gothic novel, rather overly dramatic and romantic and unlikely and yet charming, all the same.
The last thing Louisa wanted to do is leave her poet sweetheart and tend her orphaned niece Jane in a stuffy old house for the summer, or so s...more
It was a cute little Gothic novel, rather overly dramatic and romantic and unlikely and yet charming, all the same.
The last thing Louisa wanted to do is leave her poet sweetheart and tend her orphaned niece Jane in a stuffy old house for the summer, or so s...more
Reviewed by my daughter and I.
Well, Mallory and I have read another book – this time a story I remember reading (and loving) when I was about Mal’s age. I stumbled across Jane-Emily when I was ‘shopping’ at Book Closeouts and couldn’t resist. It’s a story about a little girl, Jane, who goes to visit her paternal grandmother after her parents are killed in a buggy accident. She’s accompanied by her 18 year old aunt, Louisa. Her grandmother is kind but stern. She’s had some tragedies in her life –...more
Well, Mallory and I have read another book – this time a story I remember reading (and loving) when I was about Mal’s age. I stumbled across Jane-Emily when I was ‘shopping’ at Book Closeouts and couldn’t resist. It’s a story about a little girl, Jane, who goes to visit her paternal grandmother after her parents are killed in a buggy accident. She’s accompanied by her 18 year old aunt, Louisa. Her grandmother is kind but stern. She’s had some tragedies in her life –...more
This masterful little ghost story is classed as a children's book, but will scare adults as well. The story is simple: a turn-of-the-century girl named Jane is taken by her young aunt Louisa to spend a summer with her grandmother. Louisa is distracted by romantic problems when a handsome young doctor begins courting her, and at first hardly notices when Jane gets curious about a little girl named Emily who died in the same house years before. But Jane's obsession deepens, and Louisa is forced to...more
2 likes · like · see review
This was a surprisingly chilling novel, written from the perspective of a young woman, taking care of her orphaned niece. This book does a good job of keeping you guessing. You are never quite sure whether the young girl is being haunted, or if she is merely mentally unbalanced. There's a romantic subplot that I could either take or leave, as it is deeply predictable, and sometimes painfully old fashioned. I know that this is a period piece, and we should expect some old fashioned elements, but...more
Este pequeno livro, traz-nos a história de como a Jane, uma órfã tímida e contida, é atormentada por Emily, a tia que morreu aos 12 anos, na casa onde esta está agora de férias com a avó que mal conhece, dormindo no quarto que era de Emily e brincando com os brinquedos que lhe pertenciam.
Emily foi uma criança má, obstinada e cruel, tendo morrido pela sua teimosia e por não olhar a meios para atingir os seus fins.
Lê-se muito depressa e achei-o agradável. Surge-nos um romance pelo meio, que alivia...more
Emily foi uma criança má, obstinada e cruel, tendo morrido pela sua teimosia e por não olhar a meios para atingir os seus fins.
Lê-se muito depressa e achei-o agradável. Surge-nos um romance pelo meio, que alivia...more
Oh, my gosh! Just seeing the cover of this book is sending chills up my spine, giving me goose bumps, and making the hair on my head feel all tingly. Yikes!
I remember so well that little girl on the cover and that blue glowing lawn ornament ball. For years after reading this book, whenever I saw one of those lawn ornament balls, I got scared!
This is one of the scariest books I read as a kid, and I had forgotten all about it (repression, maybe?) until I just saw a mention of it on the What's The...more
I remember so well that little girl on the cover and that blue glowing lawn ornament ball. For years after reading this book, whenever I saw one of those lawn ornament balls, I got scared!
This is one of the scariest books I read as a kid, and I had forgotten all about it (repression, maybe?) until I just saw a mention of it on the What's The...more
I've always liked the reflecting balls that decorate certain lawns. My dad and I decided a long time ago that the owners of same belonged to a secret club or coven, and the different colors denoted different levels of initiation into the Mysteries. We came up with some genuinely scary scenarios, some of which involved Very Sharp Knives.
This book, with a haunted reflecting ball at its center, didn't scare me. It seemed to me to be mostly a love story with a top-dressing of ghostliness. I didn't c...more
This book, with a haunted reflecting ball at its center, didn't scare me. It seemed to me to be mostly a love story with a top-dressing of ghostliness. I didn't c...more
Gostei!
Um livro pequenino com uma história cheia de mistério que se lê num tarde ;)
Pensei que seria com mais terror, com grandes arrepios, mas esses só chegam mesmo na parte final.
Jane que vai passar o Verão a casa de sua avó onde é assombrada pela sua tia Emily que morreu muitos anos antes com a idade de Jane.
Emily que sempre havia sido uma menina caprichosa e com muita maldade tenta agora através da pequena Jane continuar a fazer valer as suas vontades.
Creio que a história poderia ter sido um...more
Um livro pequenino com uma história cheia de mistério que se lê num tarde ;)
Pensei que seria com mais terror, com grandes arrepios, mas esses só chegam mesmo na parte final.
Jane que vai passar o Verão a casa de sua avó onde é assombrada pela sua tia Emily que morreu muitos anos antes com a idade de Jane.
Emily que sempre havia sido uma menina caprichosa e com muita maldade tenta agora através da pequena Jane continuar a fazer valer as suas vontades.
Creio que a história poderia ter sido um...more
I read this book for the first time when I was in the 5th grade. I'm 43 now, and this book is still one of my favorites. I read it multiple times as a kid and it always gave me the creeps. I lost my copy of it years ago and went on Amazon and found a used one to keep on hand. Emily is one scary little girl ghost!! Had I read it for the first time as an adult, maybe it would not have made such an impression, but reading it as a kid has made it one of my all time favorites and I would recommend it...more
O facto de terem classificado este livro como um clássico do terror é completamente absurdo. Originalmente foi considerado como The classic novel of the supernatural, traduzindo é um romance clássico do sobrenatural. Esta SIM! É a verdadeira gaveta literária onde devemos enfiar este pequeno livro, um romance que ao primeiro olhar é cândido e inocente mas que revela algumas surpresas a quem o lê e além disso tem uma grande moral nas entrelinhas!
Um livro que gostei bastante de ler. Surpreendeu-me...more
Um livro que gostei bastante de ler. Surpreendeu-me...more
Long about Halloween my twitter pal @winnerbowzer and I had a twitter discussion about scary books. I told her about how Blackbriar scared the crap out of me. She told me that the scariest book she read as a kid was Jane-Emily by Patricia Clapp. Since @winnerbowzer has pretty good taste, I procured a copy post haste.
It’s only now that I’ve finally gotten around to reading it and hoo-boy was it fun! Jane-Emily is billed as a romance and a ghost story. Sweet!
It’s set in 1912, and nineteen-year-old...more
It’s only now that I’ve finally gotten around to reading it and hoo-boy was it fun! Jane-Emily is billed as a romance and a ghost story. Sweet!
It’s set in 1912, and nineteen-year-old...more
I am so glad to see this book back in print after thirty years. I read this book when I was in 7th grade, more than thirty years ago. It is a classic ghost story. Fun and really creepy. Emily is a spoiled wicked little girl who died on her thirteenth birthday. Jane is a nine-year-old orphan who comes with her young Aunt Louisa to live with her grandmother (Emily's mother). Louisa begins to realize that Emily never left, and she wants Jane. A must read if you like ghost stories. A really good and...more
I just finished Jane-Emily, the young adult ghost story written in 1969 by Patricia Clapp. I don't remember how I learned of this book, but I have been wanting to read it for a long time. I had to order it from Book People (awesome independent book store in Austin, Texas) because they didn't have one on their shelves, but it wasn't hard to get. The book, which is only 139 pages long, was out of print for awhile, but now it is available again, combined into one volume with The Witch's Children, a...more
I read this book when I was in fourth or fifth grade and it scared the bejesus out of me. I couldn't look at a lawn ornament for YEARS, and even thirty-five years later, the climax of the story is seared into my memory forever. I would love to read it again as an adult and see if it still freaks me out or if it was just the thrill of my first truly scary story that makes me shudder with fear when I think of that book.
F*ckin scary. I took this out of the Broolyn Public Library when I was about nine and years later bought a copy off amazon. Patricia Clapp does an excellent job of building suspense, as the best ghost stories do. Jane is an appealing character. I love that she is levelheaaded and smart and understands far better than the adults what is really happening.
Maybe I would have been scared by this as a kid, but I didn't find this story spooky or particularly compelling. Emily was a little too Bad Seed for me. But I liked the clothes, especially the clip-on bows for Louisa's white slippers. And I will never look at reflecting balls in the same way.
Bought at Park Slope church book sale.
Bought at Park Slope church book sale.
One of my all-time favorites from when I was young. Juvenile Victorian-era ghost story at it's best. I've read it twice now as an adult and it continues to be creepy but not so much that I have to sleep with the lights on. The ghost inhabits a garden reflecting ball and I've wanted one since I first read this 35 years ago.
I read this book when I was in Jr. High, and it was the first "gothic" novel I ever read. I see it as a direct influence that led to what i write today. Just calling up the cover on Amazon gave me the same shiver that I got when i pulled it out of the Scholastic Book Fair box a long time ago.
I was obsessed with this book when I was a young girl. I actually remember it being the first book I immediately re-read as soon as I had finished it since I had to return it to the library. I found out it had been reprinted just a few years ago and was very excited to see it again (it was originally written in the 60s). Unfortunately, the mystical allure it once held for me (and still did in my memory) didn't hold up the way I wanted it to. That said, it's still a pretty good ghost story and I...more
I gave this book five stars for old times' sake. As I reread it these 30 years after having read it over and over and over, I recognized a few key scenes which had lodged in my consciousness and become part of me.
The way Emily made herself sick - I love both the way it shows her as strong-willed and manipulative, and the way it's old-fashioned and of its time. (I really don't think that one would become deathly ill that way, but people thought so in the early 1900's.)
One thing I did see as an a...more
The way Emily made herself sick - I love both the way it shows her as strong-willed and manipulative, and the way it's old-fashioned and of its time. (I really don't think that one would become deathly ill that way, but people thought so in the early 1900's.)
One thing I did see as an a...more
This book, bought for me when I was about 9 or 10, still remains one of the all time frightening ghost stories available for children, I think. I have never been able to look at a gazing ball in someone's garden the same way since.
I was 11 when I first read this book and I was absolutely spellbound. Now, many years later, I can still enjoy re-reading it. It is a wonderful, gently romantic ghost story, suitable for both young and older readers.
When I read this book as a young girl, I was enthralled. The cover image has been etched in my mind -- font and all. Jane-Emily played a huge role in my tendency toward the Gothic realm in literature and life.
it was an ok book, but for some reason i didn't really care for it. It was really just a Bla kind of book for me. i should make a Bla shelf for books, because this one belongs there...in my opinion anyway
I found this book kind of creepy, it's about a girl that is possessed by a dead girl and the dead girl want's to drag her to her death. If you don't like ghost stories this is definitely not the book for you.
2 in 1 Interesting books. Although, I didn't liked the last book about the Salem witch trials as much, but that's because I have heard different versions a million times in High School English.
I had forgotten about this book. now it is all coming back to me. Emily soaks herself and sits in front of the window on a frigid day so that she will contract pneumonia. What a great book.
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Patricia Clapp was born in Boston and attended the Columbia University School of Journalism. Her first novel, Constance: A Story of Early Plymouth, was a runner-up for the 1969 National Book Award for Children's Literature. Her other books include, I'm Deborah Sampson, King of the Dollhouse, Dr. Elizabeth, and Jane-Emily. She also authored many plays for children.
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“There are times when the midsummer sun strikes cold, and when the leaping flames of a hearthfire give no heat. Times when the chill within us comes not from fears we know, but from fears unknown-and forever unknowable.”
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“There is no necessity to live by the clock.”
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Feb 13, 2013 05:58am