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Joanie's review

Jane-Emily: And Witches' Children
by Patricia Clapp

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<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/793169.Jane_Emily_And_Witches_Children?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=blog_review" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img alt="Jane-Emily: And Witches' Children" border="0" src="http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1189311729m/793169.jpg" /></a> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/793169.Jane_Emily_And_Witches_Children?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">Jane-Emily: And Witches' Children</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/234425.Patricia_Clapp">Patricia Clapp</a><br/><br/>
  <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6043153?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review"><h3>My review</h3></a>
  rating: 4 of 5 stars<br/>Okay so this book is actually two books in one. The first, Jame-Emily is, I guess, the better known (and more enjoyable.) The second is "Witches Children" and it's okay, but not great. I wish I could give the first half a 4 and the second a 3 but I'll stick with the 4 since I'm sure I would have really liked this as a kid.
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<br/>Jane-Emily is definitely something that would have scared me as a kid.  In the early 1900s Jane and her 18 year old aunt (whose name I have already forgotten! Okay, I just looked on Amazon-it's Louisa) go to stay with Jane's grandmother.   Jane's parents (the aunt's sister) died in a horse and buggy accident so she has been living with her aunt and grandparents.  While visiting her paternal grandmother for the summer the girls discover that Jane's grandmother had a very spoiled daughter named Emily who died when she was 12. The ghost of Emily starts to cause problems and it's all very spooky (or at least I would have thought so had I read it when I was younger.) The book is a quick, fun read and it almost made me want to go back and read some of the books that scared me as a kid.
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<br/>Witches Children is  a take on The Crucible, in fact, the author cites it in her bibliography.  It's the story of the Salem Witch trials told from the point of view of one of the girls involved in accusing the so called witches.  In it Mary, the narrator, tells about how badly she feels about some of the accusations and that it all started as a game because they were bored.  Even though I certainly knew that the girls would fall into fits for attention etc, it was still so maddening to read, I just kept hoping someone would give the girls a good smack and tell them to knock it off but of course that's not what happened.  The book isn't bad, it just suffers from comparison to things like The Crucible. Maybe for someone in 5th or 6th grade for whom this would be totally new it wouldn't be so bad, maybe I'll pass it on to one of my nieces and see what they think.  
  <br/><br/><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/279142?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">View all my reviews.</a>

Joanie's review
rating:
bookshelves: young-adult

Okay so this book is actually two books in one. The first, Jame-Emily is, I guess, the better known (and more enjoyable.) The second is "Witches Children" and it's okay, but not great. I wish I could give the first half a 4 and the second a 3 but I'll stick with the 4 since I'm sure I would have really liked this as a kid.

Jane-Emily is definitely something that would have scared me as a kid. In the early 1900s Jane and her 18 year old aunt (whose name I have already forgotten! Okay, I just looked on Amazon-it's Louisa) go to stay with Jane's grandmother. Jane's parents (the aunt's sister) died in a horse and buggy accident so she has been living with her aunt and grandparents. While visiting her paternal grandmother for the summer the girls discover that Jane's grandmother had a very spoiled daughter named Emily who died when she was 12. The ghost of Emily starts to cause problems and it's all very spooky (or at least I would have thought so had I read it when I was y...more

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message 1: by Tina

09/13/2007 06:32AM

Oh my gosh Joanie! I took this book out of the school library when I was in the sixth grade. It scared me so much that I had to sleep with Mom one night. I still remember at lot of the dialogue from this book but I was unsure of the name. I thought the title was Emily-Elizabeth for some reason. I just got a Borders coupon so I have to buy it. The book addiction is definitely hereditary.