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Familiar and Haunting: Collected Stories
FamiliarHere are stories of everyday life, as familiar as a piece of rope and
... as haunting as fear: Mike knows that he can't swing over the river on the knotted rope, but with everyone watching him, he has to try. ... as haunting as a stranger: Who is the frightened-looking girl stealing plums from Nicky's grandparents' precious tree?
... as haunting as cruelty: How can Joe escape from his mean cousin Dicky during a family reunion?
HauntingAnd here are stories with a supernatural twist, as haunting as the eerie whistling from the hill above Burnt House in the middle of the night and
... as familiar as guilt: A boy forgets the mysterious bottle his cousin loaned him, but when he sneaks out at night to retrieve it, the shadowy whistlers close in on him.
... as familiar as loneliness: A ghost who's unbearably lonesome makes his neighbors suffer until a girl with a sense of the absurd shows him how things could be different.
... as familiar as love: The ghost of a boy comes back to save his father from dying in a ferocious storm.
Peopled with vivid, unforgettable characters, this collection of thirty-seven stories is by turns mysterious, humorous, strange, and sad, but it is always familiar, always haunting, and always surprising.
... as haunting as fear: Mike knows that he can't swing over the river on the knotted rope, but with everyone watching him, he has to try. ... as haunting as a stranger: Who is the frightened-looking girl stealing plums from Nicky's grandparents' precious tree?
... as haunting as cruelty: How can Joe escape from his mean cousin Dicky during a family reunion?
HauntingAnd here are stories with a supernatural twist, as haunting as the eerie whistling from the hill above Burnt House in the middle of the night and
... as familiar as guilt: A boy forgets the mysterious bottle his cousin loaned him, but when he sneaks out at night to retrieve it, the shadowy whistlers close in on him.
... as familiar as loneliness: A ghost who's unbearably lonesome makes his neighbors suffer until a girl with a sense of the absurd shows him how things could be different.
... as familiar as love: The ghost of a boy comes back to save his father from dying in a ferocious storm.
Peopled with vivid, unforgettable characters, this collection of thirty-seven stories is by turns mysterious, humorous, strange, and sad, but it is always familiar, always haunting, and always surprising.
- GenresShort Stories
392 pages, Hardcover
First published April 30, 2002
About the author
Philippa Pearce
85 books114 followersPhilippa Pearce was an acclaimed English author of children’s literature, best remembered for her classic time-slip novel Tom’s Midnight Garden, which won the 1958 Carnegie Medal and remains a staple of British children’s fiction. Raised in Great Shelford, Cambridgeshire, in the Mill House by the River Cam, Pearce drew lifelong inspiration from her rural upbringing. Educated at the Perse School for Girls and Girton College, Cambridge, she studied English and History before working as a civil servant and later producing schools’ radio programmes for the BBC.
Her debut, Minnow on the Say (1955), inspired by local landscapes and a childhood canoe trip, was a Carnegie runner-up and later adapted for television. Tom’s Midnight Garden, also rooted in her childhood environment, became her most celebrated work, inspiring multiple adaptations for stage, screen, and television. Pearce went on to publish over thirty books, including A Dog So Small, The Squirrel Wife, The Battle of Bubble and Squeak, and The Way to Sattin Shore, with several earning further Carnegie commendations.
Married briefly to Martin Christie, with whom she had a daughter, Pearce returned to Great Shelford in 1973, where she lived until her death in 2006. Her legacy continues through the annual Philippa Pearce Lecture, celebrating excellence in children’s literature.
Her debut, Minnow on the Say (1955), inspired by local landscapes and a childhood canoe trip, was a Carnegie runner-up and later adapted for television. Tom’s Midnight Garden, also rooted in her childhood environment, became her most celebrated work, inspiring multiple adaptations for stage, screen, and television. Pearce went on to publish over thirty books, including A Dog So Small, The Squirrel Wife, The Battle of Bubble and Squeak, and The Way to Sattin Shore, with several earning further Carnegie commendations.
Married briefly to Martin Christie, with whom she had a daughter, Pearce returned to Great Shelford in 1973, where she lived until her death in 2006. Her legacy continues through the annual Philippa Pearce Lecture, celebrating excellence in children’s literature.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
June 12, 2014
I feel kind of sad for the first half of this book. I remember a few of them from children's magazines when I was little, but most of the "familiar" stories haven't really held up over time. It sort of makes me sad to see that perfectly good writing for its time become dated and naive. But the "haunting" stores had some legitimate chills!
June 14, 2017
Too scary for children; truly gripping and chilling. Vivid and poignant.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews