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The Scariest Night
What's really going on in apartment 405?
For Erin, it looked like this summer was going to be the dullest of her life. Instead of watching scary movies and exploring haunted houses with her friends in Clinton, she has to spend the summer in Milwaukee because her genius foster brother, Cowper, is taking piano classes at the conservatory.
Now she's stuck with her family in an old apartment building that looks like it's falling apart. The people living there are kind of weird, too. In fact, the lady in apartment 405 seems to have unusual powers--because whenever Erin goes to visit her, strange things seem to happen.
Then one creepy night, when there's nowhere else to go, Erin makes a surprise visit to apartment 405. . .and that visit may be her last!
For Erin, it looked like this summer was going to be the dullest of her life. Instead of watching scary movies and exploring haunted houses with her friends in Clinton, she has to spend the summer in Milwaukee because her genius foster brother, Cowper, is taking piano classes at the conservatory.
Now she's stuck with her family in an old apartment building that looks like it's falling apart. The people living there are kind of weird, too. In fact, the lady in apartment 405 seems to have unusual powers--because whenever Erin goes to visit her, strange things seem to happen.
Then one creepy night, when there's nowhere else to go, Erin makes a surprise visit to apartment 405. . .and that visit may be her last!
166 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 1991
About the author
Betty Ren Wright
98 books297 followersBetty Ren Wright was an award-winning author of children's fiction including The Dollhouse Murders, The Ghosts Of Mercy Manor and A Ghost in The House.
Known for her ghost stories and mysteries, Wright published 28 children's novels between 1981 and 2006, as well as picture books and short stories. Prior to pursuing her career as a full-time author in 1978, she worked as an editor of children's books.
Wright lived in Wisconsin with her husband, painter George A. Fredericksen, until her death in 2013.
Known for her ghost stories and mysteries, Wright published 28 children's novels between 1981 and 2006, as well as picture books and short stories. Prior to pursuing her career as a full-time author in 1978, she worked as an editor of children's books.
Wright lived in Wisconsin with her husband, painter George A. Fredericksen, until her death in 2013.
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
May 3, 2019
I love “The Scariest Night”, 1991, for surprising me! It looked like a dud in my Betty Ren Wright collection. I skimmed juvenile aspects and noted some logistical and behavioural glitches. If Erin opposed a summer away; she could stay with friends. I am emphatic that a paranormal story need not entail a protagonist in her setting reluctantly. Reviewers were up in arms about the first chapter, when her cat was briefly overlooked at a gas station. Take inventory of kids and pets! One star consolidates bits and pieces I disliked. That leaves four, cheering this novel’s unexpected uniqueness.
Cowper’s parents passed-away and their best friends, Erin’s parents, took him in. Erin wouldn’t mind if he weren’t bland, unreachable, and if her parents weren’t bending over backwards for his piano-training. Erin is a horror film buff, which gives her a fun new personality type. When she suggests they make a film in their rented apartment, Cowper gets to see what he likes to do besides concert piano; if Erin’s folks don’t think it would let his parents down. When we’re past Erin not wanting to be there and Cowper showing no spark; the story becomes fun.
In another apartment, is the most extraordinary elderly lady. She is a medium and what’s more.... she has dolls that talk! This was a wholly unpredictable twist of the paranormal and I, for one, admired the creative surprise. The only things I criticize are that the cover should not promote a typical “scary night”, in quite a different novel. Secondly, the family is told of a disused outer door behind a dresser but only think of it at the last minute? If you are away from home; this is the first place anybody would explore! Nonetheless: brava, Betty, for a delightfully bizarre coming-of-age tale!
Cowper’s parents passed-away and their best friends, Erin’s parents, took him in. Erin wouldn’t mind if he weren’t bland, unreachable, and if her parents weren’t bending over backwards for his piano-training. Erin is a horror film buff, which gives her a fun new personality type. When she suggests they make a film in their rented apartment, Cowper gets to see what he likes to do besides concert piano; if Erin’s folks don’t think it would let his parents down. When we’re past Erin not wanting to be there and Cowper showing no spark; the story becomes fun.
In another apartment, is the most extraordinary elderly lady. She is a medium and what’s more.... she has dolls that talk! This was a wholly unpredictable twist of the paranormal and I, for one, admired the creative surprise. The only things I criticize are that the cover should not promote a typical “scary night”, in quite a different novel. Secondly, the family is told of a disused outer door behind a dresser but only think of it at the last minute? If you are away from home; this is the first place anybody would explore! Nonetheless: brava, Betty, for a delightfully bizarre coming-of-age tale!
March 10, 2023
I enjoyed this book, but it was not as nail biting as some of her other books are.
February 2, 2023
First off, our protag Erin is MY KIND OF GIRL!! She loves renting ghost and horror videos with her friends! She skateboards! She wants to be a "ghost-detective" when she grows up! Basically all the things I like to do and/or want to do lol.
In a nutshell, Erin and her mom, dad, and foster brother move to some shitty town into a creepy old apartment building just for the Summer, so her foster brother Cowper (COWPER!!?), who is a little 10 year old piano prodigy, can take lessons at the Conservatory. Erin resents him and is pissed off, having to get uprooted away from her friends and the "Great Shake-and-Shiver Summer of Horrors" she had planned with her friends. They were supposed to have gone ghost hunting at a haunted old schoolhouse, rent scary movies, and tell ghost stories all night. I'D BE PISSED TOO.
Erin befriends a kooky older lady in the building who just so happens to be a Medium. I totally pictured Zelda Rubinstein, from Poltergeist and Teen Witch! Anyway this Medium holds seances and talks to spirits and did I mention she has a cadre of dolls that are sentient and can TALK? Ewww nooooo!!
This was a lovely little story by BRW, who is the author of Dollhouse Murders and I have loved everything I've read from her. There are some life lessons involved for our little protag, many of which involve the aforementioned spirits and talking dolls, yikes. There are definitely QUESTIONS I have after reading though! If you've read it, let's talk!
4 out 5 creepy ass little talking dolls throwing temper tantrums, doling out unsolicited life advice, and throwing shade. Please don't ever give me one of these dolls in your will, please and thank you.
In a nutshell, Erin and her mom, dad, and foster brother move to some shitty town into a creepy old apartment building just for the Summer, so her foster brother Cowper (COWPER!!?), who is a little 10 year old piano prodigy, can take lessons at the Conservatory. Erin resents him and is pissed off, having to get uprooted away from her friends and the "Great Shake-and-Shiver Summer of Horrors" she had planned with her friends. They were supposed to have gone ghost hunting at a haunted old schoolhouse, rent scary movies, and tell ghost stories all night. I'D BE PISSED TOO.
Erin befriends a kooky older lady in the building who just so happens to be a Medium. I totally pictured Zelda Rubinstein, from Poltergeist and Teen Witch! Anyway this Medium holds seances and talks to spirits and did I mention she has a cadre of dolls that are sentient and can TALK? Ewww nooooo!!
This was a lovely little story by BRW, who is the author of Dollhouse Murders and I have loved everything I've read from her. There are some life lessons involved for our little protag, many of which involve the aforementioned spirits and talking dolls, yikes. There are definitely QUESTIONS I have after reading though! If you've read it, let's talk!
4 out 5 creepy ass little talking dolls throwing temper tantrums, doling out unsolicited life advice, and throwing shade. Please don't ever give me one of these dolls in your will, please and thank you.
April 16, 2009
This one was one of my favorites of this author. It had a neat twist, but what made it even better was the relationships between the characters and different personalities existing in the same apartment building
October 28, 2023
Una historia más de sobre crecer y aceptar los cambios y por supuesto comprender al otro.
Algo que uno aprende cuando se es niño.
Me ha gustado mucho, Erin es una hija única que ahora tiene un nuevo hermano, que ha pasado por cosas muy duras. Podrá Erin superar su capricho y ayudar a que Cowper tenga un buen verano en el edificio antiguo y extraño en el que pasarán las vacaciones.
Los momentos sobrenaturales aquí son secundarios y son bastante tiernos en realidad. Lo importante es el aprendizaje de Erin y las decisiones que ella toma para entender y crecer.
Algo que uno aprende cuando se es niño.
Me ha gustado mucho, Erin es una hija única que ahora tiene un nuevo hermano, que ha pasado por cosas muy duras. Podrá Erin superar su capricho y ayudar a que Cowper tenga un buen verano en el edificio antiguo y extraño en el que pasarán las vacaciones.
Los momentos sobrenaturales aquí son secundarios y son bastante tiernos en realidad. Lo importante es el aprendizaje de Erin y las decisiones que ella toma para entender y crecer.
November 2, 2017
I loved The Ghost Comes Calling as a kid and so anytime I've seen her work at the book shop I buy it. I've bought two others, and I'm starting to see a common theme. The main character is young and immature, and she's not very likable. That's what I noticed almost immediately in here. Erin has a foster brother named Cowper, which I thought was a really weird name as soon as I picked the book up, but she calls him Cowbird when she's mad at him. That's pretty lame. I think Cowcrap would be a better one, but that's just me.
She realized her cat was missing a while after they left the gas station, and Cowper had opened the window, so she knew he had let the cat out. We go through a rousing discussion of it being half Erin's fault because she's the one who let the cat out of the carrier in he first place. They go back to the gas station where two big rigs are stopped in front of the gas station blocking traffic. Erin jumps out of the car without permission and runs over, where she sees orange fur. Naturally I assume they've hit the cat but in what is really a fantastical turn of events we find out instead that the cat is holding its ground right in front of the big trucks, hissing and upset as the drivers stand there hoping it will move.
Wow. A cat that has no survival instincts to get out of the way of something loud and big and coming towards it. I've never heard of an animal staring down an oncoming vehicle or, better yet, the driver stopping and getting out in entreaty. That was just too crazy.
After one of the drivers said it was the stubbornnest cat he's ever seen, Erin stupidly sticks up for him and so ensues a truly dumb conversation. She says he isn't stubborn, and then challenged them: "What would you do if a great big truck was coming at you?" She should've just taken the cat and went. One said he would move, which was a good one, but she still didn't let it go. No, she had to say he was too scared to move and they should've just picked him up. Who stands there arguing with the people who almost ran your cat over? Just get your cat and go.
I just found everything about her so gratingly immature. She said it was supposed to be the "Great Shake-and-Shiver Summer of Horrors." I'm 99% certain no kid ever named their summer anything close to that.
It made her more relatable when she said she wanted to be like Sara from The Little Princess. She was rich but shared with the girls at the boarding school. Erin wanted to be good, but when Cowper moved in she didn't want him there and thought he was a little weird. She knew Sara would have been happy to have a little brother and would have hugged him, but she didn't want to do any of those things.
The ghost issue was so forced. In the beginning she had been looking under the car seats for the cat, and found a book of ghost stories. Her and her friends had planned to go to a haunted school, rent ghost-and-horror videos. Just because you're a fan of ghost stories doesn't mean your characters have to be.
Also forced that as soon as Erin saw the old apartment building she said nothing good could happen there. When they're about to get out of the car she said that she was absolutely sure now that nothing good waited for them there. What major foretelling. It would be nice if the character didn't know as soon as they set eyes on the place that it was bad. I had this issue with another of her books. She starts the mystery too soon. There's no rush.
All we know about the building is that it looks like an old castle, it has carving and a fancy doorway. And it's battered-looking, whatever that means. We don't know anything else about why this girl instantly decided she never wanted to go inside.
Erin saw a sign on the apartment building saying no pets, and I liked how her dad handled it. He told her to wait in the car and to lower a window so her and the cat would have air, and to not come out until he came back for her. It was so sweet that he was willing to hide the cat and break the rules for her. It was such a cute moment when he came back and acted like a gangster, telling her to put his coat over the loot and he'd smuggle it in.
I couldn't believe she had almost the exact same scene play out as in another of her books. This was written first, so she used this scene for The Ghosts of Mercy Manor. There's something about the girl first arriving at the place and being in the car, and looking up at a window and seeing someone staring at her. Books don't need to have similar things like this. I want new ideas.
I could relate to her that she cried over dad books and movies and animals being mistreated.
Mr. Lindsay was the saving grace of this whole thing. He added an element of humor and was the comic relief from what was otherwise boring. Cowper was worried he'd get to the piano class late, and the dad got up and saluted and clicks his heels together, said "We who are about to try, salute you!" And "We will accomplish this mission."
Things got more interesting as the old woman who scooped up Rufus, the cat, turned out to be a medium. I could understand why Erin was excited, because she finally had something interesting to tell her friends that would compete for the haunted school visit her friends would go on without her.
It was cool that Erin skateboarded and it made her more interesting. I figured the author would go her usual route and have the girl babysitting and doing all of the chores. It seemed that way when Erin decided to stay in the apartment alone and chose to wash dishes.
I got tired of Cowper and being serious or overly worried about being late.
I wanted different, but when the stone lion statue starting talking to her, different became a bad thing. I couldn't believe there was a talking statue.
I was so glad when she met the other neighbor, because it was interesting waiting to see what would happen. There were some colorful characters in that apartment building, that's for sure. She heard a voice saying help the sailor, so she opened the door and found an old man sleeping and a parrot doing the talking. His kitchen had caught on fire and she put it out, and it was funny when he told her not to ever do that, to watch oil as it's heating up and she stammered out that she doesn't make donuts. He mentioned his wife was with him all the time, that she's dead but still with him and it was funny that she backed away and nervously said she had to leave. Just imagine that happening!
It added a much-needed element of levity. Erin wished she had had the camcorder to record that, and called herself Girl Firefighter. She was excited at her idea of a camcorder and I wanted to see what she had in mind.
I can't even say how appreciative I was with the humor. It was funny that after her ordeal with the neighbor, she said her dad would say "First a talking stone lion, and then a ghost in the kitchen. What goes on here?" And that's exactly what he said when she told him what happened.
Erin finally got her shining moment and it was good to see it. Her mom said she was proud of her for putting the fire out and acknowledged that most people her age wouldn't have known what to do. She asked Cowper and he thought you could pour water on it but Erin explained water would only make a grease fire worse because it just splashes the oil around. You have to cover it or put flour on it. That's something she knew that Cowper didn't.
I could sympathize with what Erin was going through with her foster brother and parents. She had a list of careers she wanted to do, and Cowper said to be a veterinarian you had to get straight A's, so Erin said that's what she'll do next year, and her mom said it isn't about grades, it's about doing the best you can. It made her feel like her mom didn't believe she could get As. And after they had planned a zoo trip, it was canceled because Cowper had to practice the piano in order to get to play at a university. I could understand her resentment towards him. And she wanted to be a ghost-detective. How cool!
She was upset and crying, and the man tenant told her to see the medium. While there she learned Cowper had been to visit her. I was surprised she didn't feel sorry for Cowper wanting to reconnect with his dead parents, because that's the first thing I thought of when she told her family about the medium. It seemed insensitive that Erin didn't feel bad for him having dead parents. And I did get irritated the way she thought Cowper was ruining her fun on purpose.
The talking dolls just added another weird element that I couldn't even put up with him. Molly calls them her family which just made it even weirder. They were talking and looking out the window and I didn't like it at all. Talking dolls. Too out there for me.
Things were taken too far when she said she wished Cowper was dead. No one heard it bcuz she was alone, and she corrected it immediately and said she just wished he was gone, but it was too late and I was over the feud between them. Her dad wanted them to make up after she had gotten mad at him, so she went to apologize to assuage her own guilt at saying such a terrible thing. Cowper wanted her to get him in with Molly so he could get a seance, and Erin actually asked who he wanted to contact anyway. Um, he's an orphan that had to be taken in by your parents. Maybe he wants to talk to his parents? That was such a stupid question to ask.
Her parents were getting on my nerves! They knew Erin was going to write a script and then film the ghost mystery, but her dad asked her about her play. He couldn't even remember that it was a movie. And he wanted her to do it on the day the music director was going to call with the news that Cowper either did or didn't get the part. So Erin knew he didn't really care about the movie, he only wanted to keep Cowper from worrying. They couldn't have been more oblivious.
Erin was assigning roles to her family, told Cowper he would have to play two parts, and the poor kid said he was only going to do the dead body because he didn't know how to act. I felt so bad for him, nervous about acting on video, but what does our heroine do? She who has no sympathy for him being orphaned at 9 years old actually gets mad at him. Can't she see he doesn't think he's going to do good?
I was really irritated that she kept expecting Cowper to say he was tired and go in his room, like he usually does. Even after he got the news that he didn't get the part, she didn't say one sympathetic thing, just thought he would be quiet and not speak, and go off to his room. She was surprised that he was talking and actually wanted to act. At one point he wanted to practice the fight scene, and he took the camcorder, ready to record another scene. Only then does she see that he can be happy and that it's good to have a brother. She should have been okay with him long before he showed excitement for her project. You can't just only like someone when they're going along with something you want to do. The poor kid lost his parents, had to move in with family friends, was going along with their expectations of his piano playing despite not wanting to, and she couldn't muster up any understanding. It made her unlikable.
I felt so bad for Cowper when he finally told her parents that he didn't want to play the piano anymore, that he needed a break. He looked at Erin and said he wanted to shoot more videos or learn to skateboard. Her parents pushed him to keep playing, and it was awful the guilt trip they put on him, saying he would want to make his parents proud and that's what they wanted him to do. So wrong of them. I expected Erin to stick up for him but she didn't. Her parents said they were all counting on him, that Erin was counting on him too, all she did was say that she wasn't, and that if he didn't want to play anymore--and then her parents interrupted. So annoying. Help him out! Poor Cowper had to pretend that he was joking. She thought how oblivious they were to not see that Cowper was serious, but didn't push the issue.
When she managed to make even this about her I was thoroughly sick of her. I had started to warm up to her but she turned into an even bigger selfish, jerk. She said her life would get even worse since he didn't tell them, because it would go back to being nothing. This is after he told her he had fun today because he thought they would accept that he didn't want to play the piano. And that she didn't know what it was like, she could do anything. That should've been an eye-opener, but nope, she still found a way to make it about her and whine and complain that her summer was going to be boring.
It irritated me to no end that she compared herself to a doll. That Margaret Mary was whiny and complaining and sulking. Then stop acting acting like her! And she thought Molly was making Margaret act that way to show Erin her own behavior. What a stupid story.
And this brings up my next point. Who just accepts that a doll can speak in the first visit that it happens? And then goes back specifically to talk to the doll?
It's Erin's own fault that she wasn't having fun. Her mom wanted her to go to the Y to be a part of the drama group, but Erin found a way to ruin that. She only liked drama when she was back home with ppl she knew. When Molly invited her to a play of The Little Princess, she didn't want to go because she decided she no longer liked it be used Sara was too good to be true. Erin was just getting more evil by the minute.
What an unsettling moment when Erin realized Cowper's been sneaking out onto the ledge from his window which is 5 stories high and visiting the run-down porch the builders had to stop working on before they could even put railings up. And he's been letting Rufus to out too. I didn't know who he was in that moment. It wasn't like him at all to risk his life and the cat's life. And even worse, Erin thinks it's practically asking for suicide and realizes he could die if he fell. And she doesn't care. She imagines what life would be like without him, knowing they would be sad for a while but then things would go back to normal. I had had it at that point and rued the day I ever saw this. What kind of an author has a 12 year old comment about their foster brother's suicide and then contemplate his death and how good things would be. This is sick. It's dark and twisted and disturbing and to put something like this in the hands of children is so devastatingly wrong, I can't even fathom an adult thought it was okay to write it.
I could not believe that Molly died. Before Erin got a chance to learn if she was making the dolls talk or not. Before Cowper ever got to contact his parents.
And idk if I was the only one, but I suspected the dolls of foul play because of the cover. I thought they killed Molly or tried to. Because what else would make this the scariest night? The scariest night was literally Erin visiting Molly during a seance, having a spirit know she was unhappy, maybe seeing its dark shadow in Molly's bedroom, getting sullen and backing away as usual, and going back to her apartment. And thinking that Cowper had fallen and been killed when the porch fell. That was the scariest night?
Since the beginning we knew the apartment was going to be torn down and I thought this was a haunted place, that the dolls came alive here, that the stone statues talked. Well I still don't know how the dolls talked and if the lion statue even talked or if it was a spirit itself. Who knows? It's like the author had no idea what she wanted this story to be. I don't even know what I just read.
When she got back to her place she saw Rufus and that jogged her memory into realizing the voice of the spirit was the voice of the stone lion that talked to her. So, the lion really could talk? The lion never talked and it was a spirit all along? The dolls could talk how? Why did her friends believe in talking dolls? Because they're as stupid as she is?
The book ended with them giving Cowper a break from piano lessons after the summer. Erin offered to teach him how to skateboard. She even wore a pink dress with flowers that Molly would've liked. Like that makes you a good person bcuz you wore a dress that someone would've liked. And Molly's niece gave her the Margaret doll that Molly left for her. Wtf. How does a kid that wanted her brother dead just move on as if nothing happened? How does she go on like she didn't distrust Molly the entire summer and think she was a ventriloquist? How does she ever look herself in the face after being so evil? She called Molly a friend the entire time and stuck up for her when her family said she tricked ppl, insisted she did it for good and what's bad about wanting to help ppl? As if she knows anything about helping ppl. All she cared about was herself.
This book was such a mess of things that were never resolved. There was a brief period where it was funny and interesting and that was lost. This is going back to the book store. This is the second from her I've had to get rid of. Now I'm afraid to read The Ghost Comes Calling.
She realized her cat was missing a while after they left the gas station, and Cowper had opened the window, so she knew he had let the cat out. We go through a rousing discussion of it being half Erin's fault because she's the one who let the cat out of the carrier in he first place. They go back to the gas station where two big rigs are stopped in front of the gas station blocking traffic. Erin jumps out of the car without permission and runs over, where she sees orange fur. Naturally I assume they've hit the cat but in what is really a fantastical turn of events we find out instead that the cat is holding its ground right in front of the big trucks, hissing and upset as the drivers stand there hoping it will move.
Wow. A cat that has no survival instincts to get out of the way of something loud and big and coming towards it. I've never heard of an animal staring down an oncoming vehicle or, better yet, the driver stopping and getting out in entreaty. That was just too crazy.
After one of the drivers said it was the stubbornnest cat he's ever seen, Erin stupidly sticks up for him and so ensues a truly dumb conversation. She says he isn't stubborn, and then challenged them: "What would you do if a great big truck was coming at you?" She should've just taken the cat and went. One said he would move, which was a good one, but she still didn't let it go. No, she had to say he was too scared to move and they should've just picked him up. Who stands there arguing with the people who almost ran your cat over? Just get your cat and go.
I just found everything about her so gratingly immature. She said it was supposed to be the "Great Shake-and-Shiver Summer of Horrors." I'm 99% certain no kid ever named their summer anything close to that.
It made her more relatable when she said she wanted to be like Sara from The Little Princess. She was rich but shared with the girls at the boarding school. Erin wanted to be good, but when Cowper moved in she didn't want him there and thought he was a little weird. She knew Sara would have been happy to have a little brother and would have hugged him, but she didn't want to do any of those things.
The ghost issue was so forced. In the beginning she had been looking under the car seats for the cat, and found a book of ghost stories. Her and her friends had planned to go to a haunted school, rent ghost-and-horror videos. Just because you're a fan of ghost stories doesn't mean your characters have to be.
Also forced that as soon as Erin saw the old apartment building she said nothing good could happen there. When they're about to get out of the car she said that she was absolutely sure now that nothing good waited for them there. What major foretelling. It would be nice if the character didn't know as soon as they set eyes on the place that it was bad. I had this issue with another of her books. She starts the mystery too soon. There's no rush.
All we know about the building is that it looks like an old castle, it has carving and a fancy doorway. And it's battered-looking, whatever that means. We don't know anything else about why this girl instantly decided she never wanted to go inside.
Erin saw a sign on the apartment building saying no pets, and I liked how her dad handled it. He told her to wait in the car and to lower a window so her and the cat would have air, and to not come out until he came back for her. It was so sweet that he was willing to hide the cat and break the rules for her. It was such a cute moment when he came back and acted like a gangster, telling her to put his coat over the loot and he'd smuggle it in.
I couldn't believe she had almost the exact same scene play out as in another of her books. This was written first, so she used this scene for The Ghosts of Mercy Manor. There's something about the girl first arriving at the place and being in the car, and looking up at a window and seeing someone staring at her. Books don't need to have similar things like this. I want new ideas.
I could relate to her that she cried over dad books and movies and animals being mistreated.
Mr. Lindsay was the saving grace of this whole thing. He added an element of humor and was the comic relief from what was otherwise boring. Cowper was worried he'd get to the piano class late, and the dad got up and saluted and clicks his heels together, said "We who are about to try, salute you!" And "We will accomplish this mission."
Things got more interesting as the old woman who scooped up Rufus, the cat, turned out to be a medium. I could understand why Erin was excited, because she finally had something interesting to tell her friends that would compete for the haunted school visit her friends would go on without her.
It was cool that Erin skateboarded and it made her more interesting. I figured the author would go her usual route and have the girl babysitting and doing all of the chores. It seemed that way when Erin decided to stay in the apartment alone and chose to wash dishes.
I got tired of Cowper and being serious or overly worried about being late.
I wanted different, but when the stone lion statue starting talking to her, different became a bad thing. I couldn't believe there was a talking statue.
I was so glad when she met the other neighbor, because it was interesting waiting to see what would happen. There were some colorful characters in that apartment building, that's for sure. She heard a voice saying help the sailor, so she opened the door and found an old man sleeping and a parrot doing the talking. His kitchen had caught on fire and she put it out, and it was funny when he told her not to ever do that, to watch oil as it's heating up and she stammered out that she doesn't make donuts. He mentioned his wife was with him all the time, that she's dead but still with him and it was funny that she backed away and nervously said she had to leave. Just imagine that happening!
It added a much-needed element of levity. Erin wished she had had the camcorder to record that, and called herself Girl Firefighter. She was excited at her idea of a camcorder and I wanted to see what she had in mind.
I can't even say how appreciative I was with the humor. It was funny that after her ordeal with the neighbor, she said her dad would say "First a talking stone lion, and then a ghost in the kitchen. What goes on here?" And that's exactly what he said when she told him what happened.
Erin finally got her shining moment and it was good to see it. Her mom said she was proud of her for putting the fire out and acknowledged that most people her age wouldn't have known what to do. She asked Cowper and he thought you could pour water on it but Erin explained water would only make a grease fire worse because it just splashes the oil around. You have to cover it or put flour on it. That's something she knew that Cowper didn't.
I could sympathize with what Erin was going through with her foster brother and parents. She had a list of careers she wanted to do, and Cowper said to be a veterinarian you had to get straight A's, so Erin said that's what she'll do next year, and her mom said it isn't about grades, it's about doing the best you can. It made her feel like her mom didn't believe she could get As. And after they had planned a zoo trip, it was canceled because Cowper had to practice the piano in order to get to play at a university. I could understand her resentment towards him. And she wanted to be a ghost-detective. How cool!
She was upset and crying, and the man tenant told her to see the medium. While there she learned Cowper had been to visit her. I was surprised she didn't feel sorry for Cowper wanting to reconnect with his dead parents, because that's the first thing I thought of when she told her family about the medium. It seemed insensitive that Erin didn't feel bad for him having dead parents. And I did get irritated the way she thought Cowper was ruining her fun on purpose.
The talking dolls just added another weird element that I couldn't even put up with him. Molly calls them her family which just made it even weirder. They were talking and looking out the window and I didn't like it at all. Talking dolls. Too out there for me.
Things were taken too far when she said she wished Cowper was dead. No one heard it bcuz she was alone, and she corrected it immediately and said she just wished he was gone, but it was too late and I was over the feud between them. Her dad wanted them to make up after she had gotten mad at him, so she went to apologize to assuage her own guilt at saying such a terrible thing. Cowper wanted her to get him in with Molly so he could get a seance, and Erin actually asked who he wanted to contact anyway. Um, he's an orphan that had to be taken in by your parents. Maybe he wants to talk to his parents? That was such a stupid question to ask.
Her parents were getting on my nerves! They knew Erin was going to write a script and then film the ghost mystery, but her dad asked her about her play. He couldn't even remember that it was a movie. And he wanted her to do it on the day the music director was going to call with the news that Cowper either did or didn't get the part. So Erin knew he didn't really care about the movie, he only wanted to keep Cowper from worrying. They couldn't have been more oblivious.
Erin was assigning roles to her family, told Cowper he would have to play two parts, and the poor kid said he was only going to do the dead body because he didn't know how to act. I felt so bad for him, nervous about acting on video, but what does our heroine do? She who has no sympathy for him being orphaned at 9 years old actually gets mad at him. Can't she see he doesn't think he's going to do good?
I was really irritated that she kept expecting Cowper to say he was tired and go in his room, like he usually does. Even after he got the news that he didn't get the part, she didn't say one sympathetic thing, just thought he would be quiet and not speak, and go off to his room. She was surprised that he was talking and actually wanted to act. At one point he wanted to practice the fight scene, and he took the camcorder, ready to record another scene. Only then does she see that he can be happy and that it's good to have a brother. She should have been okay with him long before he showed excitement for her project. You can't just only like someone when they're going along with something you want to do. The poor kid lost his parents, had to move in with family friends, was going along with their expectations of his piano playing despite not wanting to, and she couldn't muster up any understanding. It made her unlikable.
I felt so bad for Cowper when he finally told her parents that he didn't want to play the piano anymore, that he needed a break. He looked at Erin and said he wanted to shoot more videos or learn to skateboard. Her parents pushed him to keep playing, and it was awful the guilt trip they put on him, saying he would want to make his parents proud and that's what they wanted him to do. So wrong of them. I expected Erin to stick up for him but she didn't. Her parents said they were all counting on him, that Erin was counting on him too, all she did was say that she wasn't, and that if he didn't want to play anymore--and then her parents interrupted. So annoying. Help him out! Poor Cowper had to pretend that he was joking. She thought how oblivious they were to not see that Cowper was serious, but didn't push the issue.
When she managed to make even this about her I was thoroughly sick of her. I had started to warm up to her but she turned into an even bigger selfish, jerk. She said her life would get even worse since he didn't tell them, because it would go back to being nothing. This is after he told her he had fun today because he thought they would accept that he didn't want to play the piano. And that she didn't know what it was like, she could do anything. That should've been an eye-opener, but nope, she still found a way to make it about her and whine and complain that her summer was going to be boring.
It irritated me to no end that she compared herself to a doll. That Margaret Mary was whiny and complaining and sulking. Then stop acting acting like her! And she thought Molly was making Margaret act that way to show Erin her own behavior. What a stupid story.
And this brings up my next point. Who just accepts that a doll can speak in the first visit that it happens? And then goes back specifically to talk to the doll?
It's Erin's own fault that she wasn't having fun. Her mom wanted her to go to the Y to be a part of the drama group, but Erin found a way to ruin that. She only liked drama when she was back home with ppl she knew. When Molly invited her to a play of The Little Princess, she didn't want to go because she decided she no longer liked it be used Sara was too good to be true. Erin was just getting more evil by the minute.
What an unsettling moment when Erin realized Cowper's been sneaking out onto the ledge from his window which is 5 stories high and visiting the run-down porch the builders had to stop working on before they could even put railings up. And he's been letting Rufus to out too. I didn't know who he was in that moment. It wasn't like him at all to risk his life and the cat's life. And even worse, Erin thinks it's practically asking for suicide and realizes he could die if he fell. And she doesn't care. She imagines what life would be like without him, knowing they would be sad for a while but then things would go back to normal. I had had it at that point and rued the day I ever saw this. What kind of an author has a 12 year old comment about their foster brother's suicide and then contemplate his death and how good things would be. This is sick. It's dark and twisted and disturbing and to put something like this in the hands of children is so devastatingly wrong, I can't even fathom an adult thought it was okay to write it.
I could not believe that Molly died. Before Erin got a chance to learn if she was making the dolls talk or not. Before Cowper ever got to contact his parents.
And idk if I was the only one, but I suspected the dolls of foul play because of the cover. I thought they killed Molly or tried to. Because what else would make this the scariest night? The scariest night was literally Erin visiting Molly during a seance, having a spirit know she was unhappy, maybe seeing its dark shadow in Molly's bedroom, getting sullen and backing away as usual, and going back to her apartment. And thinking that Cowper had fallen and been killed when the porch fell. That was the scariest night?
Since the beginning we knew the apartment was going to be torn down and I thought this was a haunted place, that the dolls came alive here, that the stone statues talked. Well I still don't know how the dolls talked and if the lion statue even talked or if it was a spirit itself. Who knows? It's like the author had no idea what she wanted this story to be. I don't even know what I just read.
When she got back to her place she saw Rufus and that jogged her memory into realizing the voice of the spirit was the voice of the stone lion that talked to her. So, the lion really could talk? The lion never talked and it was a spirit all along? The dolls could talk how? Why did her friends believe in talking dolls? Because they're as stupid as she is?
The book ended with them giving Cowper a break from piano lessons after the summer. Erin offered to teach him how to skateboard. She even wore a pink dress with flowers that Molly would've liked. Like that makes you a good person bcuz you wore a dress that someone would've liked. And Molly's niece gave her the Margaret doll that Molly left for her. Wtf. How does a kid that wanted her brother dead just move on as if nothing happened? How does she go on like she didn't distrust Molly the entire summer and think she was a ventriloquist? How does she ever look herself in the face after being so evil? She called Molly a friend the entire time and stuck up for her when her family said she tricked ppl, insisted she did it for good and what's bad about wanting to help ppl? As if she knows anything about helping ppl. All she cared about was herself.
This book was such a mess of things that were never resolved. There was a brief period where it was funny and interesting and that was lost. This is going back to the book store. This is the second from her I've had to get rid of. Now I'm afraid to read The Ghost Comes Calling.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 18, 2008
just no...
March 31, 2022
I know it's a book for young children. I know. But the PARENTS. My God, they were AWFUL. Pay attention to your child! Stop invalidating all their emotions! Absolutely infuriating. Also quite boring, which didn't help.
July 5, 2011
this was definatly NOT "the scariest night" for me anyway. the only scary part was towards the end...... i wouln't spoil it for you, but don't get your hopes up, it isn't really even that scary. i didn't like this book very much, unlike most of betty wren wright's other books. abduction is pretty scary and it makes you double check underneath the bed, in the closet, and lock your doors and windows before you go to bed. i would not recomened this book to you if you are looking for something spooky, i recomend abduction instead.
April 25, 2013
The Scariest Night was okay. I was hoping it would be a bit scarier, but the most frightening part, which wasn't that frightening at all, wasn't until the last two chapters. However, this book is ideal for a young reader who is looking for something spooky that won't keep them from sleeping soundly at night.
November 16, 2010
For school book report.
June 2, 2013
hey how do you read it on this site it is hard to find
December 7, 2013
its okay not that bad
Want to Read
March 4, 2015Listed as Q3 = A good story with some faults, P3 = A booktalk on this title will excite most people’s interest
March 22, 2017
Cute. Certainly not the usual spooky Betty Ren Wright. It was actually just a nice little story - not what you'd expect from the terrifying dolls on the cover.
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