The mask

by Eve Bunting

When Matt's father purchases an old Chinese mask, strange things begin to happen inside Matthew's head.

35 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1992

About the author

Also known as Evelyn Bolton and A.E. Bunting.

Anne Evelyn Bunting, better known as Eve Bunting, is an author with more than 250 books. Her books are diverse in age groups, from picture books to chapter books, and topic, ranging from Thanksgiving to riots in Los Angeles. Eve Bunting has won several awards for her works.

Bunting went to school in Ireland and grew up with storytelling. In Ireland, “There used to be Shanachies… the shanachie was a storyteller who went from house to house telling his tales of ghosts and fairies, of old Irish heroes and battles still to be won. Maybe I’m a bit of a Shanchie myself, telling stories to anyone who will listen.” This storytelling began as an inspiration for Bunting and continues with her work.

In 1958, Bunting moved to the United States with her husband and three children. A few years later, Bunting enrolled in a community college writing course. She felt the desire to write about her heritage. Bunting has taught writing classes at UCLA. She now lives in Pasadena, California.

Reviews

[Ali Cherek · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book scared the hell out of me when I was a kid. Fun to revisit.

[Julie Decker · Rating 3 out of 5]

This story is about Matt, who has a history of knowing about things before they happen, and what happens to him when his father buys a cursed mask while on vacation. I liked the execution better than I liked the concept here, and I especially appreciated that the protagonist had a tendency to downplay his ability to foresee events. He would convince himself that he didn't glean something through his unusual awareness and talk himself into believing he'd had a mundane clue instead. Let's just say that's pretty realistic in a world where those kinds of experiences are not common! Anyway, overall I found the creep factor pretty high on this book when I was a kid--the plot deals with some horrifying concepts--but the realism was intriguing.

[Scott · Rating 2 out of 5]

Listen, Bunt Cake, if you wanna go on about the mask of Fu Man Chu and some kid with psychic powers you need to know that without Jim Carrey you're basically sunk before you even cast off.

I could only barely follow what was going on in this book even though it is an easy reader. You might enjoy this book if English is your second language and you also haven't mastered your first one yet.

I finally set up my printer and needed to make sure it was communicating, so I scanned and added the cover to this book, you're welcome GoodReads.

Despite what the cover art implies, I don't believe you can stick your dick in the mask.

[Chris · Rating 1 out of 5]

It's an all new low for Eve. This story was almost completely incoherent.

My favorite paragraph is on page 11: "I'm pooped," I whined. But nobody paid any attention so I grabbed the bag. Did you ever grab an electric vibrator?

[Swankivy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I came upon this book because it was one of a collection my teacher had in the classroom. I liked science fiction, and found these books exciting just based on their titles, but this one was just called "The Mask" so I didn't know what it would be about and ended up not picking it up first. I did like stories about kids with unusual sensitivities, though, and this book surprised me by featuring exactly that. A boy with a precognitive talent would feel tingly when something was about to happen, though usually after the fact he'd convince himself that he had some kind of "ordinary" clue ahead of time. (That struck me as the most realistic aspect of it, actually--the way the world tells you "no, that isn't how things work," so you believe them instead of yourself.) The book featured anecdotes of his experiences and then his dad, a collector, bought a weird mask while on vacation. The protagonist immediately felt like it was creepy or evil and ended up getting swept up in discovering the actual origin of the mask. It was an extremely creepy book to me when I was a kid and I think it disturbed me and gave me a stomach ache, but I liked it anyway. :)