The other place

by Nancy L. Robison

Following her mother's death, Elena and her father relocate in a remote valley that brings tranquility and happiness to her father and loneliness and a sense of foreboding to Elena.

72 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1978

About the author

Nancy Robison has over 70 published books and 900 short stories and articles for children and young adults. The mother of four sons, she began writing when the boys started school, 30 years ago, and has enjoyed a nice career since. Earlier in her career she was a model, dancer and actress on television and motion pictures. Her first story was published at the age of 14 about her experiences as a TV actress. And she hosted a cablevision show titled, "Author to Author" where she interviewed writers, librarians and illustrators.

Her books have won awards, been made into plays, re-printed in other languages and recently available as "e-books".
Nancy enjoys visiting schools and talking about creative writing to children.
She is also a photographer, likes to paint, play tennis and country line dance and flying. Her photographs have appeared on book covers and used to illustrate stories.

She lives in Newport Beach, California with her husband of 57 years and has nine grandchildren, eight boys and one girl!

Reviews

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

I know what you're thinking. D-Day, why on earth are you reading a book written for fourth-graders, and why give it five stars? Well, there's a story to this little book. I'll probably put up a much longer post on my blog, but I'll summarize it here.

So far as I can remember, this is the first book I bought with my own money. I can't say for sure how old I was when I bought it. My copy has a copyright date of 1978, so I think I was probably between 7-10 years old.

I found my copy in my mom's basement this past Saturday, but to tell the truth, this little story has always been at the back of my mind. It's classified as Science Fiction, but I would also argue it has strong elements of horror to it. Very strong. In fact, anyone familiar with Lovecraft might connect it to The Shadow over Innsmouth, although Ms. Robison's story is told in a very kid-friendly way. Oh, and the creatures in this story are aliens, and quite a bit nicer.

Anyhow, I gave this five stars because I realized after reading it again that, of all the books I remember reading as a kid, this one is likely the one that sparked my imagination, led me to further tales of horror and suspense, and has kept me always wondering at the possibility of dark strangers among us.

I'm ecstatic that I still have my copy. I have two boys now, and once they're a little older, I hope at least one of them will find the same sparks of intrigue, awe, and imagination I did in this book. Hopefully it will help them build a lifetime habit of reading as well.

Thank you, Ms. Robison, for writing this book.

[Bargain Sleuth Book Reviews · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was the first science fiction book I ever read (besides super hero comic books), and I loved it. Don't know what happened to my childhood copy, so I bought another and re-read it the other day. I was surprised at how much of the story I remembered, seeing as how 30+ years had passed. Nice twist at the end of the story.

[Charlotte · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is not a well written book, and it is not much more than the bare bones of a story. But I can see why those who gave it more stars might have had their imaginations sparked by reading it very young.