The Secret of the Painted House

by Marion Dane Bauer, Leonid Gore (Illustrator)

Overview

When Emily finds a locked playhouse in the woods, she can't resist peeking through the windows. Inside, the walls are painted to look just like the surrounding woods, right down to an identical white playhouse with blue shutters. But the playhouse is not as deserted as Emily first thought. A girl Emily's age lives on the painted walls—and she's dying for Emily to join her!

Newbery Honor-winning author Marion Dane Bauer crafts an eerie story for young mystery lovers guaranteed to send shivers down their spines.

Marion Dane Bauer is the author of more than 40 books for children, including the Newbery Honor?winning book On My Honor and Rain of Fire, which won a Jane Adams Peace Association Award. She has also won the Kerlan Award for the body of her work. The Blue Ghost is her most recent book for this age group. She lives in Eden Prairie, Minnesota.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780307497758
Publisher:	Random House Children's Books
Publication date:	07/08/2009
Series:	A Stepping Stone Book: A Stepping Stone Book Mystery
Sold by:	Random House
Format:	eBook
Pages:	112
File size:	4 MB
Age Range:	6 - 9 Years

About the Author

Marion Dane Bauer has written more than 80 children's and young adult books that have been translated into over a dozen languages. These include the Newbery Honor-winning On My Honor and the Jane Addams Peace Association Award-winning Rain of Fire. In addition to her work for young people, Ms. Bauer is also the editor of Am I Blue? Coming Out from the Silence, a collection of gay and lesbian short stories. She lives in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Leonid Gore is an award winning artist, illustrator, and author. Born and raised in Belarus, he studied art at the Academy of Arts in Minsk. Since 1990, he has been living in the United States, where his enormous talent has been recognized throughout the publishing world. He has illustrated over thirty children’s books, five of which he also wrote. Critics have praised his work as "visually stunning" and "brilliant.” His books have been honored as IRA Children's Choice books and Publishers Weekly Best Books of the Year, have received starred reviews from the School Library Journal, and the Kirkus and Boston Globe/Horn Book magazines, and have been recognized as part of 100 Great Children’s Books by the New York Public Library. He lives in Oakland, New Jersey, and works out of his studio on the banks of the Ramapo River.

Editorial Reviews

Like The Blue Ghost (2005), Bauer's latest is a well-written beginning chapter book with plenty of suspense and mystery to keep young readers turning pages. After she and her family move into a new home, Emily is delighted to discover a playhouse in the forest behind the house. The strange thing is that there is a forest painted inside of it. . .and inside that painting, another playhouse. . .ad infinitum. As if this isn't scary enough, Emily's little brother Logan steps into the painting and is lured further and further into a series of identical painted worlds by Penelope, the girl, now dead, to whom the original playhouse had once belonged. While this rather gothic offering has the potential to scare or confuse some younger readers, it's ideal for those braver souls intrigued by the eerie and the supernatural. There is also a valuable message woven into the tale, as Emily learns through this scare just how very important are the ordinary, even annoying things in her life, such as her little brother. (Fiction. 6-9)

Kirkus Reviews