Official Summary (Add on Goodreads) : Annie Browne is new at school in September 1918. In summary: A great little ghost tale for children and children at heart who want a little scare.įollow Janis's Journal on WordPress.Source: copy from ALA17 all opinions are always our own Ghost stories can be such fun when they are written well, and this one was indeed written well! Not for myself exactly, but yes I would definitely consider ‘One for Sorrow’, and others like it by Ms Downing Hahn for my children to read. I don’t think they would… but I could be wrong. Be prepared if you’re kids do find it too scary. Though I would emphasise the obvious – it’s a ghost story. But yes, I feel this book is perfect for the age group it was written for (and those who enjoy that genre but may be a tad older like me) and would indeed recommend it. I am going to try my electronic copy on them next time they tell me they are bored and just see how we go. My children are aged 13, 10 and 8 and I honestly do feel the older two – if they read ghost stories – would thoroughly enjoy this tale. No idea where I’ve gone wrong with that area of parenting. Sadly, they are not into scary books like I was. I enjoyed it so much I am going to go hunting for more children’s ghost stories by Ms Downing Hahn and also see if I can encourage my own kids to read them. ‘One for Sorrow’ was a fabulous balance of history, adventure and spine tingling scares – that weren’t so scary that the child might need to lock the book away in a drawer because it scared them too much (me again aged 9). So, yeah, my teacher reading the class ‘The Triffids’ was right out! 😉 But not such a scare as I couldn’t sleep in the dark.

A little hair raising, but not so scary as needing to only read it in the daylight (or in your parents room as it’s so scary) – yes, that was me as a tween (all those eons ago) when I was reading a particularly scary kid’s book. Just added to the whole story and explained why the setting was so vivid.Īnd the ghostly hauntings were just right for the age group it is aimed at. The era the story was based in was clearly researched, and I do love the author’s note at the end explaining the inspiration for the story. And I knew this when I asked to read it as, quite frankly, I loved ghost stories when I was that age and the blurb of this book reminded me of such books. I wouldn’t even put it into the YA genre, more the tween (middle school in USA) genre. Now I want to remind people now that ‘One for Sorrow’ is of the “children’s fiction” genre.

I would like to thank Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Children’s Book Group for granting my wish on Netgalley and providing me with a free electronic ARC of this book.

One for sorrow by mary downing hahn