(What, they made a movie of this too? I missed that completely. Wonder if it was any good.)
You know I love ghost stories, squiders. And Mary Downing Hahn is perhaps the best children’s ghost story/horror author out there. (She was, at least, when I was a kid. I mean, I read the Goosebumps books, but they always felt a little silly, unless I was reading them in the dark, and then maybe it was completely plausible that the Christmas Tree was going to eat my family. Was that a Goosebumps book or a different, unrelated book? I don’t remember and it doesn’t matter.)
And she’s still putting out new books, so maybe something has eclipsed Wait Till Helen Comes, but when I read this book as a kid, it was the pinnacle of paranormal horror.
(I re-read it a few years ago. It’s pretty dang terrifying even as an adult. Holds up well.)
The book is about Molly, whose mother has recently married Dave. Dave has a daughter from his previous marriage, Heather, and her mother was killed in a fire when she was little. Molly (and her brother) do not get along with Heather, who seems hellbent on getting her father back to being hers only, and the discord between the children eventually begins to strew discord between the entire family.
(Oh, it was a made-for-TV movie. That’s why I missed it.)
This is compounded when the family moves to a remote house that was once a church, complete with attached graveyard. Heather is befriended by the ghost of a young girl, Helen, who is more than willing to help Heather in her goals.
And if she has goals of her own, well, Helen makes that clear that it’s none of Molly’s business.
Aside from being creepy as all get-out, the book also hits on family secrets, which is a sweet spot of mine, as well as sibling relationships and making your own family.
I read other books by Mary Downing Hahn when I was a kid, though none have stuck with me quite like Wait Till Helen Comes. I’m considering picking up some of her newer stuff as well. There’s always a few books of hers in the Scholastic Book Fair when it comes through, and they’re always very tempting.
(Behind Wait Till Helen Comes, I think The Doll in the Garden was my next favorite of hers. We’re talking books from the 80s/early 90s, though. She’s been publishing consistently since then, including books coming out this and last year.)
Read Wait Till Helen Comes, squiders? Read Mary Downing Hahn (and if you have, what’s your favorite book of hers)? Who’s your favorite children’s horror author?
