The Doll in the Garden; A Ghost Story

New York: Avon Books, 1990. Later printing. Trade paperback original. Very good +. [10], 128, [6] pages. Signed by the author on the have title page. Cover has slight wear and soiling. Mary Downing Hahn (born December 9, 1937) is an American writer of young adult novels and a former school librarian. She is known for books such as Stepping On The Cracks and Wait Till Helen Comes. She published her first book in 1979 and has since written over 30 novels. The Doll in the Garden won the Georgia book award. She had been warned never to go there... But as ten-year-old Ashley followed the beautiful white cat through a small opening in the hedge, she stepped into an enchanted place. A Place where she might find the Answers...Who is the little girl with golden curls and huge sad eyes? Whose voice cries out in the dark of night? why does the white cat cast no shadow in the moonlight? Who is the owner oft he beautiful old doll found buried in the garden? And, if Ashley discovers the truth, Can She Ever Go Back...? Derived from a Kirkus review: A ghost cat leads ten-year-old Ashley through a hedge—and back to the time when her fiercely disagreeable old landlady was an unhappy child who committed a wrong she still regrets. Ashley and her newly widowed mother have just moved into Miss Cooper's upstairs apartment so that Mom can complete her dissertation. Despite Miss Cooper's unreasonable restrictions on her every move, Ashley manages to make friends with Kristi, a younger child next door; together, they explore the forbidden, overgrown garden and discover an old doll that is buried there. To her own surprise, Ashley feels compelled to take the doll for herself, hiding it from Kristi. Then the cat takes her next door, where she meets Louisa—a child who died of consumption in 1912—and learns that "Carrie" borrowed her beloved doll but never returned it. Carrie proves to be Miss Cooper, who—with the girls' help—is finally able to return the doll to her dear friend. Hahn uses her satisfyingly mysterious, spooky story to illuminate the interaction of people in the present: Ashley's abduction of the doll not only parallels the earlier one but is a manifestation of her unresolved grief; moreover, it is because Mom and Ashley have a healthy, loving relationship that each has tried to protect the other by keeping her grief to herself; the incident with the doll is the catalyst that causes them finally to confide in each other. Thoughtful, entertaining fare.