Haunting Air

I collect children's and young adult ghost stories, time slips, and other eerie tales, most of which are now sadly out-of-print. This one, A Haunting Air, is one of the better books I've read in a long time. Here's the summary on the book's fly: "There was no real reason to fear the small modern house that had replaced the old Fairmead mansion, but the rumors about the strange child who sang in the overgrown garden seemed to have some chilling basis in reality when tenant after tenant moved away. And for 16 year-old Melissa Brown, living next door with no family but a preoccupied novelist father, an empty Fairmead meant a lonely life. When Helen, a young widow and her baby, Bobson, arrived, Melissa found them so companionable that she determined to keep them there even if it meant coping with a ghost. But slowl the three of them were drawn into a struggle from the past that had chilling implications for the present." The summary doesn't do the story justice, as they seldom do. Helen and Melissa are both so intrigued by the box Melissa finds in an abandoned icehouse that was once used for parties at the Fairmead mansion before it was torn down and other properties built on the land. Melissa feels she's being led to this box, and at first she's terribly disappointed. She hopes to find treasure to help her landlady, the fiercely independent but kind in her stern way, keep her home. Inside the box--which looks to be an old hatbox-- are antique penny toys and a wax doll that had clearly seen fire in its time. The pieces are wrapped in old newspapers. But Helen, who has always wanted to be a historian, sees far more in the contents of the box, especially the papers. "They're pieces of the past...Don't you see that they may tell us something about the toys? And don't know where they may lead us." Miss Clayfield lets the girls have access to old family letters, and they begin to put together the story of Fairfield's last days in the 1880s and the people who lived there--particularly the quiet and intense little girl, Hannah, who is hated by her mother, Ada, a servant in the home who had hidden her pregnancy and then hidden Hannah in a very dangerous place where she would have been burned had someone not found her. Jane Webb, the quiet and caring lady of the manor, worries for Hannah, never having had children, and comes to love her, which engrages the unstable Ada. Through a frightening but cathartic conclusion, Melissa comes to terms with her own mother's abandonment and works through the often difficult relationship she has with her father. Helen's love and compassion for children heals a very great sadness. Mrs. Clayfield is always there, making good things happen.