Witch Hill

Now I knew what it was like to wake from a deep sleep and still be afraid long after the nightmare is over. I stared into the darkness, not daring to move. It felt as if there wasn’t enough air in the room. I struggled, gasping for breath. It was as if there was something else in the room, using up my air.The fire in his home was a family tragedy that Jamie can’t forget. Fire dominates his waking thoughts and haunts his dreams. When his family sends him away to Crownhill to recover, they don’t realize they are sending him to a village with its own dark history of witchcraft and ancient buried powers, unleashed by Jamie’s presence. As the dark secrets of Crownhill and its witches are revealed, Jamie has to confront his worst fears in order to free himself from the horrors of the past.

Amazon.com Review

At first, Jamie isn't too worried about the bad dreams he's been having since coming to his aunt's house. Most people awoken in the middle of the night to find their house burning down would probably have nightmares, too. But instead of fire, he keeps dreaming of a "horrible, scary old woman," relentlessly coming after him for some awful, inexplicable purpose. Even though he's come to Aunt Jane's to recover from the fire's aftermath, he doesn't want to bother her or his cousin Alison with his silly fears. He can see that they are very busy with their village's community service project--cleaning off an age-old carving on the side of hill that overlooks the town. But when the carving turns out to be a peculiar primordial figure instead of the "crown" that the people of Crownshill expected to see, and Jamie uncovers evidence of an ancient witchcraft trial in local history papers, he is swept into a centuries-old mystery to which he unwittingly has the key. Who is the old crone chasing him, and what does she want? Jamie will have to endure an experience worse than fire to find out. British author Marcus Sedgwick has written another perfectly creepy, perfectly wonderful middle-grade thriller. Like his debut novel, Floodland, Witch Hill is written in just the right tone for those suspense seekers who have graduated from Goosebumps but aren't quite ready for Stephen King. And while most of the popular witchcraft fiction on bookstore shelves targets girls, this engaging mystery with its fiery cover and whodunit plot will draw boys into its puzzling pages as well. (Ages 10 to 14) --Jennifer Hubert

From School Library Journal

Gr 5-9-When Jamie's house is destroyed by fire and he fails to rescue his baby sister, his parents send him to stay with his aunt in Crownhill to recover from the trauma. From the very first night, though, the boy has nightmares of an ugly crone and finds himself caught up in the unleashing of a buried history of witchcraft. When he helps the village clean the chalk markings that have long decorated the Cornwall hill, they discover that instead of a crown, the markings represent a woman, a crone or witch. As his aunt, cousin, and representative from the historical society attempt to piece together Crownhill's history, they discover that the village was the site of a witch burning during England's Civil War. And for some reason, Jamie's presence and his nightmares are bringing back the old terrors. In a parallel plot development, Sedgwick slowly tells what really happened the night of the fire at Jamie's house, finally revealing that Jamie's sister was rescued and that his guilt is unnecessary. The boy's final nightmare puts the ghosts from both the past and present to rest. While basically a readable suspense novel with likable characters, the overlay of the two plots is rather contrived, and Jamie's story is forced and too slowly revealed. The overall lesson-discovering what matters most in life-is much too preachy and obvious. Lois Duncan's Gallows Hill (Delacorte, 1997) is a better choice for those looking for a good witch story that links past and present.Janet Hilbun, formerly at Sam Houston Middle School, Garland, TXCopyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Gr. 5-7. Fire and nightmares, old horrors and new mysteries absorb a troubled young narrator in this nape-prickling import. Still in shock after a devastating house fire in which he loses his little sister, Jamie arrives at his aunt's in Crownhill, only to dream of being pursued by a leering, hideous old woman, and to wake with chalk on his feet. Bit by bit, Jamie comes to learn that Crownhill has a long history of unexplained deaths and is home to a huge carving of an ancient female figure: not a crown, but a crone. Haunted by flashbacks and guilt over the loss of his sister, Jamie struggles to understand what's happening to him, meanwhile finding more clues to the town's past in a 300-year-old account of a young witch's persecution. Sedgwick draws all these strands together in a wild, fiery (again!) Walpurgisnacht (May Eve) climax that Jamie survives only by conquering the spectral witch and discovering the truth about his sibling. Don't read this suspenseful tale at bedtime. John PetersCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About the Author

Marcus Sedgwick is the publishing manager of a British book packager.

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