“It’s watching me, this house. Waiting to swallow me whole in its cobwebby corners and creaky closets.” ~Lindsay Currie, The Peculiar Incident on Shady Street
Tessa Woodward‘s family moves from Florida to Chicago when her father gets offered a job he can’t pass up. Leaving her best friend behind in sunny Florida is hard, but she acts like everything’s okay so her parents don’t feel bad. It isn’t long before Tessa’s creepy house starts making her nervous. After her brother’s ventriloquist dummy shows up in her room in the middle of the night and he’s crying real tears, Tessa knows something or someone is trying to get her attention. And what are the crying sounds she hears? Luckily, she has befriended a few kids from school and they agree to help Tessa solve the mystery. If it wasn’t for them she’d never have the nerve to visit the local cemetery and find out who is haunting her house on Shady Street. Will they be able figure out what’s happening in Tessa’s house? Is there any way to make the strange occurrences stop? You’ll have to read this spooky to find out.
After my class did a Skype visit with Lindsay Currie, I was curious about The Peculiar Incident on Shady Street. and was not disappointed! Tessa is someone Fairday and I definitely would be friends with, and imagine all the help we could give each other with creepy houses! I especially loved the reference to Watcher in the Woods, which is one of our go to movies when we want to scare ourselves silly. I enjoyed the writing and the characters are interesting. Tessa’s parents are nice and involved, even though she keeps her sleuthing a secret. The addition of the ventriloquist definitely upped the scary factor. I have always found them a little unsettling, and the one in this book really made me shiver. Although this was my first book by Lindsey Currie, I will be looking for more books by her in the future. I recommend this to kids in fourth grade and up who like a book to give them a fright.
Has anyone else read The Peculiar Incident on Shady Street by Lindsay Currie? We’d love to hear your thoughts!
Happy Reading
~L