Wrong One Book

Times were tough for the Spencer family. After their father died, Kate, Jesse, and their adopted sister, Sookan, had to move with their mother from Brooklyn to a dilapidated farmhouse in western Massachusetts. Everyone except Sookan hated it; she hadn’t lived in Brooklyn long enough to miss the house there, but the rest of them hoped the move would be only temporary. But Mrs. Spencer’s business is slow to get off the ground, and the repairs to the house are expensive, so finances are tight. Suddenly they’re facing the possibility of losing their rundown farmhouse, too.
Then Jesse discovers an old doll hidden up in the barn rafters. Despite Sookan’s cryptic protests that it’s the wrong one, they all hope its sale could bring in some much-needed cash. But when an eerie blue light appears, odd things begin to happen—things it touches become cold, TVs turn themselves on, objects show up in unusual places—even homework problems are solved! Could the blue light be a ghost? What other secrets does the old farmhouse hold? As Kate, Jesse, and Sookan try to solve these mysteries and adjust to their new life, they may just find the real treasure they are looking for—a place to call home.

Publishers Weekly

Hurst (In Plain Sight) steadily builds suspense in this fast-paced and diverting novel. After the sudden death of their father, 11-year-old Kate, younger brother Jesse and five-year-old Sookan, recently adopted from Korea, move with their mother from Brooklyn to a more economical if dilapidated old house in rural Massachusetts. While Kate and Jesse loathe the situation, Sookan is perfectly happy about it-until she spies the wallpaper, featuring a doll motif, in her new bedroom. The pattern inexplicably terrifies the child, who repeatedly utters a phrase in Korean in an attempt to communicate her fear. Sookan also begins scouring the house and grounds, "hunting" for something. She also fears an old tattered doll Jesse finds in the barn, the discovery of which precipitates a string of odd happenings: the TV turns itself back on after being switched off; an eerie blue light materializes, making the space around it very cold; and a book appears overnight, its pages open to the solution to a homework problem that has stumped Jesse. Cleverly, Hurst doesn't slot every clue into a tidy solution to the mystery, rather, she resolves the central questions and leaves readers to interpret the others for themselves. An appealing family portrait animated by ample doses of intrigue. Ages 8-12. (May) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.