The author of the Anastasia books as well as more serious fiction ( Rabble Starkey, 1987) offers her first historical fiction-a story about the escape of the Jews from Denmark in 1943.įive years younger than Lisa in Carol Matas' Lisa's War (1989), Annemarie Johansen has, at 10, known three years of Nazi occupation. Cáceres’ eerie black-and-white illustrations enhance the mood and atmosphere.

While Senf opens the book with a lot of exposition, the story really settles in as Evie begins her quest, and the skilled storytelling will keep readers spellbound and spooked. She hangs tough, with a magic sparrow companion serving as a sidekick, savior, and coach. Evie is a capable, vulnerable, brave, and anxious hero she’s real. Senf’s worldbuilding is fantastical and compelling, the scares hair-raising. What awaits Evie as she crosses into the other world are seven dangerous, cursed, booby-trapped houses that she must navigate in order to save Aunt Des.

Despite its being off-limits, Evie goes in after her and makes a bargain with The Clackity, a demented, sharp-toothed creature: She will find her aunt and in return, fetch him the ghost of serial killer John Jeffrey Pope, who famously used the slaughterhouse for killing humans in the early 20th century.

However, when Aunt Des goes to investigate the town’s abandoned abattoir, she disappears. Evelyn Von Rathe is on a twisted, spooky hunt for her aunt, who has been taken into a supernatural maze by an evil creature called The Clackity.īlight Harbor is one of the most haunted towns in America, and 12-year-old Evie’s Aunt Desdemona, who has cared for her since her parents died, is well versed on the otherworldly.

The Clackity by Lora Senf