(It’s hard to say no to Rosie.) Things are going okay with this whole scheme…until they recognize a girl lying in a coffin. As for Annie, she does not want to see any dead bodies, but she goes along with Rosie’s morbid plan.

She comes up with a plan to visit all the homes with black wreaths on the door, pretend to know the deceased, and load up on all of the cookies, candy, and cakes left for the mourners to eat. One of Annie’s friends, Rosie, gets the bright idea to take advantage of the situation. Schools and businesses close, and people are taking all the precautions they can to keep from getting sick. While Annie and her new friends are tormenting Elsie, the horrible Spanish Influenza has hit their town. Besides, Elsie brings a lot of this negative attention on herself. She feels a little guilty about making Elsie miserable, but she doesn’t want to do anything to jeopardize her friendship with the other girls. Annie even joins her new friends in mocking Elsie. Annie’s a bit scared of Elsie, and she’s not sure how to free herself from her “friend’s” clutches.Įventually, when Elsie’s out of school for a couple of days, Annie gets her chance to befriend some other girls and escape Elsie’s influence. Someone claims Annie as a best friend almost immediately, but Annie’s not so sure she truly wants to be friends with Elsie, a strange, violent, and manipulative girl who won’t let Annie play or befriend the other girls at school. She is the new girl at school, and she’s nervous about making friends. Annie Browne and her family have just moved to town. America is involved in a world war, and an influenza epidemic has gripped many communities. That’s probably all I need to say to make sure it flies off my library shelves (if I make the decision to purchase it). I don’t know how most young readers will respond to the book (the target audience is 4th-6th grade according to Booklist), but I found it to be absolutely terrifying. I didn’t, however, expect it to scare the crap out of me–so much so that I couldn’t read it when it was dark outside. It’s pretty well-known that I’m a wuss, so I figured this book would likely freak me out. A month from today, Mary Downing Hahn’s newest spooky story, One for Sorrow, hits the shelves.

Mary downing hahn one for sorrow