Jennifer Shaw

I enjoyed the “Books that Made Me” trend when I was still on Instagram. It was especially interesting to see the childhood favorites that shaped my fellow authors in The Red Herrings Society, my writer’s group.

So many of these fabulous Herrings compose fantasy/romantasy and paranormal romances, and their general age range is 20s-upper 30s. In their reels and posts, they often noted the Harry Potter, Hunger Games, and Twilight series as the books they devoured repeatedly, and it was like seeing a slice of what inspired an entire generation. The genres and subjects of their own work made even more sense.

I, however, was graduating from high school when the Harry Potter craze began, and I read most of those titles when I was a sophomore in college. I was already teaching when my high school students were obsessing over Twilight and The Hunger Games. These fantasies, paranormal romances, and dystopians were not a part of my formative reading experience.

So, what was?

I began considering the cherished books that shaped my own writerly tastes and aspirations. I am not a fantasy writer, though I compose a fair amount of dark speculative fiction, and I think this has a lot to do with my generation. Born in 1982, I’m an Early Millennial as opposed to a Later one.

I came of age in the late 80s-early 90s, when the more realistic Middle Grade (MG) and Young Adult (YA) books were still the thing, or at least when their stories of the fantastic and supernatural were rooted firmly in the real world, with nearly zero romantic element.

And that explains so much of what I enjoy writing now, which happens to be relatively realistic psychological/gothic horror and historical fiction. What do I mean by relatively realistic? My stories with supernatural elements take place in this world; I don’t create entirely new realms requiring extensive worldbuilding. In fact, the idea of doing such worldbuilding makes my head ache. It’s just not my interest.

But a sudden crack in everyday life?

A sliver of mystery that disrupts–or shatters– the ordinary? That allows in a few deeper, darker, more terrifying, and more transcendent possibilities?

That’s my jam.

And I know exactly where it comes from.

So, without further delay, here are the top three MG/YA books I loved most when I was a little girl, from least to most influential:

3. Wait Till Helen Comes by Mary Downing Hahn

2. The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare

1. Stonewords: A Ghost Story by Pam Conrad

I’d planned to write about all three in a single post, but as I was drafting, I realized how much I wanted to say about each one, and it was getting too long. With brevity in mind, then, I’ll describe book #3 today, and in the weeks to come I’ll share my thoughts about #s 2 & 1.

Number Three: Wait Till Helen Comes by Mary Downing Hahn (published by Avon Camelot in 1986)

Beware of Helen…

Heather is such a whiny little brat. Always getting Michael and me into trouble. But since our mother married her father, we’re stuck with her…our “poor stepsister” who lost her real mother in a mysterious fire.

But now something terrible has happened. Heather has found a new friend, out in the graveyard behind our home — a girl named Helen who died with her family in a mysterious fire over a hundred years ago. Now her ghost returns to lure children into the pond…to drown! I don’t want to believe in ghosts, but I’ve followed Heather into the graveyard and watched her talk to Helen. And I’m terrified. Not for myself, but for Heather… (blurb from original printing, c/o amazon.com)

I mean, wow. What a creepy, high-stakes premise! That, and the cover captured my imagination when I saw an older neighbor, Mariah, with a copy, and I just had to read this book myself. I remember the emotional tension and suspense building effectively as the story unfolded.

This novel is so emotionally satisfying. It’s a story, ultimately, of familial love, about a blended family’s bonding, which helps the youngest child, Heather, heal from her silent guilt at believing she was the cause of her mother’s death. Hence, her bratty behavior, which her stepsister Molly comes to understand and forgive.

In fact, it’s Molly who saves Heather from Helen the ghost, who does indeed attempt to drown Heather (like she herself drowned when she ran away from her burning home in the middle of the night long ago, falling into the dark water).

Helen tries to lure children to their deaths because she wants eternal companionship; she’s lonely, her spirit alienated from her own departed kin. Somehow, though, Helen makes peace with her family too–there’s a moving image just after the novel’s climax, of Helen crying into her phantom mother’s lap, and her mother stroking her hair. I remember that clearly, though I don’t remember exactly how or why that happens, except that it’s linked to Molly pulling Heather out of Helen’s clutches. What matters, though, is that Helen’s experience parallels Heather’s, and she too goes through a positive arc. She heals, just like Heather.

Several other details in this book appealed to me as well, especially in terms of its setting–the old barn in which Molly’s mom or stepdad (I can’t remember which parent) has a workshop, the burned down old house that belonged to ghostly Helen’s family, and of course the dangerous pond.

My favorite aspect of this novel, though, was its immersive first person point of view. It is twelve-year-old Molly’s narration, and she was a lot like me, just a little older (which young readers tend to like, apparently, according to a recent episode of Savannah Gilbo’s writing podcast). Molly loves books and writing, and she loves traipsing around outdoors to find sunny spots where she can bury her nose in a novel. I wanted to do the stuff she was doing, especially exploring woods and old graveyards.

Hahn does an amazing job bringing Molly to life through her perspective–that close psychic proximity and authentic adolescent voice are masterful. I remember feeling like I became Molly, so the story was wonderfully vicarious. The publishers were smart to write the blurb in Molly’s words.

I think this book’s deep POV is why I adore writing first person myself. I strive to slip into character and achieve that same effectiveness. Hopefully one day, I’ll get there.

Wait Till Helen Comes, which won the Vermont Golden Dome Book Award in 1988, is probably out of print, but I’m glad it’s still available to purchase on Amazon. Hopefully, some kiddos today still read it. I imagine it holds up pretty well.

Are you, or were you, a fan of ghost stories? Which book(s) shaped you? I’d love to hear about it!

See you next week, when I ramble on about that beautiful YA historical novel The Witch of Blackbird Pond, featuring one of my early book crushes, the sailor Nathaniel Eaton.

XOXO,

Jenn