Amy is fed up with being the sister sitter for, LouAnn who is mentally handicapped. She runs away to Aunt Clare, who is staying at her grandparents' old country house cleaning the place up in order to sell it. Aunt Clare tells Amy she can stay there for a little while to take some time away from her sister, LouAnn. When Aunt Clare and Amy are in the attic, Amy spots a dollhouse that is an exact replica of the house they are in. Aunt Clare was given the dollhouse at the age of fifteen by her grandmother. Amy finds the dollhouse fascinating and shows her friend, Ellen, the house who is equally amazed. But soon, Amy begins to suspect that the dollhouse is haunted because the dolls (who are the doll version of her five year old father, Aunt Clare and their grandparents, who fostered the children when their parents died) move by themselves and even cry. Amy and Ellen discover that her great-grandparents were murdered and believes the dolls are trying to tell them the truth. The grandmother doll eventually throws mini-books off the shelf in a desperate attempt before she is murdered. This leads Amy, Aunt Clare and even LouAnn to find the exact real-life book with a letter inserted revealing the murderer from so many years before. The murdered turns out to be their gardener, Reuben and Aunt Clare is relieved because she thought the murderer was her ex-fiance and has been living with the guilt of this her entire life. She is not relieved and can build a happy life.
Impact on me
This was just a random book that I picked out and I did not have many expectations for since it was under the elementary mystery choices. I was so impressed and finished this book in one day! The writing was phenomenal, consisting of suspense (which honestly really did give me a few scares!) and the emotions of Amy as she contemplated the burden of taking care of her mentally handicapped sister. I would recommend this book to my high school students! It was so well-written with no obvious foreshadowing and a great plot mixed in with a great mystery.
Reviews
The combination of a beautiful fascinating dollhouse, dark family secrets, ghostly events, danger and suspense are sufficient to make this a likely choice for escape reading.
Harris, K., & Gerhardt, L. N. (1983). The Dollhouse Murders (Book Review). School Library Journal, 30(3), 84.
The attic is always a great place to look for nuggets of one’s family history, but when 12-year old Amy explores her great-grandparents’ attic, she uncovers clues to a chilling family secret.
Children's audio/video reviews. (1999). Publishers Weekly, 246(19), 34.
In the library
After reading this book, students can discuss the pace and frequency of the suspense scenes as well as the clues to solving the mystery of the murders. With the librarians help, the students can write these discussed stylistic devices down and put them on a posterboard in the library near the Mystery section. When other student patrons are in the mystery section or have read a mystery book, they can compare the posterboard notes with their own thoughts of mystery books or books they will read or are reading. Students can take this idea further and write their own mystery stories using the style, pacing, suspense tactics, foreshadowing and clues they learned from reading and discussing The Dollhouse Murders. Students can then share their mystery stories with one another in order to discuss the students' own mystery stylistic styles.
Wright, B. R. (1983). The Dollhouse Murders. New York : Holiday House.
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