When Tom’s brother develops measles, Tom is sent away to live with his Aunt and Uncle. Under quarantine himself, due to possible exposure, he feels trapped and bored senseless in their little flat. Worst of all, he is stricken with terrible insomnia, a fact his Aunt and Uncle find not the least bit moving. They have ordered him to stay in his room with the lights out from 9pm until 7am daily. Not one to follow rules he can’t abide, Tom sneaks out to investigate a grandfather clock which is striking thirteen. What he finds is hard for him to believe but pleases him beyond measure.
In place of the houses and rubbish bins which stand behind his Aunt’s flat, he discovers a beautiful garden. Each night, he returns to explore further, eventually discovering the people whose yard it is. Mysteriously, none seem to be able to see him, except a small girl named Hattie. Tom becomes somewhat obsessed with this alternate world and each night returns to it, giving it all his focus and just barely going through the motions in his real life, which still occurs during the day. He becomes so caught up that he devises ways to prolong his visit with this Aunt and Uncle, despite not particularly liking either of them.
This is another old-fashioned book, and one that I didn’t take to as much as I thought I would. I do wonder if I would have been more invested in it as a child. Knowing how I loved time travel, I suspect I would have enjoyed it immensely.
Age Recommendation: Grades 4-6. The vocabulary and plot are complex enough that they would be more easily understood by these ages, but the content, apart from the use of damned, is relatively innocuous. It might work for a family read aloud as well.
Sex, Nudity, Dating – A couple got married.
Profanity – “hell,” “damned,”
Death, Violence and Gore – Tom vaguely wishes his uncle would beat him so he’d have a legitimate reason to run away. Some boys plan to go on a rat-shoot with an air gun. Hatty claims that the gardener was savagely attacked and nearly murdered by his brother. There is a mention of the biblical Cain and Abel and Cain’s murder of Abel. Children shoot bows and arrows. Both of a child’s parents are dead. The gardener has to tell Hatty not to play with kitchen knives, but then gives her a pocket knife. They use a pea shooter to shoot at birds. A child has a bad fall and is bleeding from the head. Tom’s aunt finds the door open and worries about people with revolvers, lead pipes, daggers, bludgeons. Someone’s wife died. Two of someone’s sons were killed in World War I.
Drugs, Alcohol and Smoking – None.
Frightening or Intense Things – Tom must leave home to avoid contracting measles. Hatty is berated and made to feel terrible by her aunt. Tom frightens Hatty quite a bit by telling her she’s a ghost and is dead.
This one doesn’t circulate much in my library, but I adored it as a child. It’s one of the few paperbacks I actually owned and have saved for over 30 years!
So, wait, *IS* Hatty a ghost? I’m dying to know.