I wish, though, that I had read it when I was nine or so-I wonder if I would have loved it, and I will never know. Stonewords won the Edgar Allan Poe Award, and it's clear from the reviews on Amazon that this one made a huge impression on those who read it young (of course, since it was published in 1991, there was no chance for me to do so!). This growing horror is in stark contrast to the domestic details of Zoe's everyday life, and her time spent playing with Zoe Louise. It is both creepy and atmospheric in good ghostly fashion, but even more than that, it is one of few time travel stories I've read where the time travel builds slowly and inexorably to a terrifying climax. Which works just fine for this particular story.Īs Zoe's understanding that she and her friend are from different times becomes clearer, she realizes to her horror that Zoe Louise is going to die.and she must go back to the past, to try to prevent it. Just as an aside, this isn't time travel as cultural immersion experience-it's a plot element, so we don't get any sort of fully realized historical setting. One day, Zoe follows her playmate up the forbidden back stairs off the kitchen, and makes a brief visit to the late 19th century-now she is the ghost, invisible to those around her (and not at all willing to repeat the experiment!).

Of course, the reader makes the connection, especially since it is Underlined by the author.and realizes that Zoe Louise is ghost. When Zoe made friends with a mysterious playmate, Zoe Louise, who appeared one day out of nowhere-capricious, willful, entertaining Zoe Louise, who vanishes into the house when playtime is done, who the grown-ups don't see-she never thought of the gravestone. In the cemetery off in the woods by Zoe's grandparents' house was a headstone with just one word surviving-Zoe's own name. Stonewords, by Pam Conrad (HarperCollins, 1991, middle grade, 144 pages-books sure were shorter back then.) Note: usually I have a cover picture right up here in this part.

Stonewords book