The House of Dies Drear

Name: The House of Dies Drear
Brand: Recorded Books
Availability: InStock
Rating: 4 (1 reviews)
Author: Virginia Hamilton
ISBN: 9781461810681

Author: Virginia Hamilton

Narrator: Lynne Thigpen

Unabridged: 6 hr 59 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Recorded Books

Published: 08/26/2011

Categories: Children's Fiction, Action & Adventure Stories, Science Fiction Stories

Synopsis

One hundred years ago, Dies Drear and two runaway slaves hiding in his house, an important station on the Underground Railroad, were murdered. Legend has it that the ghost of Mr. Drear still haunts the lonely old house. But Thomas Small's father, a Civil War history professor, doesn't believe the legends and buys the house. The house is fascinating, thinks Thomas, and it is filled with hidden doorways and secret passages that he can't wait to explore. But funny things keep happening-frightening things that no one, not even Thomas' father, can explain. Is someone playing a prank? Or is the ghost of Dies Drear trying to warn the Smalls of danger? From Virginia Hamilton, the author of the Newbery Medal and National Book Award winning M.C. Higgins, the Great, comes a spellbinding mystery filled with edge-of-the-seat suspense. The House of Dies Drear wraps an important history lesson into a brilliantly imaginative story for all ages.

About Virginia Hamilton

Virginia Hamilton (1936–2002) grew up in rural Ohio among an extended family and generations of storytellers. Her grandfather, Levi Perry, was brought by his mother from Virginia slavery to Ohio via the Underground Railroad. She received nearly every award in the field of children’s literature, including the Hans Christian Andersen Medal, the Newbery Medal, the Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal, and the Coretta Scott King Award.

Reviews

Goodreads review by lucky little cat

Damn all the whiny readers who keep comparing this novel to Scooby-Doo, which came out in 1969, while Virginia Hamilton published House of Dies Drear in 1968. That's right, Virginia Hamilton created that plot template and used it once. Get your pop culture history straight before you gripe, and give......more

Goodreads review by Werner

Published in 1968, the year the author turned 32, The House of Dies Drear is set mainly in a small fictional community in southern Ohio, the area where Hamilton herself grew up, and where her ancestors had settled in the 1850s after escaping from slavery via the Underground Railroad. (Ohio was a key......more

Goodreads review by Becky

I know this book is a classic, but it drove me nuts that the first 3/4 of the book was so creepy and atmospheric...and then it turned into Scooby Doo, complete with rubber masks and meddlin' kids. Ugh.......more

Goodreads review by Jessica

I expected more from this book than I got. I think that I had vaguely heard a lot about it, and thus expected it to be some sort of amazingly-written work of art. Instead I just found dull, overly-descriptive, under-developed and predictable literature. The plot is interesting in that it combines hi......more

Goodreads review by Krissy

This was a suspenseful mystery - a history mystery! I liked it. But it was a bit too long. (Caleb age 10)......more