The Wicked, Wicked Ladies in the Haunted House by Mary Chase

Maureen follows the sound of a woodpecker, and finds a statue of a little man. In the center of the garden is a run-down old gazebo. She slips through and finds herself in an overgrown garden. Moody (who she squirted with a hose) she finds a hole in the wall around the Messerman estate. She likes walking home alone, past the Old Messerman place every day–staring at the pigeons sitting on the roof line of the boarded up old mansion, pretending she’s Maureen Messerman, and trying to open the old rusty gate set in the brick wall.īut one day, when Maureen’s on the run from Mrs. All the other kids call her Stinky, and won’t walk home with her. She slaps other kids, lies about everything and has to stay after school almost every day of the week for her misdeeds.

Every kid in my class was daring every other kid to read it and NOT be scared. I originally read The Wicked Wicked Ladies in the Haunted House by Mary Chase in fifth grade. (I won’t review the one that gave me nightmares for years, because it really isn’t that scary to anyone except me.) But hang on to your bats…er, hats…if you choose to read one of these books, and prepare for a chilling, thrilling read! This month our Tuesday “Old Favorite” selections are going to be books that scared me as a kid. Most of our other book displays contain the words “wicked”, “haunted”, “eerie” or “spooky” and the library is filled with ghosts and witches and vampires…oh my!

Bella breaks out her black cape and witch’s hat, and sits on top of a display of Halloween books. It’s October, and everybody knows what THAT means…Halloween is here! Almost everyone is talking about costumes or pumpkins or ghosts.

The Wicked, Wicked Ladies in the Haunted House by Mary Chase