GRAPHIC NOVELS

Wait Till Helen Comes

by Mary Downing Hahn (text) & illus. by Meredith Laxton
HarperCollins/Clarion. Sept. 2022. 160p. adapted by Scott Peterson & Meredith Laxton. pap. $12.99. ISBN 9780358536895.
COPY ISBN
Gr 4-6–A classic children’s thriller receives an eerie graphic novel retelling that hits all the right notes. Siblings Molly and Michael have tried bridging the divide between them and their young stepsister, Heather, whose trauma at losing her mother in a fire that almost took her own life shows itself in hostile behavior. The family moves into a rural country church with a backyard graveyard, where Heather claims to befriend a ghost named Helen, who died in a fire in 1880. Heather tells Michael and Molly that Helen will make them pay for mistreating Heather “when she comes,” and Molly discovers that Helen is all too real and has sinister motivations that will put Heather’s life at risk unless someone intervenes.
VERDICT Laxton and Peterson create a chilling and faithful adaptation of Hahn’s original novel, with creepy imagery, an eerie blue and purple palette, and solid pacing between dialogue and omniscient narration. Characters are realistically human and present as white.
Reviewed by Rosemary Kiladitis , Oct 28, 2022

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