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y separately published work icon The Girl in the Mirror single work   children's fiction   children's   mystery   fantasy  
Issue Details: First known date: 2019... 2019 The Girl in the Mirror
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'The girls at Maddy’s new school look through her as if she is invisible, and say mean things behind her back. The only person who has tried to talk to her is Gareth, who is new too. And he’s good at maths. Talking to him would mean social death. But then strange things happen in old inner-city terrace house Maddy’s family has moved into. She hears spooky noises on the stairs and sees strange faces in the mirror – first a ghastly white face, then a girl in a weird old-fashioned dress. They’re ghosts! The house is haunted!

'The girl in the mirror – Clarissa – starts to talk to Maddy. Maddy’s bedroom was Clarissa’s room back in the 1890s, and it’s the same mirror on the wall – though Clarissa is a Young Lady, so she has to call it a Looking Glass. The spook on the stairs is Clarissa’s brother Bertie, who died of whooping cough when he was six years old. Clarissa and Maddy get on really well – but then Clarissa disappears, and Maddy has strange visions of a huge, evil thing like a giant spider looming over her.

'Maddy’s baby brother gets seriously ill with whooping cough. Even in the hospital, the doctors are helpless.

'Meanwhile, back in the 1890s, the girl in the mirror is having problems of her own. Clarissa’s mother has been in a decline since Clarissa’s poisonous Aunt Lily was widowed, and she moved into their house. Aunt Lily makes a Strengthening Tonic for Mother every week, from plants in the garden. But what if the Tonic that Aunt Lily makes for Clarissa’s mother is actually making her sicker? What if she wants to get Clarissa’s mother out of the way forever?  The two girls have to use all their intelligence and verve to fight against Aunt Lily’s plots, each in her own time, with help from Clarissa’s ghostly brother Bertie—but will they succeed?'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

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Teachers' notes via publisher's website.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Armidale, Armidale area, New England, New South Wales,: Eagle Books , 2019 .
      image of person or book cover 2100579312485985885.jpg
      Image courtesy of publisher's website.
      Extent: 153p.
      Note/s:
      • Published October 2019.

      ISBN: 9780648194521

Works about this Work

Books (Lockdown Pleasure 2) or The Dennis Callegari Column Dennis Callegari , 2020 single work review
— Appears in: SF Commentary , November no. 104 2020; (p. 11-20)

— Review of The Alpaca Cantos Jenny Blackford , 2020 selected work poetry ; The Girl in the Mirror Jenny Blackford , 2019 single work children's fiction ; Mammoth Chris Flynn , 2020 single work novel ; The Sandpit Nicholas Shakespeare , 2020 single work novel ; The Franchise Affair Josephine Tey , 1948 single work novel
Books (Lockdown Pleasure 2) or The Dennis Callegari Column Dennis Callegari , 2020 single work review
— Appears in: SF Commentary , November no. 104 2020; (p. 11-20)

— Review of The Alpaca Cantos Jenny Blackford , 2020 selected work poetry ; The Girl in the Mirror Jenny Blackford , 2019 single work children's fiction ; Mammoth Chris Flynn , 2020 single work novel ; The Sandpit Nicholas Shakespeare , 2020 single work novel ; The Franchise Affair Josephine Tey , 1948 single work novel
Last amended 14 Oct 2020 13:29:38
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