I first read this as a child and I've read it many times since then. I just finished re-reading it and actually stayed up until the wee hours of the morning because I couldn't put it down even though I already knew the ending!
I think this book is so well written. It's the kind of book that stays with you long after you've finished it. I really like the way it is written with small glimpses into the present in between the different parts. I think because it is written in this way what could have been a really depressing book is quite hopeful. We see in the first couple of pages that Maggie is living with a family who she has grown to love and she's started to call them mom and dad and her sisters. This gives us hope as we read about her difficult life knowing that she has found a place to belong.
I think the author did a wonderful job of showing Maggie's insecurities and vulnerabilities and helping us understand why she does the things she does.
There are still some really sad parts in this book that just break my heart. When she finally has something to share with her class and she comes out of her shell to excitedly share only to be laughed at. She's so afraid to get close to anyone and so she does things so that people won't want to be around her. She's become much more comfortable alone, sometimes if feels easier that way.
I didn't like the two aunts but I think they were portrayed realistically as they were stuck in their ways with their own views and were very intolerant of anyone behaving in ways that didn't fit into their box. We do see a brief glimpse of one of the aunts excitement at giving Maggie a gift which Maggie doesn't want and things may have gone differently if Maggie had accepted this gift.
I really enjoyed the ending although it was bittersweet and haunting.
A beautifully written story that I will continue to enjoy re-reading.

This book was reviewed on the Literary Club Podcast episode 66
https://www.buzzsprout.com/1984185 ( )

At twelve, Maggie had been thrown out of more boarding schools than she cared to remember. "Impossible to handle," they said—nasty, mean, disobedient, rebellious, thieving—anything they could say to explain why she must be removed from the school.
Maggie was thin and pale, with shabby clothes and stringy hair, when she arrived at her new home. "It was a mistake to bring her here," said Maggie's great-aunts, whose huge stone house looked like another boarding school—or a prison. But they took her in anyway. After all, aside from Uncle Morris, they were Maggie's only living relatives.
But from behind the closet door in the great and gloomy house, Maggie hears the faint whisperings, the beckoning voices. And in the forbidding house of her ancestors, Maggie finds magic ... the kind that lets her, for the first time, love and be loved. ( )

This is one of the books that each reader will bring his or her own perceptions to, *even more than most.*
I have hidden all the significant spoilers below, but if you've decided you do want to read the book soonish, you probably want to do so before reading my review, so you can have as few preconceptions as possible.
__________

A GR friend uses the word "fun" and yet I found it so very sad. Another totally believes the magic; I assumed that the girl was (mildly and temporarily) mentally ill. I have no idea who Uncle Morris is, why he was the way he was, why the author killed him off. I think the great-aunts felt that they were doing their best to do their duty and do right by the child, but other readers seem to think they're evil. I wish the happy ending weren't revealed by the flashback structure, but was developed just a bit better. And the interactions the girl has with others, the little sisters get treated almost like the Backwoods Girls but they like it, the bossy Greens... just, well, hmm.... I also find it highly unlikely that nobody in all these boarding schools (in America? in the latter half of the 20th century?) would work harder to actually counsel this girl who has obviously never effectively grieved for her parents. Just an odd book. I, personally, cannot bring myself to say I really liked it, but others certainly might. ( )

I first read this as a child and I've read it many times since then. I just finished re-reading it and actually stayed up until the wee hours of the morning because I couldn't put it down even though I already knew the ending!
I think this book is so well written. It's the kind of book that stays with you long after you've finished it. I really like the way it is written with small glimpses into the present in between the different parts. I think because it is written in this way what could have been a really depressing book is quite hopeful. We see in the first couple of pages that Maggie is living with a family who she has grown to love and she's started to call them mom and dad and her sisters. This gives us hope as we read about her difficult life knowing that she has found a place to belong.
I think the author did a wonderful job of showing Maggie's insecurities and vulnerabilities and helping us understand why she does the things she does.
There are still some really sad parts in this book that just break my heart. When she finally has something to share with her class and she comes out of her shell to excitedly share only to be laughed at. She's so afraid to get close to anyone and so she does things so that people won't want to be around her. She's become much more comfortable alone, sometimes if feels easier that way.
I didn't like the two aunts but I think they were portrayed realistically as they were stuck in their ways with their own views and were very intolerant of anyone behaving in ways that didn't fit into their box. We do see a brief glimpse of one of the aunts excitement at giving Maggie a gift which Maggie doesn't want and things may have gone differently if Maggie had accepted this gift.
I really enjoyed the ending although it was bittersweet and haunting.
A beautifully written story that I will continue to enjoy re-reading.

This book was reviewed on the Literary Club Podcast episode 66
https://www.buzzsprout.com/1984185 ( )

Read this one a while back...maybe even when Callie was little. Old dolls...attics...what's not to love? ( )