F.B.F: Wait Till Helen Comes

Flashback Friday:  Wait Till Helen Comes

Flashback Friday is a weekly meme hosted by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies and it's a way to show a little love to those books that hold a special place in our hearts. There are no set rules aside from the fact that the book must be at least five years old. 

Today, I'm flashing all the way back to elementary school and showing some love for Mary Downing Hahn's Wait Till Helen Comes.  Published in 1986, this is a ghost story that creeped me out in a good way as a kid.  I remember picking it up off one of the shelves in the school's library and thinking to myself..."Self, this looks like a good book to read.  Let's check it out!"  I'm so glad that I decided on a creepy book that day because it has definitely steered me in a wonderful reading direction. 

The book follows a blended family (a mother, her two children, the man she marries, and his young daughter) and their move from a large city to a refurbished church in the country.  Once arriving, the youngest child, Heather, who lost her mother in a mysterious house fire, becomes a frequent visitor to the dilapitated cemetery in the woods and claims that she has a new friend named Helen.  Helen, it is soon discovered, is a ghost who happened to die over a hundred years ago in a house fire as well.  Now she haunts the cemetery hoping to lure other children to the nearby pond.  Creep city!

A few years ago I found a used copy of Wait Till Helen Comes in a local bookstore and bought it for a whopping two bucks.  One day, if I ever have children, I might read it to them when they're old enough, but it's still a creepy story today.

What are some of your favorite flashback books?

Happy reading!