One of my favorite books when I was younger, any fan of ghost stories or paranormal mysteries should really enjoy this.

David Stanley tries his hardest to play the ultimate big brother to his three very different young siblings. With their mother dead, and their father often away working and preparing for remarriage, he is the one they look up to. But David is about to have problems of his own, arriving in the form of his new stepsister, Amanda. And Amanda brings more than the usual problems. She is a self-styled practicer of the occult, and she brings with her a grumpy crow familiar, books of spells, and somewhat of an attitude.

Before long, David's three irrepressible siblings; mischievous know-it-all Janie, innocent Esther, and quiet, mysterious Blair, have convinced Amanda to give them a chance to get in on her world, despite her reluctance. David is pulled along too, fascinated in spite of himself by Amanda's interests. But when strange things begin to happen in David's old house, the four Stanley siblings, plus Amanda, may find themselves with a true ghost on their hands. And maybe none of them will be prepared to deal with it.

Sprinkled with hilarity and fun that take the worst of the creepiness out of this spooky novel (the siblings' attempts to pass Amanda's rites, as well as "capture" lizard familiars and hold a seance, have lots of funny moments), this is a perfect introduction to anyone who wants to try a ghost story. Under that, it's also the story of a family learning about each other. But the ending, which has a not-necessarily surprising twist, has a double twist that leaves everything up in the air...a perfect ending for a study of the paranormal.

I was 12 when I first picked up this book, I had just move hundreds of miles away from my home to a new school new step family and knew nobody. Honestly I only desided to read it because the two main characters were David and Amanda. David and Amanda were the names of 2 cousins I missed very much.
But after that it was the story that carried it, it was the very first book I read completely and then read again. I fell in love with the characters as well as the author. At the time 1989 I could only get my hands on this one and the next in the series (The Famous Stanley Kidnapping Case) So I had to deal with reading each and every one of this authors other titles I could find at my schools and the local public library. Over the years I have looked at different libraries and found a few, but over the last 2 years I have discovered the internet and I no long have any limits to which ones I can get and read. I have bought the ones I read and loved so long ago. I have read so many more of her books, I'm 33 year old adult married with kids, who collects every single one of her books, seeing me reading title after title of books written for 12 years olds. What can I say other then it is a piece of my childhood I don't want forgotten.

One of the rare books that I loved as a kid that still holds up upon reading as an adult. David's new step-mom has a daughter, Amanda, who is quite taken with the occult and also not terribly pleased with being moved to the country to live with her new family. Amanda decides to make the kids her "neophytes" and initiate them into magic and spells. However, a real supernatural occurrence is more than she, or anyone, bargained for.
I never knew when I was a kid that this was the first in a series about the Stanley family. Now, I've acquired them all and am excited to read them.

Excellent.

A recently blended family getting to know one another. A resentful girl with an interest in the occult. Amusing little kids. A big, old house.

I think what marks this out as a novel of the 70s is that the kids have all summer pretty much on their own. They're expected to appear for meals, but none of them has any playdates, or scheduled activities, nor do they have other kids around to play with. Just a long, empty summer to get into trouble. It's a fun book, less creepy than amusing in their efforts to become occult, and blend as a family.

Library copy.

When I discovered Shirley Jackson's work, a few years back, I had the unique experience of wanting to find her ghost somewhere and coax her back to my house for visits.

Let me clarify: I did not wish to raise her from the dead and sit with her, and learn from her (a natural feeling I have, with several beloved authors). No, more specifically: I wanted to hang out with her ghost.

Was this because Shirley Jackson's work leaned toward the supernatural? I don't know. Probably.

All I know is that I am in that same weird position again. Now I'm hoping Zilpha Keatley Snyder's ghost shows up, too. I want to hang out with her ghost.

Zilpha Keatley Snyder was an American writer who had an almost inexhaustible writing career. Seriously, this woman must have ignored every human being around her, as she cranked out novel after novel after novel. All the photos I have found of her depict an exceptionally thin woman as well, and I wonder if she ever wasted time on meals, either.

She was incredibly prolific, yet I managed to miss all of her middle grades and YA books, at least when I was the age that I would have sought her reads.

Well, I've discovered them now. And, I promise, I'm enjoying them as much as my 13-year-old.

Ms. Snyder has an unusual habit of writing children as more mature than their chronological ages, and this is a trait that typically drives me insane. I can't stand it when writers get children's dialogue wrong, and I can't stand it when they attribute a maturity or a wisdom to them that just doesn't match their age.

And yet, what she does works. I don't know how, it just does.

Interestingly, she almost always features an 11-year-old somewhere in her stories, and she wrote, once, that her students “had given me a deep appreciation of the gifts and graces that are specific to individuals with 10 or 11 years of experience as human beings. It is, I think, a magical time – when so much has been learned, but not yet enough to entirely extinguish the magical reach and freedom of early childhood.”

Personally, I think Ms. Snyder imbues just a little too much maturity in her fictional kids than is entirely accurate to their ages, and it's interesting to me that it is not my 11-year-old who is invested in these stories yet, but my 13-year-old. Further evidence to support my suspicions.

But, wow, did she understand human psychology, and did she understand kids! Add a little hint of the supernatural and WHAM-O: she achieved the magic formula for turning pages.

This particular middle grades book, published in 1971, introduced my daughter and me to the Snyder family and their potentially creepy new home that may or may not house a poltergeist.

(But no poltergeist is as scary as an unhappy daughter with a new step-family).

As an adult reader, I didn't find as much mystery in this one as a child might; however, I am still stunned by Zilpha Keatley Snyder's uncanny ability to capture the minds and behavior of children. Her characters are so real. I especially loved talkative Janie, who gets physically ill after not talking for 24 hours and who loves being scared so much her "best day ever" was the day she almost got hit by a car.

This line amused me greatly: "The kids were running around the lawn in their bathing suits, and David was watering the garden and the kids at the same time."

This is a Lemony Snicket-recommended book. I overheard him and his neighbor discussing it in Poison for Breakfast. After I figured out its title and author, I became even more interested because I’d loved The Velvet Room as a child.

This book, too, is one I would’ve read and enjoyed as an adolescent, and I’m not positive I hadn’t, as its resolution seemed vaguely familiar. In that time period (early 70's) I read so many books from the library, I can’t remember them all. Master Snicket says this book was recommended to him by a “so trustworthy and so interesting” librarian, which also describes the way some readers feel about some writers.

This is the book that sparked my interest in witchy and magical things, back when I was about 10 years old. Even though the book has really not much to do with magic, but is more about a troubled and angry teen having difficulty adjusting to her new living situation. (That is, it's no Harry Potter and none of the characters are the least bit magical except for maybe Blair, who maybe possibly has that "I See Dead People" thing going on). Doesn't matter. This is the book that started it all for me. I've loved magical stuff ever since!

But back to The Headless Cupid: I first read this book when I was about 10 years old and loved it. I have so many memories of reading it, of being absolutely 100% absorbed in the story, the characters, the mystery...everything. When I recently discovered it at a library book sale, of course I snapped it up. I was excited to re-read it and see if it held up to my memories....and kind of afraid that I'd discover the magic gone upon revisiting it nearly 30 years later.

The great news is The Headless Cupid was every bit as awesome as I remembered. However, I did bring to it a different, more mature perspective. A deeper layer, if you will. One I wasn't really mature enough to catch the first time around. That is, I never realized just how troubled Amanda's character truly is: The heartbreaking devotion to a father who was obviously neglectful and who used money and presents in place of love and quality time... The anger toward her mother, whom she blamed for her parents separating... The lengths she would go to show that displeasure (The interest in the supernatural that seemed to exist only to piss her mom off. The elaborate haunting hoax). The first time around, I never saw Amanda as a problem child. This time I did. The first read, I thought she was cool and clever. This time I felt sorry for her. And I found I didn't like her nearly as much as I did before. Poor kid. I felt her issues were resolved a bit too quickly and easily, but hey....we're talking a kids book from the early 80s. Times and books were different back then. There's a whole undercurrent there, another subtle story, one beneath the main plot. One the author only hints at. But once you see it, it can't be unseen. This gave me an even greater appreciation for the story, for the writing.

But for the most part, the story I loved and remembered was still there in all its atmospheric and mysterious glory. The main plot, the characters, the whole slightly creepy vibe present throughout. And this made me very happy.

Beloved childhood favorites revisited so rarely retain most, if not all, of their magic. But this was a rare case when this is exactly what happened.

I read this as a young girl and loved it and recently read it again to my children and loved it even more. My 15 year old son even commented on how he liked the way she did the characters--one of the big reasons I like it so much too. It is a great read-a-loud for many ages--I read it to all my kids. The three year old didn't get into it but from ages 6-15 they were spellbound.

I loved Zilpha Keatley Snyder as a child and I was curious to see if her books stand up. I'm also re-reading lots of my childhood favourites, and analyzing them and paying more attention to how stories are told.

This book stood up well. It was well written and had a great plot and was still creepy. I plan to read more of Zilpha's books. I loved them.

There's only one section of the book that didn't stand up and that's a section where the characters were playing slave drivers and slaves. I can't picture that happening in a modern day kid's book.

This book was just as good as it was when I read it as a child!! The newly formed family described from a child’s perspective! What child has not held a séance? So glad I took the time to reread this old classic that I loved back then, shared with my own children, and now enjoyed as an adult!