The Haunted Attic

The Haunted Attic by Margaret Sutton (1932) This is the second book of the Judy Bolton series, and it follows directly from where the first one left off, after the dam broke, and Judy's family had to find a new home. They move to the nearby town of Farringdon into an old house that is rumored to be haunted. Judy and her brother Horace are not disturbed by the stories about the creepy old house and are determined to make it their home and even plan a Halloween party in which they intend to expose the hauntings as a hoax. They are pretty unnerved, though, once they arrive; there are strange sounds and other ghostly manifestations, and they are slow to explore the truly creepy old attic—given the description of it, I'd have been slow to explore it, too! Judy is really more bothered, however, by the difficulties socially with her new friends in the local high school. She then makes friends with a girl on the poor side of town, where the millworkers live—and really, the portrait of the town and its social-economic divides is as interesting as the ghost story. Anyway, it ends with the big Halloween party, so this is a good book to read in the fall—though because of the nature of the continuous time running through this series, you will do best if you read them in order. I really like Judy Bolton, so I'm planning on reading more.