Although the book raises profound philosophic questions and deals with strong passions, its style, characterization, and emotional trajectory do not match its potential. In a page-turning climax, Miranda realizes that only she can save her mother from madness by rescuing Dorothy and changing the past. Her malignant influence soon begins to work on Miranda's mother. In 1904, Lucinda locked her young daughter, Dorothy, in the attic and left her stuffy husband to run away with a lover, and then was killed in a train wreck. She discovers that her new home is haunted by beautiful, angry, abusive Lucinda. 'About this title' may belong to another edition of this title.Grade 5-9- Moving from New York City to an old house near Boston, Miranda, 14, becomes obsessed with what she sees through the windows of a dollhouse she finds in the attic. Chang, Buxton School, Williamstown,Ĭopyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. Still, the well-structured mystery, the fast-moving plot, and the accessible prose make this a useful addition to fantasy shelves. LeGuin's adult novel The Lathe of Heaven (Bentley, 1982) all create more complex characters while facing the philosophical implications of changing the past. Pam Conrad's Stonewords (HarperCollins, 1990), Eleanor Cameron's The Court of the Stone Children (Dutton, 1973), Diana Wynne Jones's Fire and Hemlock (Greenwillow, 1984), and Ursula K.

Is she caricature or character? How and why does she influence the other characters? Also, a love interest between Miranda and the boy across the street occurs with implausible ease. Readers are never sure whether she is an archetypal figure of pure evil or a strong-willed woman declaring her independence from a narrow, repressive husband. Grade 5-9- Moving from New York City to an old house near Boston, Miranda, 14, becomes obsessed with what she sees through the windows of a dollhouse she finds in the attic.

Time Windows by Kathryn Reiss