The ash house

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Title :

The ash house / Angharad Walker ; illustrations by Corey Brickley.

Title:

The ash house

Author:

Walker, Angharad

Format:

Books

Physical Description:

324 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm

Edition:

First edition.

ISBN:

9781338636314

9781912626977

Production / Publication Information:

New York : Chicken House/Scholastic Inc., 2021.

General Note:

"Published simultaneously in the United Kingdom in 2021 by Chicken House"--Title page verso.

Summary:

"When eleven-year-old Sol arrives at the Ash House, desperate for a cure for his complex pain syndrome, he finds a community of strange children long abandoned by their mysterious Headmaster. The children at the Ash House want the new boy to love their home as much as they do. They give him a name like theirs. They show him the dorms and tell him about the wonderful oasis that the Headmaster has created for them. But the new boy already has a name. Doesn't he? At least he did before he walked through those gates..."--

Language:

English

Added Author:

Genre:

Subject Term:

Memory -- Juvenile fiction.

Abandoned children -- Juvenile fiction.

Reflex sympathetic dystrophy -- Patients -- Juvenile fiction.

Children -- Institutional care -- Juvenile fiction.

Sick -- Juvenile fiction.

Memory -- Fiction.

Abandoned children -- Fiction.

JUVENILE FICTION / Paranormal, Occult & Supernatural.

JUVENILE FICTION / Family / Orphans & Foster Homes.

Holds: Copies:

Available:*

Material Type	Library	Call Number	Item Barcode	Location
Book	Searching... Billerica Public Library	J/WALKER	33934004402187	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Dracut - Moses Greeley Parker Memorial Library	J/FIC/WALKER	31482002979600	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Haverhill Public Library	J/FIC/WALKER	31479007444986	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Lawrence Public Library	J FIC WAL	31549004839063	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Methuen - Nevins Memorial Library	YA WAL	31548003370609	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Middleton - Flint Public Library	J WALKER	32126001776819	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Newburyport Public Library	TWEEN WALKER	32128003950921	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... North Andover - Stevens Memorial Library	J WAL	31478003671915	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Westford - J.V. Fletcher Library	MG F WALKER	31990005038489	Searching... Unknown

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

An unsettling, gripping middle grade debut about searching for a sense of belonging in the wrong places, and the bravery it takes to defy those who seek to control us. This is Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children meets Lord of the Flies for fans of Neil Gaiman and Holly Black.

When Eleven-year-old Sol arrives at the Ash House, desperate for a cure for his complex pain syndrome, he finds a community of strange children long abandoned by their mysterious Headmaster.

The children at the Ash House want the new boy to love their home as much as they do. They give him a name like theirs. They show him the dorms and tell him about the wonderful oasis that the Headmaster has created for them. But the new boy already has a name. Doesn't he? At least he did before he walked through those gates...

This was supposed to be a healing refuge for children like him. Something between a school and a summer camp. With kids like him. With pain like his. But no one is allowed to get sick at the Ash House. NO ONE.

And then The Doctor arrives...

Strange things are about to happen at the mysterious Ash House. And the longer Sol spends on the mysterious grounds, the more he begins to forget who he is, the more the other children begin to distrust him, and the worse his pain becomes. But can he hold onto reality long enough to find an escape? And better yet, can he convince the others?

Reviews (4)

School Library Journal Review

Gr 4--6--The Ash House is a place with a strict moral code that expects Nicenesses and shuns Nastiness, and the child residents seem to have deeply internalized these lessons and have no knowledge of the outside world. An orphaned boy, taken from a hospital, is dropped at the gates of Ash House, where he is renamed Solitude (Sol). The Headmaster has been gone for three years, and the strain is showing on the children who are surviving on their own in decrepit conditions while they live in fear of visits from the Doctor. Twists and turns abound as Sol tries to understand what is happening, find relief from his debilitating mysterious physical pain, and figure out how to help his new community. Sol, with his fresh perspective and outsider knowledge, shakes things up. The children must figure things out on their own as all the adults in the book are either threats or unhelpful. A dreamlike, hazy, ominous atmosphere is created with the story and the book design. The house and grounds are ethereal and seem alive with potential healing qualities, shifting locations, and dangers. The narrative effectively alternates point of view between Sol, who is described as having brown skin, and the pale-skinned brunette child who befriends him, Dom (Freedom). VERDICT This creepy story will appeal to readers who are drawn to the unexplained and all things foreboding in its exploration of memory, reality, truth, found family, and survival.--Erin Wyatt, Highland M.S., Libertyville, IL

Publisher's Weekly Review

Debut author Walker spins a tense tale of abuse and neglect that centers on a brown-skinned foster child's arrival at an imposing, smoke-drenched mansion made of ash. After being sent from a hospital to the Ash House, a boy dubbed Solitude, who experiences back pain and seizures, struggles to fit in with the institution's other children. The kids live on their own in service of rigid, moralistic "Nicenesses"--taking on virtuous names such as Freedom, educating themselves using prerecorded lectures, maintaining the grounds, and tethering their lives to an unbreakable "web of habits and rules"--while longing for their absent Headmaster and dreading the cold and pitiless Doctor's reappearance. Sol bristles at the others' inflexibility, resulting in acrimony and accusations of "nastiness," but when the Doctor returns and Sol is the subject of a medical procedure gone awry, a brutal act with which the group has some experience, he must persuade his reluctant new acquaintances to escape, braving birdlike drones and lantern-eyed creatures en route to the outside world. Simultaneously bleak, moving, and unsettling, Walker's immersive story slowly reveals its secrets, using tension as a lever to tip the reader deep into the Ash House's mysteries. Ages 8--12. (Feb.)

Kirkus Review

A boy arrives at a new school where he hopes to be healed of a mysterious condition that causes him insufferable pain. The Ash House isn't an ordinary school: It is literally made of ash, and the dorm is an old but verdant greenhouse. The Headmaster has been gone for three years, leaving no adults around, yet the children hold on to the hope that he will return. They have no recollection of anything before they arrived at the Ash House, and each has been named after Nicenesses, positive attributes that they are expected to possess such as Concord, Happiness, Temperance, and Liberty. The new boy, who can't remember his outside name, becomes Solitude. Initially, the students are wary of Sol, but with help from his new friend, Freedom--Dom for short--the others warm to him. Then the Doctor arrives. The Doctor claims he can cure Sol, but the children quickly discover he is pure Nastiness. As the children struggle to free themselves from the Doctor's tightening grip, they discover that Courage is the only Niceness that matters. Chapter headings helpfully indicate when the third-person narration switches between Sol's and Dom's perspectives. Action scenes unfold slowly at times, but when they're intense, they're nail-bitingly so, encouraging readers to push through to the satisfyingly ambiguous conclusion. Assume Whiteness for all. An unexpected--and pleasing--combination of propitious and disquieting. (Mystery. 11-14) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Booklist Review

None of the children at the Ash House has seen anyone new join their number, which makes the arrival of 11-year-old Sol a particularly exciting event. For Sol--short for Solitude, the name bestowed upon him there--the place is shrouded in mystery, but he has been promised that someone there will be able to cure him of the excruciating pains that frequently shoot through his back. Sol is received by Dom (Freedom), a kind boy who shows Sol the ropes, describes the headmaster (currently away) with adoration, and explains that all the children at the Ash House are named for a Niceness--the positive virtues that guide their conduct. Debut author Walker effectively builds an atmospheric, frightening story, tinged with just enough of the supernatural to make Sol, and so the reader, question his sanity. Aptly promoted as an intersection of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children and Lord of the Flies, due to its curiosities and the absence of adults, this dread-filled novel is a strong addition to tween horror collections and where Frances Hardinge is popular.