The Secret of Whispering Springs

by Jerri Garretson

Overview

Moving to the country to live in a stone mansion has all the makings of a nightmare for 14-year-old Cassie Wade. Forced to participate in a menacing stranger’s search for hidden treasure, she must also contend with Annie, the ghost of a 14-year-old girl who has haunted the house for over a hundred years.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940045276023
Publisher:	Jerri Garretson
Publication date:	09/06/2013
Sold by:	Smashwords
Format:	eBook
File size:	176 KB
Age Range:	13 Years

About the Author

Jerri loves stories, reading them and writing them. Although she has written nearly all her life, beginning in the second grade, she began publishing articles and stories in the early 1970s. She began writing children's books while she was a children's librarian in Manhattan, Kansas with her first Kansas tall tale, "Johnny Kaw - The Pioneer Spirit of Kansas."In addition to tall tales, she especially likes writing ghost stories and her YA ghost story and mystery, "The Secret of Whispering Springs" has been popular with readers from nine to ninety. Four of her ghost stories for adults were published in the anthology, "Trespassing Time - Ghost Stories From the Prairie."Jerri grew up in Manhattan, Kansas, earned a B.A. degree in English and psychology from the University of Kansas, and A.A. degree in graphic design and printing from Manhattan Area Technical College, and an M.Ed. in educational technology from the University of Hawaii at Manoa. She is married and together with her husband, has lived in several countries and states. They now live in Florida.Jerri has worked as a public affairs officer, a children's librarian and a reference librarian. She loves photography, computers, and traveling.

Editorial Reviews

Jerri Garretson is an author and librarian quite familiar to most children's and young adult librarians across Kansas. But with the publication of The Secret of Whispering Springs she has truly reached maturity as a writer. In this new book, Jerri goes beyond the scope of anything she has written or published before, and it is the crowning accomplishment of her writing career to date. The fourteen year old female lead character, Cassie, moves into the magnificent old Victorian-style home with which virtually every Kansas commuity is blessed. But in this house there is a lurking, cold but not unfriendly, presence, an entity that seems to whisper to Cassie. And she seems to have visions of the house in bygone days. Finally, a dangerous stranger spies on the family and threatens her little brother. Cassie must solve the mystery, help both the stranger and the mysterious entity and prove that she really is experiencing the seemingly unexplainable phenomena. Jerri uses a captivating combination of dialogue, different fonts and even penmanship to convey her story in a gripping fashion. Even the cover, which is a photo of Jerri's own grandmother superimposed over a stone mansion similar to the one described in the novel, is fascinating.

For the best Jerri Garretson book so far, don't miss The Secret of Whispering Springs. Jerri recommends it for grades 5-8, but there are a lot of adults who will want to read this one. Recommended for middle school/junior high media centers, young adult and children's public library collections, academic young adult collections and Kansas collections.
— Kansas Libraries

Roy Bird

Gr 5-8-Cassie and her family are about to move into their new country home, but on her first visit, the 14-year-old has an experience with the house ghost and learns that someone has been squatting there as well, perhaps someone who is up to no good. The ghost is able to communicate with Cassie, but things start to get frightening when the stranger begins to send threatening messages to her. They both want her help, but the squatter is willing to harm those Cassie loves to get her cooperation. Mystery fans will find their comfortable, formulaic mystery/ghost story here-girl meets ghost and villain, becomes terrified but vows to save her loved ones, and finds treasure and justice in the end. This is an appealing book for those who like their mystery and horror on the light side, complete with a heroine who receives threats via e-mail and advice from her chatty best friend.-Lynn Evarts, Sauk Prairie High School, Prairie du Sac, WI Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

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