But what matters most is that he wants to be ours and he doesn’t want to be yours. I made that dressing gown he’s wearing, whereas no one knew you were alive this time last week. I’ve looked after him for a year now – ironed his shirts, made his school lunches, told him stories. “Everyone in this family belongs to everyone else – belongs with everyone else, rather.

“And pies have got some food value – they’ve got vitamins or something, haven’t they, Claire?”

“If I don’t mind being fat, I don’t see why other people should feel they’ve got to mind for me,” Tabitha replied cheerfully. “Fattening!” said Troy, looking at Tabitha’s round face and plump arms. “I like things written down,” Tabitha mumbled. “You won’t forget that,” Claire assured her. “Ok- let’s talk about funerals,” Tabitha replied at once. He’s better now – that’s the main thing.” “Honestly, Tabitha, the sooner your novel is written and published the better,” Claire said crispl, seeing Barney was made uncomfortable by these comments. “Why do the best things always happen to other people and not to a promising writer?” 8 “I think and think all the time, and I’ve never fainted – not once.” She looked over at Barney enviously. “If people fainted from too much thinking I’d scarcely ever be conscious,” Tabitha began at once. The family relationships are so complex you end up feeling you've read a saga when the book does not get even close to 200 pages. The wonderful stepmother is pregnant and a stay-at-home-parent and the father is distant in a way that is no longer acceptable but was standard at the time. The good stepmother, the decisive girls and the shy sensitive boy, all make for wonderful role reversals but Mahy doesn't overdo it either. Barney's real issue is that he is being haunted by a recently rediscovered grand-uncle, Cole but the way the haunting is dealt with is the way any problem a child of eight has is deal with, you tell your siblings and your parents and they help you. Barney adores his step-mother and is a bit in awe of both his older sisters, loud future novelist Tabitha and silent bookish Troy. It's told from the perspective of young Barney, for whom his family is the center of his world.

The Haunting by Margaret Mahy