I don’t remember how old I was when I first read “Wait Till Helen Comes” by Mary Downing Hahn. According to amazon.com it was released on September 22, 1986, so I had to have been at least 9.
If I remember right, I bought this book at one of our school’s book fairs. I *loved* book fairs. They’d pass around a little catalog a few days before the fair, and I’d pour through it making a “wish list” of all of the books I wanted to buy. I was lucky enough to be raised by parents who encouraged reading and felt that one could never have too many books, so I was always given a generous allowance to buy books at the fair. Anyway, “Wait Till Helen Comes” was one of those books that I just *had* to have. The book appealed to me on a few levels. Ghosts? Check. Oldest sister who felt out-of-place in the family? That described me to a T.
I read this book over and over and over again. I must have read it at least twenty times. But now, twenty-plus years later, I can barely remember the basic plot points. There was a ghost, some pre-pubescent angst, and the main character (whose name I have long forgotten) falls under the spell of a ghost who haunts their new house. Other than that, I don’t remember an awful lot. This kind of bothers me. Whenever I think of “Wait Till Helen Comes”, I get a nice, warm nostalgic feeling. But I don’t remember the details.
Amazon.com has a Kindle edition of this book available for $4.69. Once I got over my surprise that they actually have a Kindle edition of this book, I decided that it was time to reintroduce myself to my old friend. I downloaded it to my Kindle this morning, and it will be the next book on my reading list.
This idea makes me a little bit nervous. What if the magic disappears as an adult? Obviously the same scary thrills I got at age 9 are not going to happen at 33. But what if the book totally sucks, and I ruin that nostalgic feeling I get when I remember reading this book? Is it best to leave well enough alone?
Maybe…maybe not. Despite the risks, I’m excited about spending some quality time with my old friend.
