The Door By The What?

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By: D.L. B,

Katherine Marsh is a children’s novelist who wrote many books in her lifetime and is still writing many books today. She was born in Kingston, New York on November 11, 1974 and spent most of her life in New York. When she was five years old, her parents moved to her grandmother’s house in Bronxville, New York which was a suburb 29 minutes by train to Grand Central Terminal. As an only child she would spend a lot of time with her grandmother who owned a Russian/ Ukrainian bar in the East Village. She explains that the memories of her grandmother’s magically delicious cooking inspired her to write ‘’The Door By The Staircase.’’

The book tells a story of a twelve - year old girl named Mary Hayes who is adopted by a mysterious woman who went by the name of Madame Z.  Madame Z takes her in and gives her all the needed comforts, especially a lot of  delicious food. However she feels the house has secrets and things are looking sketchy. The village that the house is close too, is also very mysterious and does not have a great population. Thankfully, there is a boy there about her age who she talks to and spends most of her time with. Together they explore the village and Mary soon realizes that Madame Z is not who she says she is. Mary must be careful or she might soon be caught up in her worst nightmare.

Katherine’s Marsh’s writing is certainly very descriptive and mysterious. She writes lots of suspense and mystery books which are the types of books that I personally enjoy.  The Door by the Staircase grasped my attention when I saw the title and read the first chapter. The beginning of books have to be more interesting and adventurous, because that is what people are going to look at to determine if they want to read this book or not. Marsh displays that beautifully, and that is what I like about this book. She has wrote several other books that I’m looking forward to reading in the future. If you are interested in mystery and suspense, you should consider reading this book.

The Door by the Staircase, by Katherine Marsh,Disney-Hyperion, January 5th 206, 288 pages