Back to School Book 3: Wait Till Helen Comes

I made a goal for 2021 to read ten books from my school days. So far I've read The Scarlet Letter and The Outsiders - the former being from high school, and the latter being from junior high. For my third book, I figured I might as well go for an elementary school selection, so I chose Wait Till Helen Comes by Mary Downing Hahn. 

If you're not familiar with the book, it's about a blended family that moves into an old church where they have some haunted experiences with a ghost named Helen. The family is quite at odds with each other as they try to adjust to their new living circumstances, and throwing Helen in the mix just makes things all the more complicated. 

I think I first read Wait Till Helen Comes in third grade. It ended up being one of my favorite childhood books. In fact, it made me want to live in an old church. There's one in Mantua, Utah that has caught my eye. I just prefer my church house to be ghost-free.

Since I was reading a children's novel, I roped my kids into joining me. I packaged the experience as "Mom's Book Club." I made them invitations to join my book club with the promise of a fun activity to follow. It took some convincing, but I think they secretly loved it. 

For our activity after reading the book, we watched the made for TV movie. It didn't have very good reviews, but we gave it a shot anyway. My kids had never watched a scary movie before, so it was pretty amusing for me to put them through it. I wasn't sure how they would handle it, so we watched it in the early afternoon, allowing them plenty of distractions to clear their minds before it was time to go to bed. 

The movie, of course, ruined much of the story, but it wasn't that bad... until it was. It was one of those movies that starts out okay, but then gets progressively worse. And the ending was laughably bad. But it was a good introductory scary movie for the kids. 

To go with the movie, we made cupcakes with Helen's tombstone. Helen's grave is marked with just her initials: H.E.H. 

The kids are always happy to be given access to frosting - a privilege I rarely grant them. 

I now have plans for more Mom's Book Club experiences. We'll see if my kids are convinced that Mom's Book Club is cool or if it all just goes downhill from here.