Deep, Dark and Dangerous

It's that time of year when I'm reading all the Georgia Book Awards because our Reader's Rally competition is fast approaching. Surprisingly, I enjoyed one of the ghost stories; Deep, Dark and Dangerous. It's a quick little read by Mary Downing Hahn, she who brought us Wait Till Helen Comes (which gave me nightmares in the fourth grade.)

Deep, Dark and Dangerous is the story of a family with secrets. Ali's mother can't cope - she has constant migraines, and anytime something gets difficult she changes the subject to gardening. Then one day, Ali's aunt Dulcie asks Ali to babysit for a summer at the family's old lake house. Ali's mother is horrified at the idea, and retreats to her room when Ali's father agrees to let her go. However, the lake house doesn't turn out to be the fun-filled vacation Ali is hoping for. She meets a little girl who manages to turn her sweet cousin into a nasty brat, and then things start to get creepy. Who is this mysterious girl named Teresa she keeps hearing about? Then Ali finds out Teresa died and her mother and aunt may have had something to do with it...