Sometimes a house is more than just a house, as 10-year-old Amelia Howling learns in The House of Months and Years by Emma Trevayne (Coda; Flights and Chimes and Mysterious Times).
Much to Amelia's chagrin, the sudden passing of her aunt and uncle forces her and her parents to relocate to a strange new house to care for her orphaned cousins. But something is awry: "Since the moment she'd arrived, the house had given her the feeling it could think for itself." Determined to flush out the mystery, Amelia investigates, discovering Horatio, the house's builder, in her attic. Horatio is not a ghost lurking in the shadows but rather an immortal capable of transforming into shadow. The house, he says, "is a time machine" and Amelia his chosen apprentice: "I can teach you all I know. I can make you into what I am." With Horatio, Amelia can--and does--travel through time and space to Victorian England and pirate ships of old. All the while, Horatio promises grander adventures just beyond the horizon, yet Amelia can't help but be suspicious. How can she leave her own world behind if Horatio won't reveal the potential danger in being part of his?
Cousins aside, Amelia's loneliness and feeling of unease are striking, thanks to Trevayne's atmospheric prose. The "calendar house," with spaces representing the 12 months and four seasons, is a fascinating, inventive twist. Horatio, aloof and alternately enchanting and frightening, is a puzzle, much like the house he has built. Readers will agonize with Amelia as she weighs the cost of immortality. --Kyla Paterno, former children's & YA book buyer