Shadows on the Wall by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor is a well-written
suspense filled tale filled with ghosts, gypsies, and dark scary
places. It tells the tale of an American high school student who
in seeking the source of a ghostly mystery discovers a dark secret
lurking much closer to home.

Shadows on the Wall is set in York, England, a real town
of ancient historic significance. Fifteen-year old Dan Roberts
is brought to York in a suspiciously unscheduled two-week vacation.
While his parents are off investigating genealogy, Dan is off
exploring local history and legends about ghostly Roman legionaries.
Soon he begins to have eerie experiences of his own and becomes
even more determined to get to the bottom of the mystery of the
ghostly soldiers. Mr. Stanton, a local cabbie, assists Dan in
his exploration. He introduces Dan to a family of gypsies who
have the power of sight. Ambrose Faw, the family patriarchy seems
leery of Dan. Rose, Ambrose’s wife, reads Dan’s palm, but then
refuses to finish her reading. Nat, Anbrose’s son, is open to
Dan and wants to be his friend, but this may be a ploy to obtain
Dan’s belt buckle. Orlenda, his beautiful sister, attracts Dan’s
eye, but love with an outside is forbidden for a gypsy girl. Lastly,
there is Jasper, Ambrose’s older deaf mute son, who is the most
gifted in sight, but flees Dan’s presence. And Granny, the old
gypsy woman, who knows she will soon die and invites Dan to her
funeral give date and time! As the intensity of Dan’s paranormal
experiences increase, he unwittingly discovers a much more frightening
family secret that will have lifelong consequences for him.

Young readers will be attracted to the supernatural elements of
this story, yet the real mystery of this story involves the family
secret. Many families have secrets. Some families choose to keep
those secrets from the younger members in the family. When the
young person discovers the secret, the issue of being kept in
the dark sometimes proves to be more damaging than the content
of the original secret. In this case, not only is the discovery
of family secrecy upsetting to the character but equally upsetting
is the character’s need to comes to terms with the facts of the
secret. This is a well-written novel that illustrates how this
young person learns to cope with family secrecy and the very devastating
personal news his parents have kept from him.

Phyllis Naylor is the author of over eighty children’s and young
adults books, and over two thousand short stories and articles
to magazines. Shiloh (1992) won a Newbery Medal and the
1995 Young Hoosier Book Award. How I Came to Be a Writer
was the 1978 recipient of the Golden Kite Award for nonfiction
from the Society of Children’s Book Writers. The Keeper
was the basis for "My Dad Can’t Be Crazy, Can He?" which
aired as an "After School" on September 14,1989 on ABC.
In 1998 Naylor was an honored guest at the Post Road School in
White Plains for its annual Author/Illustrator Evening. She has
three book series including, the witch books (Witch’s Sister,
Witch Water, The Witch Herself, The Witch’s Eye,
Witch Weed, and The Witch Returns), the Bessledorf
mystery series (The Mad Gasser of Bessledorf Street, The
Bodies in the Bessledorf Hotel, and Bernie and the Bessledorf
Ghost), and the York Trilogy (Shadows on the Wall (1980),
Faces in the Water (1981), and Footprints at the Window
(1981).) Naylor has worked in the Montgomery County Education
Association offices in Rockville, Maryland and as editorial assistant
with the National Education Association Journal. She is a member
of the Authors League of America and the Washington, D.C. Children’s
Book Guild. She lives in Bethesda, Maryland with her husband,
Rex. Shadows on the Wall is the first book in the York
Trilogy and this particular edition is a re-release of the 1980
original.

Shadows on the Wall by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor is an excellent
read. The supernatural elements will entice even the most reluctant
of readers to keep reading while the learning experience regarding
family secrecy and the secret itself will equally hold readers’
interest. While some parents may object to the occult elements
in this novel, I believe the book is well worth the reading. I
highly recommend this book to both pre-teen and teenage boys and
girls.

© 2002 Su Terry

Su Terry: Education: B.A. in History from Sacred Heart University,
M.L.S. in Library Science from Southern Connecticut State College,
M.R.S. in Religious Studies/Pastoral Counseling from Fairfield
University, a M.Div. in Professional Ministry from New Brunswick
Theological Seminary, a Certificate in Spirituality/Spiritual
Direction from Sacred Heart University. She is a Licensed Minister
of the United Church of Christ and an Assistant Professor in Library
Science at Dowling College, Long Island, NY. Interests in Mental
Health: She is interested in the interplay between psychology,
biology, and mysticism. Her current area of research is in the
impact of hormonal fluctuation in female Christian mystics.

Categories: Children