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The Painting Paperback – September 3, 2019

by Charis Cotter (Author)

4.3 13 ratings

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A haunting, beautiful middle-grade novel about fractured relationships, loss, ghosts, friendship and art.

Annie and her mother don't see eye to eye. When Annie finds a painting of a lonely lighthouse in their home, she is immediately drawn to it--and her mother wishes it would stay banished in the attic. To her, art has no interest, but Annie loves drawing and painting.

When Annie's mother slips into a coma following a car accident, strange things begin to happen to Annie. She finds herself falling into the painting and meeting Claire, a girl her own age living at the lighthouse. Claire's mother Maisie is the artist behind the painting, and like Annie, Claire's relationship with her mother is fraught. Annie thinks she can help them find their way back to each other, and in so doing, help mend her relationship with her own mother.

But who IS Claire? Why can Annie travel through the painting? And can Annie help her mother wake up from her coma?

The Painting is a touching, evocative story with a hint of mystery and suspense to keep readers hooked.

Reading age

9 - 12 years
Print length

288 pages
Language

English
Grade level

4 - 7
Dimensions

5.5 x 0.69 x 8.25 inches
Publisher

Tundra Books
Publication date

September 3, 2019
ISBN-10

0735263213
ISBN-13

978-0735263215
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Editorial Reviews

Review

One of CCBC’S Best Books for Kids & Teens (2018)

"[A] cleverly constructed, compellingly paced mystery that's part time-slip story, part ghost story, part meditation on the power of dreaming. . . . Full of emotional truth and connection." --Kirkus Reviews

“3/4… [T]he mounting tension between Claire and Maisie is painfully believable… Highly recommended.” --CM Magazine

"Readers will connect with the characters and fall into the storyline with its focus on artists, loss, and family relationships... Recommended." --School Library Connection

"Moody and atmospheric... the story unfolds at exactly the right pace and is a delicately nuanced tale of secrets, shadows of the past, family ties, heartache and healing." --Atlantic Books Today

About the Author

CHARIS COTTER grew up beside a cemetery and has been living with ghosts ever since. She studied English in university and went to drama school in London, England. Her spooky, suspenseful novel, The Swallow: A Ghost Story, was nominated for many awards and received countless honors. Her picture book, The Ferryland Visitor: A mysterious tale, is based on a true ghost story experienced by Newfoundland artist Gerald L. Squires and his family when they lived at an abandoned lighthouse in the 1970s. Charis has worked extensively in schools and libraries from coast to coast, using drama and storytelling to bring her books to life. Her performances of Newfoundland ghost stories have thrilled audiences of all ages, from Florida to Vancouver Island. She lives at the end of a road beside the ocean, in one of the most haunted parts of Newfoundland.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

CLAIRE
I was cold. I struggled up through a dream of long white corridors and breaking glass into my freezing bedroom, which was filled with the white light of the full moon. An icy Atlantic breeze inched its way through the gaps in the window frame and slithered around my bed.
I jumped up, ran to the trunk in the corner and hauled out a red woolen blanket. As I turned to get back in bed, the moon pulled at me, and I wrapped the blanket around my shoulders and sat down in the big stuffed armchair. The glowing disc of the moon spilled light in a wide path across the water.
The beacon from the lighthouse flashed over the silver sea, a steady rhythm, every five seconds. Like a heartbeat. Like a drum.
“Annie,” I whispered. “Where are you?”

ANNIE
The first time I had the dream was the night of Mom’s accident. The house was quiet. A stillness spread out from my parents’ room.
I lay there for a long time, listening. The curtains were open and a full, silvery moon shone in the window, as bright as a streetlight. Its beam fell on the painting of a Newfoundland lighthouse opposite my bed. It looked different than it did in daylight, transformed by the moonlight into black and white, with sharper outlines and deeper shadows.
A white seabird with black-tipped wings swooped across the dark clouds—I blinked. For just a second I thought I had actually seen the bird moving across the painted surface. I sat up. As I watched, another bird leaped forward and dived into the silver ocean with a splash.
“Annie!” called a faraway voice. I scrambled out of bed.
“Annie!” called the voice again. There was something familiar about it, but it wasn’t coming from downstairs, nor from my parents’ bedroom down the hall. I turned and stared at the painting. I took a step toward it. Now I could see more details: patches of wildflowers by the side of the road leading to the lighthouse, a few sheep grazing on the hill, lights glowing behind the windows of the keeper’s house.
Suddenly the blades of grass in the foreground trembled. A wave passed through the meadow grasses. Then another. I felt a gust of wind on my face, and a wild, unfamiliar smell filled the room. I could taste salt on my lips and I could hear the seabirds crying as they swooped across the sky.
“Annie!” cried the voice again. “Come!”
I took a step forward.
Then I was inside the painting, standing on the road to the lighthouse, with a surprised sheep raising its head to stare at me and the dark ocean stretching away as far as I could see.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Tundra Books; Reprint edition (September 3, 2019)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 288 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0735263213
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0735263215
Reading age ‏ : ‎ 9 - 12 years
Grade level ‏ : ‎ 4 - 7
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.69 x 8.25 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #2,037,770 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #4,530 in Children's Multigenerational Family Life
- #6,961 in Children's Spine-Chilling Horror
- #25,983 in Children's Fantasy & Magic Books

Customer Reviews:
4.3 13 ratings

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Ann E. Nichols

Good for Middle School Readers on Up

Reviewed in the United States on September 21, 2018

THE PAINTING by Charis Cotter was one of my LibraryThing Early Reviewer Program wins. So was Ms. Cotter's book, THE SWALLOW, which I had already read. That's why I was sure I was going to like THE PAINTING, and I was right. I had things to get done, but I didn't want to put the book down.

In both books, we get two points of view. First we meet Claire, a girl longing for her lost little sister, Annie. The second is from a girl named Annie who looks as Claire's sister might have if she'd lived longer. This second Annie is an only child. They meet because of a painting Annie found in her attic and put in her room -- a painting of the very lighthouse where Claire lives with her artist mother.

Claire's little sister was a talented artist. This older Annie is, too. We adult readers can guess at least part of what's going on before Annie does. I didn't care. I was caught up in the web of family secrets and sorrows. I'm reminded of that famous line from the 1967 movie, "Cool Hand Luke": "What we've got here is failure to communicate." So much suffering might have been avoided through honest communication.

Both girls are very different from their mothers who love, but don't understand them. Claire can't wait to get away from her mother. Annie's mother is in a coma and she's desperate for her to awaken.

We get revelations about the big secret tearing Claire and her mother apart throughout the book. The more Annie learns, the more it seems likely that helping Claire will help her own tragedy. Time seems to be running out though, and meeting Claire is getting harder. Is there anyone who can help them?

I wanted to know. What Annie has to go through to find the answer was very interesting and good work on her part.

Do read the acknowledgment section at the end in which the author tells about the inspirations for this book. There's even a black-and-white photograph of the painting that inspired the one Annie found.

Each part the book is divided into opens with a Lewis Carroll quotation, either from THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS AND WHAT ALICE FOUND THERE or ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND. There's also a ghost story Claire tells Annie that I liked.

I would definitely recommend this book to children who enjoy fantasies -- and to adults who have the good sense to still enjoy children's literature.

Reviewed in the United States on September 20, 2017

I loved this book and finished it all in one sitting, late into the night.

The story-line is very original and gripping. Nothing is given away too early, so you are really reading in great suspense to find out if there is a connection between the characters, between the past and present.

The characters are very believable and sympathetic despite their all-too-human flaws.

There is also a lovely attention to detail and scene-setting both in the city and by the coast.

Congratulations to Charis Cotter for the latest addition to a very fine body of work for young readers.

Reviewed in the United States on November 28, 2017

This was a very strange book - dark and mysterious but also deliberate and deep. The story follows the point of views of two girls, Annie and Claire, who meet each other through a painting. Annie's mother was just in a car accident and so she is going through some things, and Claire lives by a lighthouse and recently lost her little sister. They come together to help each other through some traumatic times. That is the simplest way to put it all - the paintings are the threshold which Annie uses to see Claire, and Claire believes that Annie is the ghost of her deceased sister - so there are a lot more layers to this plot.

Annie is artistic but also wants to help, while Claire is more shy and has a tendency to dwell. The book alternated points of view pretty quickly as they visited one another or were alone, and the time the read spends with each girl is only 2-3 pages but there is a lot of depth of character in each section. I am honestly not really sure whether to characterize this as a MG or a YA book but it felt more on the MG side as far as the ages of the girls, but more YA in the overall concept, so for a more advanced MG reader this would be a great book. The story has time travel and is a bit of a ghost story as well, it is mysterious about the traveling and the paintings but it is deep in the wounds and healing side that both these girls are having to handle. It was a very good read.

Reviewed in the United States on February 16, 2018

Received an advanced review copy. I must say I love this book. Strange, different and beautifully captured. It’s suttle and so much farce but so poignant. Stunningly written.

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