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The Boy in the Burning House
Contributor(s): Wynne-Jones, Tim (Author)

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ISBN: 0374408874     ISBN-13: 9780374408879
Publisher: St. Martins Press-3PL
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Binding Type: Paperback - See All Available Formats & Editions
Published: September 2003
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Annotation: An Edgar Award Winner
Two years after his father's mysterious disappearance, Jim Hawkins is coping -- barely. Underneath, he's frozen in uncertainty and grief. What did happen to his father? Is he dead or just gone? Then Jim meets Ruth Rose. Moody, provocative, she's the bad-girl stepdaughter of Father Fisher, Jim's father's childhood friend and the town pastor, and she shocks Jim out of his stupor when she tells him her stepfather is a murderer. "Don't you want to know who he murdered?" she asks. Jim doesn't. Ruth Rose is clearly crazy -- a sixteen-year-old misfit. Yet something about her fierce conviction pierces Jim's shell. He begins to burn with a desire for the truth, until it becomes clear that it may be more unsettling than he can bear. What is the real meaning of the strange prayers Father Fisher intones behind the door of his private sanctuary? Why does Ruth Rose suddenly disappear? And what really happened thirty years ago when a boy died in a burning house?

Additional Information
BISAC Categories:
- Juvenile Fiction | Mysteries, Espionage, & Detective Stories
- Juvenile Fiction | Action & Adventure - General
- Juvenile Fiction | Family - Parents
Dewey: FIC
LCCN: 99089534
Age Level: 10-14
Grade Level: 5-9
Lexile Measure: 710(Not Available)
Physical Information: 0.7" H x 5" W x 7.9" L (0.55 lbs) 213 pages
Features: Ikids, Price on Product
Review Citations: Kliatt 09/01/2003 pg. 23
PW Notes and Reprints 10/27/2003 pg. 72
Publishers Weekly 10/27/2003
Accelerated Reader Info
Quiz #: 41701
Reading Level: 4.8   Interest Level: Upper Grades   Point Value: 8.0
 
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc.
Publisher Description:

An Edgar Award Winner

Two years after his father's mysterious disappearance, Jim Hawkins is coping -- barely. Underneath, he's frozen in uncertainty and grief. What did happen to his father? Is he dead or just gone? Then Jim meets Ruth Rose. Moody, provocative, she's the bad-girl stepdaughter of Father Fisher, Jim's father's childhood friend and the town pastor, and she shocks Jim out of his stupor when she tells him her stepfather is a murderer. Don't you want to know who he murdered? she asks. Jim doesn't. Ruth Rose is clearly crazy -- a sixteen-year-old misfit. Yet something about her fierce conviction pierces Jim's shell. He begins to burn with a desire for the truth, until it becomes clear that it may be more unsettling than he can bear. What is the real meaning of the strange prayers Father Fisher intones behind the door of his private sanctuary? Why does Ruth Rose suddenly disappear? And what really happened thirty years ago when a boy died in a burning house?

The Boy in the Burning House is the winner of the 2002 Edgar Award for Best Young Adult Mystery.


Contributor Bio(s): Wynne-Jones, Tim: -

Tim Wynne-Jones

Writing a bio in the first person always makes me think of those boring people who back you into a corner at a party and tell you about themselves. The worst part is that they invariably situate themselves between you and the chips. I like chips. I like food. I love cooking. And crossword puzzles and cross-country skiing, although I make a point of not trying to do these activities at the same time.

I started writing when I was in my twenties. Never dreamed of becoming an author. Oh, I loved reading, but I had known since I was eleven that I was going to be a world-famous architect when I grew up, so I never took my writing very seriously. Besides, I failed high school English. But the university where I was training to become a world-famous architect thought it might not be such a good idea for me to design buildings into which real people might actually stray by mistake. So I turned to making art, which led to an M.F.A., which is when I realized that if I wasn't careful, I was going to end up being offered a teaching job! So I wrote a novel very quickly.

Winning the $50,000 Seal First Novel Award in 1980 convinced me to put aside my designing, acting, singing, painting, teaching career and take writing seriously. Twenty-six books later, I'm still doing it and still loving it.

I've won lots of awards. Oh, here -- can I get you the chips? You just munch away and I'll tell you all about my honors: a couple of Governor General's Literary Awards in Canada; three Canadian Library Association Prizes; the Arthur Ellis Award -- that's from the Crime Writers of Canada; the Edgar Award for Young Adult Mystery from the Mystery Writers of America; the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award; and I've twice been short-listed for the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize in the U.K. . . . Are you feeling woozy yet?

I've written three adult novels, but I got over that. I've also written a dozen picture books, three collections of short stories, and five novels for older readers, including A Thief in the House of Memory. The last novel before that was The Boy in the Burning House. Notice the house thing? You see? I'm still obsessed with architecture. The next title almost had a house in it, but I changed it to Rex Zero and the End of the World. It's pretty funny, I think, considering it's about the end of the world. I've already written the sequel, Rex Zero, King of Nothing.

Oh, don't go. Please! I haven't told you about my three very talented grownup kids and my wonderful wife and the cats and the seventy-six acres of land just outside of Perth, Ontario. I've got lots of pictures. Some other time? Okay.

Tim Wynne-Jones lives near Perth, Ontario, with his wife, Amanda, in a house he designed himself.


 
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