Eleven-year-old Olive and her parents have just moved to a weird old house, where Olive has noticed things moving inside the artwork on the walls and where cats have darted out of secret places to talk to her. Soon Olive finds that she can climb into the paintings. She also discovers a dark secret: the original owner of the house came from "a line of powerful witches" and "learned to trap living people in paintings." Black-and-white illustrations.
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• Olive’s reaction to the mysteries surrounding her is entirely believable. Her curiosity makes her brave, but she’s not immune to fear. Readers will easily relate to Olive’s desire to learn more about her creepy house and simultaneous apprehension at the prospect.
• The three cats that inhabit Olive’s house are great sidekicks. Each has a distinct personality, and they play off one another humorously.
• Jacqueline West builds an eerie and mysterious world. A steady stream of details ensures that readers will continue turning the pages as they try to solve the mystery of Olive’s house along with her.
Olive finds a pair of spectacles that let her enter the paintings in her family's decrepit Victorian mansion. There she finds cats who aren't quite feline and late homeowners who aren't quite dead. Even at their most dire--and darkly illustrated--Olive's circumstances are too fantastical to be really frightening; naive Olive figures it all out in time to regain control.