What book should High School Students read? by Nicole

What book should High School Students read? by Nicole - February 2015 Scholarship Essay

Ghosts, dolls, crying little girls, and a mean, socially awkward old woman. This is a great story already. One book that I feel all high school students should read before graduating is "The Doll in the Garden" by Mary Downing Hahn. We have a compilation of suspense mixed with love, hate mixed with regret, and the struggle of one girl to understand how someone can be so cold in their soul.

I first read this book as a teenager whom was bored over summer break. The story pulled me in as it is a mystery that transfers in and out of a different world’s dimensions. The main point that I retained from this story is that every person has a story. Some have positive stories, some have negative. We are defined and shaped by our stories that have been lived. This makes it crucial to never judge a book by its cover, or a person by the mask they wear. Someone can be always happy and smiling, but maybe they smile to hide the hurt and struggles they are actually dealing with. Someone you meet can be extremely grumpy and very rude and abrasive, maybe they have survived an accident or disease that destroyed those they loved.

In "The Doll in the Garden", a young girl (Ashley) and her mother move into an apartment and soon the girl hears a little girl (Louisa) crying at night in the woods. The landlord (Ms. Cooper) is a very rude and angry woman whom appears to hate children. We learn in the end of the story that Louisa is actually a ghost that is haunting the old woman. Ms. Cooper has regret for stealing Louisa’s favorite doll and not giving it back before the little girl died of Tuberculosis. After Ashley convinces Ms. Cooper to travel into the woods with her, Ms. Cooper’s story is revealed on how the two were very close childhood friends. They would play together every day but soon Ms. Cooper was jealous of Louisa and stole her doll. She never came back to play after the action and Louisa soon died. Ms. Cooper is riddled by guilt for her whole life, not know how to make amends. She then feels she is not capable or deserving of being friends with anyone and chooses to push everyone away that she comes into contact with. Ashley realizes Ms. Cooper is rude as a coping mechanism and helps Ms. Cooper come to peace with herself. They return the doll to Louisa’s grave and we sense and see a large change and opening in Ms. Cooper’s character. She is able to let go of what has plagued her for so long.

As an adult, I have been through hard times and easier times, I have faced those that are just negative in their personalities, and those that are at peace with their lives. I used to take criticism or negative behaviors personally and this story always pops back into my head that maybe there is something that happened to them that creates their responses. Ms. Cooper was not truly a bad person, she was just eaten up by what happened in her childhood. Many people today will snap at you because they are having an outburst from something that has affected them emotionally and their resolve is strained. We need to all realize we cannot instantly judge without the facts. We should be more giving and understanding as we are humans and have that ability. Sometimes a person just wants to know they are cared about and are not going to fall when they mess up.