Other editions of book The House of Dies Drear

A family tries to unravel the secrets of their new home which was once a stop on the Underground Railroad in this Edgar Award–winning book from Virginia Hamilton.The house held secrets, Thomas knew, even before he first saw it looming gray and massive on its ledge of rock. It had a century-old legend—two fugitive slaves had been killed by bounty hunters after leaving its passageways, and Dies Drear himself, the abolitionist who had made the house into a station on the Underground Railroad, had been murdered there. The ghosts of the three were said to walk its rooms…

One hundred years ago, Dies Drear and two runaway slaves hiding in his house, an important station on the Underground Railroad, were murdered. Legend has it that the ghost of Mr. Drear still haunts the lonely old house. But Thomas Small’s father, a Civil War history professor, doesn’t believe the legends and buys the house. The house is fascinating, thinks Thomas, and it is filled with hidden doorways and secret passages that he can’t wait to explore. But funny things keep happening—frightening things that no one, not even Thomas’ father, can explain. Is someone playing a prank? Or is the ghost of Dies Drear trying to warn the Smalls of danger? From Virginia Hamilton, the author of the Newbery Medal and National Book Award winning M.C. Higgins, the Great, comes a spellbinding mystery filled with edge-of-the-seat suspense. The House of Dies Drear wraps an important history lesson into a brilliantly imaginative story for all ages.

Edgar Award Winner: A teenager and his family must uncover the haunting historical legacy of their Civil War–era house. Shortly after moving into an old, spooky home, thirteen-year-old Thomas Small and his family start hearing strange noises. The house has a past, and when Thomas discovers a hidden passageway that may have been part of the Underground Railroad, the family realizes the house has a history as well. To find out all there is to know about the House of Dies Drear, Thomas must explore secret rooms—and the secrets of lives lived centuries before, lives that tell the story of America’s troubled early years.

A family tries to unravel the secrets of their new home which was once a stop on the Underground Railroad in this Edgar Award–winning book from Virginia Hamilton.The house held secrets, Thomas knew, even before he first saw it looming gray and massive on its ledge of rock. It had a century-old legend—two fugitive slaves had been killed by bounty hunters after leaving its passageways, and Dies Drear himself, the abolitionist who had made the house into a station on the Underground Railroad, had been murdered there. The ghosts of the three were said to walk its rooms…