The Headless Cupid by Zilpha Keatley Snyder

Picture life as a kid 30 years ago, and what passes for an initiation rite seems appropriate for the book, but lame in a child’s eyes today.

Then, when a poltergeist appears – the same poltergeist which may have visited the house 80 years ago…when the wooden cupid on the bannister lost its head – the entire family gets a new insight into what the occult may really mean.Although the work remains timeless, the “wholesomeness” of the story kind of stands out as a little antiquated – but I would like to think in a good way. To her surprise, her new brothers and sisters show an interest in Amanda’s fixation on witchcraft and go along with her versions of occult initiation. Amanda is “different” – or at least she wants to be different – and she’s sure that the country will be boring and no one will like her. Unlike other children’s titles from the same era, Cupid could easily have been written today – assuming you could find a family who didn’t live in front of their TV’s and Video Games.Amanda’s mom remarries, and they move away from the city and into an old house in the country along with David, the oldest brother of Janie and twins Esther and Blair. The Headless Cupid is a 1972 Newbery Honor Book which has truly stood the test of time. Snyder's second novel to be named a Newbery Honor Book, The Headless Cupid is an engaging, suspenseful mystery for young readers, and showcases the author's sensitive appreciation of the subtleties of childhood experience. But when David and Amanda discover that their house was once believed to have a poltergeist, and Amanda holds a seance to contact the ghost, a series of frightening incidents occur.The first in a series of titles about the Stanley children (continuing with: The Famous Stanley Kidnapping Case, Blair's Nightmare, and Janie's Private Eyes), this charming family drama is quite similar to The Egypt Game, in the sense that events which at first appear to be supernatural, are later discovered to be the result of more mundane human agency. When Amanda offers to teach the children about the supernatural world, the “ordeals” she arranges to test them seem mostly aimed at antagonizing her own mother Molly, whom she blames for her parents’ divorce. The four Stanley children - David, Janie, Esther and Blair - are fascinated by their new stepsister Amanda in The Headless Cupid, drawn by her claims to be a practitioner of the occult.

The Headless Cupid by Zilpha Keatley Snyder