The Man in the Woods

by Rosemary Wells

Book Overview

When a high school freshman witnesses a man's crime, and follows him into the woods to investigate the case, she finds herself in the middle of an intricate web of town secrets...and a lot of danger.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0590438263
• ISBN13: 9780590438261
• Release Date: January 1991
• Publisher: Scholastic
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 0.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 4.2" x 6.7"
• Age Range: 12 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 7 and higher

Customer Reviews

Review

Helen witnessed a car accident. She saw someone from the woods throw a rock at a car and she wants to find out who it was. Her and a friend, Pinky Levy help the injured woman in the car and her daughter. Soon after the accident Helen follows someone into the woods and is afraid that he saw her. She is being stalked and she desperately wants to find out who the person in the woods was because she thinks that the police have captured the wrong man. She uses the paper at her school that she works for as a cover to do some research. She finds that a tip-off note was typed on a typewriter so old that it was never even recorded in history. She finds out about someone who had the typewriter, also called a Thurber but some things like a delirious relative make it hard for Helen to come to any conclusions. She works very hard and even though she has embarrassed her family she knows that she is on to something. No one will believe a word she says though, no one but Pinky. He is the only help that Helen has and eventually finds that Stubby Atlas, the man the police took into custody as the man throwing rocks at cars or the "punk rock thrower", is the guilty man. He had worked for Perry and Crowe over the summer, a company that packed the UPS trucks that Stubby was aiming for. At the end Helen and Pinky find that Barry de Wolf, a senior at their school and a worker on the Whaler, their school paper, was involved in drug selling and sold to people that were connected to Stubby. They both ended up in jail. I think this is a very good book because it gives you hints like you were a forensic scientist trying to figure it out for yourself. This book is interesting in many ways. I recommend it to all readers This book is interesting because it uses a history reference with the Thurber. The Thurber was apparently used not only as a typewriter but was one of the first Braille machines. That is how Helen found out who owned the Thurber, Lucy, the woman who had it, had a blind husband. While they are researching for the Thurber they relate many things to the civil war. Also, it gives you the clues as you are going along as if you were going to solve the mystery yourself. The song that the man in the woods was humming was also the song that the Hummel statue, a statue Helen had to draw for the Whaler, played. Finally this book is interesting how it uses songs to relate to things, even if they are stalking. The person stalking Helen sent her a message with lines from "Santa Clause is Coming to Town" warning her that "he sees her while she's sleeping" and "that she better watch out". I think that all readers would enjoy this book and that it is a very well written mystery with very interesting features. T. Shene

Great plot not just for the YA crowd

I read this book in my teens and it became one of my favorites. The plot is awesome full of suspense and a bit of history thrown in. I am 28 now and I still recommend it to everyone looking for a great read. I even dare to say that it is lite 'da vinci code'. You want to read this one, dont miss it.

summing up a man in the woods

As a senior I have developed a hunger for many types of books. I enjoy reading both inside school in my independent reading class or in my free time at home. While searching for a new book I ran into The Man In The Woods by Rosemary Wells. It is a well written story about a girl named Helen, who moves to a new town. If you have ever moved before, you can relate to this character and her need to fit in with the kids at her new school. Her first day doesn't go well until she meets Mr.Bro, her history teacher. That's how she joins the school paper and starts her quest for the perfect story and the quest to belong. Although she is very excited to write the perfect story for the school paper she runs into a problem. The one problem she runs into while writing her story will turn the town's history upside down. While testing her limits and her ability to believe in herself. Not only that, but a secret that has been kept for over one hundred years will finally be revealed. This book is a definite page turner from start to finish. I highly recommend this book to teenagers who love mystery and suspense. It keeps you guessing until the very end. It's a book you just can't put down!

The Man in The Woods is a very exciting, suspensful book

"He sees you when you're sleeping, he knows when you're awake...oh you better watch out..." This is all Helen Curragh thought about when a man in the woods began to stalk her. Her mother had died when Helen was young, and all she had left of her mother was a locket with her picture in it. She lost it in the woods, but mysteriously, it got delivered to her home. Helen opened the locket and found her mother's picture defaced. Someone... The Man in The Woods, began to send her threats through the mail, and now, Helen was scared. Then, a car "accident", or was it? On a quiet road in New Bedford. Usually it was a vacant road with deer crossing through it. A big rock had been thrown from nowhere, just missing Helen, and hitting a lost car's window. A pregnant mother and her 2 children were badly injured. Helen, angered with rage, ran across the trees and bushes, looking for the person who threw the rock ... The Man in the Woods. This book will make your blood boil with excitement. For everyone who loves thrillers, this is a perfect book for you.

The Man in the Woods

The book The Man In The Woods by Rosemary Wells is about a girl who witnesses a car wreck, and the person the police claims who did it turns out to be the wrong person and now her and her friend are out to find the person. The main character in this story is a girl named Helen who has just moved to a new town and witnesses a car wreck and saw the person that did it. The other main character is a boy named Pinky Levi who helps Helen try to find the person who caused the accident. The ending was really interesting because the guy who caused the wreck wrote letters to Helen trying to scare her and they found out that he wrote the letters on a typewriter that was called a "Thurber" and there was only one in the town and they found out who had the typewriter and they caught the person.