44 pages • 1 hour read
Mary Downing HahnTime for Andrew: A Ghost Story
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1994A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Background
Authorial Context: Mary Downing Hahn Explores the Supernatural
Mary Downing Hahn has carved a reputation as a prolific and well-loved author of ghost stories for middle grade readers. A former school librarian, Hahn went on to publish more than two dozen books and receive over 50 state awards, with her most prominent subject being the supernatural. In interviews, she speculates that children are either braver now than they used to be or “so afraid of the real world that they escape into ghost stories” (Leeper, Angela. “Talking With Mary Downing Hahn.” American Library Association, 2008). Hahn’s exploration of the supernatural in middle grade novels allows children to experience young protagonists navigating thrilling, frightening situations often reserved for adult literature.
In the Leeper interview, Hahn discusses how ghosts occupy a different space in the intellectual lives of children compared to adults. Many children describe encountering ghosts while most adults refrain from openly professing that belief. Yet when the children are not around, some of these adults admit to having eerie or seemingly supernatural experiences. Hahn often casts adults as the skeptics in the story, forcing the young main characters to investigate the supernatural occurrences on their own. Hahn does significant research into her novels, studying both the historical periods that figure into the stories and traveling to haunted environments to seek inspiration. She has travelled to former poor houses and asylums to research new settings and snuck into an abandoned theme park to seek inspiration for a new mystery. She references a time when she believed she saw a ghost while staying at an old Victorian bed-and-breakfast.
Genre Context: The Modern Middle Grade Gothic Novel
Time for Andrew uses elements of the gothic novel with certain modern twists. Gothic novels became a popular genre in the late 1700s, featuring mysterious and suspenseful stories taking place in gothic buildings and ruins, like castles and monasteries, though the genre has expanded via many revivals throughout literary history (“Gothic Novel.” Britannica, 20 May 2024). Common themes in gothic novels include settings in abandoned manors and houses, mysterious and suspenseful environments, omens and visions, supernatural events, isolation from loved ones, sentiment and emotionality, and female characters in distress (“Common Themes in Gothic Literature.” University of Maryland).
Time for Andrew plays with many of these themes, sometimes overtly and sometimes in a subversive manner. In keeping with the gothic novel format, the story takes place in a derelict ancestral house with many gothic touches like creaky floors, dusty corridors, and a spooky attic. Drew immediately begins to see visions of figures and flashes of white before finally coming face to face with Andrew in an inexplicable supernatural event. The ghosts and mysterious time travel create mystery and suspense.
Hahn plays with the idea of family isolation in a few ways in the novel. At first, Drew is separated from his parents for the summer and feels alone in the house. His isolation only increases when Andrew compels him to trade time periods and he can no longer even see Aunt Blythe. However, Drew begins to find connection and comfort in the family members he meets in the past, flipping his isolation on its head. Hahn also subverts the idea of female distress by introducing the form of weeping female ghosts only to reveal the strength and power of those female characters when the reader meets them in the past.
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