None of the children at the Ash House has seen anyone new join their number, which makes the arrival of 11-year-old Sol a particularly exciting event. For Sol--short for Solitude, the name bestowed upon him there--the place is shrouded in mystery, but he has been promised that someone there will be able to cure him of the excruciating pains that frequently shoot through his back. Sol is received by Dom (Freedom), a kind boy who shows Sol the ropes, describes the headmaster (currently away) with adoration, and explains that all the children at the Ash House are named for a Niceness--the positive virtues that guide their conduct. Debut author Walker effectively builds an atmospheric, frightening story, tinged with just enough of the supernatural to make Sol, and so the reader, question his sanity. Aptly promoted as an intersection of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children and Lord of the Flies, due to its curiosities and the absence of adults, this dread-filled novel is a strong addition to tween horror collections and where Frances Hardinge is popular.

Debut author Walker spins a tense tale of abuse and neglect that centers on a brown-skinned foster child's arrival at an imposing, smoke-drenched mansion made of ash. After being sent from a hospital to the Ash House, a boy dubbed Solitude, who experiences back pain and seizures, struggles to fit in with the institution's other children. The kids live on their own in service of rigid, moralistic "Nicenesses"--taking on virtuous names such as Freedom, educating themselves using prerecorded lectures, maintaining the grounds, and tethering their lives to an unbreakable "web of habits and rules"--while longing for their absent Headmaster and dreading the cold and pitiless Doctor's reappearance. Sol bristles at the others' inflexibility, resulting in acrimony and accusations of "nastiness," but when the Doctor returns and Sol is the subject of a medical procedure gone awry, a brutal act with which the group has some experience, he must persuade his reluctant new acquaintances to escape, braving birdlike drones and lantern-eyed creatures en route to the outside world. Simultaneously bleak, moving, and unsettling, Walker's immersive story slowly reveals its secrets, using tension as a lever to tip the reader deep into the Ash House's mysteries. Ages 8--12. (Feb.)

Gr 4--6--The Ash House is a place with a strict moral code that expects Nicenesses and shuns Nastiness, and the child residents seem to have deeply internalized these lessons and have no knowledge of the outside world. An orphaned boy, taken from a hospital, is dropped at the gates of Ash House, where he is renamed Solitude (Sol). The Headmaster has been gone for three years, and the strain is showing on the children who are surviving on their own in decrepit conditions while they live in fear of visits from the Doctor. Twists and turns abound as Sol tries to understand what is happening, find relief from his debilitating mysterious physical pain, and figure out how to help his new community. Sol, with his fresh perspective and outsider knowledge, shakes things up. The children must figure things out on their own as all the adults in the book are either threats or unhelpful. A dreamlike, hazy, ominous atmosphere is created with the story and the book design. The house and grounds are ethereal and seem alive with potential healing qualities, shifting locations, and dangers. The narrative effectively alternates point of view between Sol, who is described as having brown skin, and the pale-skinned brunette child who befriends him, Dom (Freedom). VERDICT This creepy story will appeal to readers who are drawn to the unexplained and all things foreboding in its exploration of memory, reality, truth, found family, and survival.--Erin Wyatt, Highland M.S., Libertyville, IL

A boy arrives at a new school where he hopes to be healed of a mysterious condition that causes him insufferable pain. The Ash House isn't an ordinary school: It is literally made of ash, and the dorm is an old but verdant greenhouse. The Headmaster has been gone for three years, leaving no adults around, yet the children hold on to the hope that he will return. They have no recollection of anything before they arrived at the Ash House, and each has been named after Nicenesses, positive attributes that they are expected to possess such as Concord, Happiness, Temperance, and Liberty. The new boy, who can't remember his outside name, becomes Solitude. Initially, the students are wary of Sol, but with help from his new friend, Freedom--Dom for short--the others warm to him. Then the Doctor arrives. The Doctor claims he can cure Sol, but the children quickly discover he is pure Nastiness. As the children struggle to free themselves from the Doctor's tightening grip, they discover that Courage is the only Niceness that matters. Chapter headings helpfully indicate when the third-person narration switches between Sol's and Dom's perspectives. Action scenes unfold slowly at times, but when they're intense, they're nail-bitingly so, encouraging readers to push through to the satisfyingly ambiguous conclusion. Assume Whiteness for all. An unexpected--and pleasing--combination of propitious and disquieting. (Mystery. 11-14) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.