Reading Response 1

I will be the first to admit that I am hasty to judge a book and then throw it aside after reading only a few chapters, but with Magdalena’s Song, I had no such desire. The first page, even the first sentence, caught my attention and had me immediately asking questions. The main character, Daniel, draws the reader into the story. Pat Mattaini Mestern does a very good job of releasing little pieces of information about him at a time. In the first chapter of the book, I thought he was merely on vacation and his love for history brought him to the town of Millbrook to learn about the Anderson family. The Anderson estate (known as Knightswood) now belongs to an elderly woman named Theresa who was Magdalena Andersons companion. Living in the house with Theresa is a woman named Sharona and her daugther Pense who Daniel seems to be interested in learning more about. I'm still not sure of the relation between the two women. They accepted Daniel as a boarder in the house when he wrote a letter to Theresa explaining how he was looking for a connection to the Anderson family. Within a few pages, the reader starts to get the feeling that Daniel has more of a connection to the Anderson’s then he’s letting on. He seems to know his way around the house without much assistance and various paintings and pieces of furniture which he seems to know a lot about, stand out to him. Even with the author narrating his thoughts, Daniel doesn’t give very much information on his true intentions in Millbrook. One night, while sitting around the dinner table, Pense started humming a tune that caught Daniel’s attention and the next day he started asking her all these questions. When Daniel talks with Pense, he thinks "My God, they’re her eyes." referring to Magdalena’s eyes. Clearly he knew Magdalena and has come back to her house for some reason. The odd thing is that Magdalena had been dead for a while it sounds like, and Pense has no relation to Magdalena, she has never even met her. If he knew Magdalena, he must be quite old. Then Pense calls Daniel a Ghost, which his thoughts later confirm. What confuses me, is how is he a ghost if everyone in Millbrook can see and touch, and talk to him? And why is he in Millbrook? I could barely put the book down to write this response, I’m aching to know what happens next.