The haunted house project

Name: The haunted house project
Author: Tricia Clasen
ISBN: 9781510707122

Age Rating, Reading Level & Content Guide

by Tricia Clasen

Reading Level 3-4 ME · Moderate · Emotional Ages 9-12 Heads Up

The text is written at a 3rd grade reading level, the subject matter is intended for middle graders (ages 9–12), and the content has moderate intensity with some emotionally heavy themes. Its HootRating code, ME, means moderate content, mostly emotional.

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About This Book

The creak of floorboards and a faint scent of perfume fill the quiet house. Andie tiptoes through rooms, hoping her secret signals will bring her family together again. But can a little ghostly magic heal a broken home?

Themes

FamilyLoss & GriefHopeSelf-RelianceJuvenile Fiction

Quick Assessment

Twelve-year-old Andie, whose mother has died, is left to manage a household where her father gambles away insurance money and her sister gives up her plans to work extra shifts, so food and money grow scarce. Andie hides the family's struggles by staging ghostly events in their home, a plot that explores grief, financial hardship, and a child carrying adult responsibilities. Parents may want to discuss the emotional weight of the loss, the gambling and neglect, and the way the story ends with Andie finding her own strength.

Why we rated The haunted house project ME (Moderate)

The haunted house project is written at a Level 3-4 reading level across 221 pages. Reading-wise, most kids in grade 5 and up can manage The haunted house project on their own; younger readers can enjoy it with a parent or teacher reading along.

We rate The haunted house project as ME (Moderate, mostly emotional) because the content sits in the "Moderate" range — moderate conflict that may involve loss, scary scenes, or interpersonal stakes. The strongest signals come from emotional weight, thematic difficulty — these are the dimensions parents should evaluate against their reader's tolerance.

No specific content flags were raised by community reviewers, which is consistent with the moderate intensity score.

Thematically, The haunted house project explores family, loss & grief, hope, self-reliance, and juvenile fiction — these threads give the book room to mean different things to different readers.

Good fit for

✓ Children in the Ages 9-12 range — the maturity and attention span match the story's pacing.
✓ Kids drawn to stories about family, loss & grief, hope.

Maybe not for

! Readers who get easily upset by emotional or moderately dark scenes — the conflict here is real, not just background flavor.

For Parents

Content Intensity

ME · Moderate · Emotional

Emotional

Intense ←

Physical

Gentle

Social

Mild

Thematic

Moderate

Reading the HootRating code: the first letter is the content intensity (C = Gentle · L = Mild · M = Moderate · I = Intense · V = Very Intense); the second, when there is one, is the kind of content that drives it (E = Emotional · P = Physical · S = Social · T = Thematic). Reading level and age range are rated separately. How we rate

Real stakes and emotional weight. May include sustained danger, loss, or bullying.

Data confidence: high

Was our "Moderate" content intensity rating accurate for this book?