The Midnight Riddle of Hollow Creek Mansion
Characters:
- NARRATOR
- HOLDEN: An eleven-year-old boy, fearless and observant.
- MILO: Holden’s nervous best friend, dressed in an unraveling mummy costume.
- SHANNON: A sharp-witted local history teacher.
- MRS. PICKETT: A mysterious elderly neighbor.
- BARNABY: A sleek, talking black cat with questionable loyalties.
NARRATOR: On Halloween night, the iron gates of the abandoned Hollow Creek Mansion stood ajar for the first time in decades. While other kids hunted for full-sized candy bars on Maple Street, eleven-year-old Holden stared up at an amber light flickering behind the mansion's stained-glass transom.
MILO: (tripping over a loose strip of gauze) Holden, wait! My bandage is caught on a thorny branch, and my instincts are telling me to run. Can we please go back to the houses that hand out peanut butter cups?
HOLDEN: (pushing the heavy oak door open) No way, Milo. People have said this place has been empty since the Roaring Twenties. If someone is turning on the lights tonight, I want to know why.
NARRATOR: The boys stepped into a grand foyer that smelled of cedarwood and old paper. Suddenly, the floorboards creaked, and a tall woman with long dark hair stepped out from behind a velvet curtain, shining a flashlight beam directly at their shoes.
- ajar:
- Slightly open.
- transom:
- A small window positioned right above a door.
- foyer:
- A large entrance hall inside the front door of a house or building.
- threshold:
- A doorway or entrance that you cross to go inside a building.
- temporal:
- Relating to time.
- spry:
- Active, energetic, and quick on your feet, especially in old age.
- phonograph:
- An early record player that uses a needle and a large horn to play music from spinning discs.
- translucent:
- Partly see-through, allowing some light to pass through.
One passage, many ways to practice
Reading-skill questions, word work and writing prompts — all built from this text.
Main Idea
Identify the central idea and explain how important details develop it.
Context Clues
Use clues in the passage to work out what words mean. A separate printable Vocabulary worksheet is also available.
Summarize
Select, organize, and restate the most important information without adding opinion.
Purpose
Analyze what the author aims to do and how choices serve audience and purpose.
Structure
Analyze how sections and organizational choices build the text's ideas or effects.
Language & Tone
Interpret nonliteral language and analyze how word choice shapes tone and meaning.
Vocabulary
Practice words from the passage with a printable worksheet.
Writing Prompts
Use the passage as a springboard for short written responses, from personal reflection to evidence-based arguments.
Fix the Sentence
Practice editing sentences drawn from this passage with a printable worksheet.
Ready to use this passage in class?
Start free with the Mixed worksheet and 3 PDF downloads each week. Focused skill sets depend on plan.
Preview questions from this passageShowHide
- 1Why do Holden and Milo initially enter Hollow Creek Mansion, and how do their reactions to the house contrast?
- 2How do the stage directions and dialogue for Milo contribute to the overall tone of the play during the suspenseful moments?
You Might Also Like
About this reader's theater passage for 7th Grade
“The Midnight Riddle of Hollow Creek Mansion” is a reader's theater reading passage about Halloween Mystery, written for 7th Grade. It takes about 10 minutes to read (1,536 words) and comes with an interactive quiz and a printable worksheet with comprehension questions and an answer key.