The Mystery of the Haunted Trail by Janet Lorimer, 1989.
Brian Kelly wasn’t too excited at first when his teacher assigned his class to write letters to students at a school in Hawaii. He doesn’t really like to write, and the whole thing sounded boring, but it turned out to be pretty fun when his new pen pal, Alani, wrote back. Brian discovered that he and Alani had a lot in common, and he even got to meet Alani when his family came to California on a trip. Then, best of all, Alani’s family invited Brian to spend part of the summer with them in Hawaii!
Brian loves Hawaii from the moment he arrives. Alani’s family lives in a rural area near Kalawa. All of the families in the area raise their own vegetables and keep animals. They depend on what they earn from selling food although some of them, like Alani’s mother, who is a nurse, have other jobs as well. Alani’s father, like Alani’s grandfather, is primarily a farmer. Alani’s grandfather lives with him on land that the family has owned for generations.
Alani and his family enjoy showing Brian around their island and talking about the history of the place. Brian particularly likes the stories that Alani’s grandfather, who they call Kupuna, tells them, although some of them are frightening. At the luau that the family and their friends have to welcome Brian to Hawaii, Brian overhears people talking about the Night Marchers. They say that the Night Marchers have been seen recently and that bad things have been happening in the area, like crops dying and the nearby stream starting to dry up. Some people seem to think that it’s a sign of bad luck and that maybe they should move away from the area.
According to Kupuna, the Night Marchers are a ghostly parade of the ancestors of the people who have lived there for generations. Sometimes, it’s just ordinary people and sometimes it’s the souls of warriors. Sometimes, Hawaiian gods may even walk among them. But, when they march, any living person must either flee from them or, if that is impossible, they must lie down and hide their eyes. At the head of the Marchers is a ghostly spearman who will strike down any living person who sees them, unless that person is related to one of the Marchers themselves. They spare members of their own families. People who are struck by the spear of the Marchers appear to have died of a heart attack.
The place where the Marchers supposedly walk is an old trail that leads to a sacred place where Alani’s ancestors are buried. Brian is curious to see the place, but Alani warns him away, saying that they are not allowed to go there because it’s too dangerous. However, Brian soon sees the Marchers himself one night in Alani’s family’s fields, and the next day, their crops are dead. When Brian notices strange footprints in the fields as well, he realizes that some living people may be responsible for the awful things that have been happening in the area, but the only way he can prove it would be to explore the haunted trail himself and track the “ghosts” to their lair.
Janet Lorimer’s books are interesting because they are often a combination of mystery and ghost story. There are logical explanations and living villains who are responsible for the things that are happening to Alani’s family and their neighbors, but there is also a definite supernatural element to the story as well. Telling you where one ends and the other begins may be saying too much. It may be more fun to let you find out yourself.
The book is currently available online through Internet Archive.
The Case of the Wandering Werewolf by Drew Stevenson, 1987.
The monster hunt becomes more complicated when Bucky Bovine, a bully at their school, seems determined to stop them from going to Lost Woods to look for the monster. Does Bucky know something about the beast, or could he even be the monster himself?
The Case of the Visiting Vampire by Drew Stevenson, 1988.
The Case of the Horrible Swamp Monster by Drew Stevenson, 1984.
The course of their investigation takes a strange turn when friendly Mr. Walton, who works as a janitor at the same bank where Huntley and Verna’s mothers work, is arrested for stealing money. The kids refuse to believe that he’s guilty and soon learn that there is a connection between the thefts and the mysterious monster and possibly the strange fisherman who has also been lurking around the swamp.
Meg’s Uncle Hal takes her and her best friend, Kerry, with him on vacation to Merrybones, Maine. He has a cabin there, and it’s a good place to go fishing or exploring in the woods. However, Uncle Hal isn’t just there to relax this time. His friend, Emily Hawthorne, has asked for his help because she’s received some mysterious, disturbing messages.
She has returned to Merrybones to teach in the local school, but people in this town look at her as an outsider because she has spent so many years away. Now, she has received threatening messages written in rhyme and signed with a star with the number 13 inside. Her pet black cat, Melissa, has also mysteriously disappeared, and Emily is worried about her.
Meg and the Disappearing Diamonds by Holly Beth Walker, 1967.
Mrs. Partlow invites a few friends to her house for tea to show them her jewelry and thoughtfully invites Meg and Kerry to join the women. Meg and Kerry are excited at the chance to attend a grown-up tea party and to see Mrs. Partlow’s fabulous jewelry. However, the party is crashed by Mrs. Glynn, a new woman in town. Mrs. Glynn has three trained dogs that she dotes on. She dresses them up in fancy costumes, and she can’t resist the opportunity to show them off when she wanders into the gathering in Mrs. Partlow’s garden. The dogs cause a disruption, and after it’s over, everyone realizes that Mrs. Partlow’s diamond jewelry is missing!
Ms. Lensky, the cafeteria lady at Gwen and Jill’s school, is just plain mean. All of the food that the cafeteria serves is yucky, even though the cafeteria is new. There will be a party to celebrate the opening of the new cafeteria, and even the kids’ parents and the mayor are invited. Gwen and Jill are happy because their class will get to help decorate the cake. However, Ms. Lensky, the M.C.L. (Mean Cafeteria Lady), doesn’t like the girls, and she blames them for a number of accidents that happen in the cafeteria.
Gwen and Jill join a couple of other friends in forming a rock band. They want to enter a rock contest run by a local tv station. In order to enter, they have to have an original rock song, so they write one about Jill’s dog, Fletcher. They discover that Fletcher loves pizza so much that he gives a spectacular howl when they offer him some. They make Fletcher and his wonderful howl part of their act.
Fletcher is all right, but now, he suddenly hates pizza! It seems that Fletcher’s abductor fed him nothing but pizza until he started to hate it. Did someone do that on purpose to ruin their act for the contest? How would this person have even known about their act? Also, what can they do about the contest now that Fletcher is more likely to run from the sight of pizza than howl for it?
Something Queer at the Birthday Party by Elizabeth Levy, illustrated by Mordicai Gerstein, 1989.
Gwen takes her party and all the guests on a hunt across town for her missing presents, but the big clues turn out to be right back where they started, and Fletcher leads them right to what they’re looking for.
Jestress's Forgotten Books and Stories 