Posted on by TracyC

The Secret Summer

SecretSummerThe Secret Summer by Ruth Chew, 1970.

This was one of my favorite books when I was a kid. Its original title was Baked Beans for Breakfast, but I think the paperback copies are mostly under this title.

Joe and Kathleen, who are brother and sister, are disappointed because their parents are taking a trip to Europe without them instead of taking the whole family to the lake like they usually do in the summer. Worse still, their babysitter favors their younger siblings and is very hard on them.  The babysitter is even cruel and neglectful by making the older siblings sit outside in the heat all day while she played with the younger siblings inside, not even allowing Joe and Kathleen to come inside for water.  Finally, Joe comes up with a plan for himself and Kathleen to escape their babysitter by going to the lake by themselves.

SecretSummerPic
They leave a note for the babysitter saying that they are going to visit their grandmother and take a bus to the lake. Thus begins the adventure! The children camp out in the woods, trying to avoid people who know them and might tell their parents or babysitter where they are.  They do make some new friends, including a nice older lady who hires them to help her with chores in her big, old house. However, as well as Joe and Kathleen take care of themselves, they can’t plan for everything.  What will happen to the children when an emergency rescue means that their secret will be discovered?

Ruth Chew may be better known for her fantasy stories, but this was the first book of hers that I encountered.  It would especially appeal to fans of The Boxcar Children, another story about resourceful children who are trying to survive without help from adults.

The book is currently available through Internet Archive.

Posted on by TracyC

The Ghost that Came Alive

GhostCameAlive The Ghost that Came Alive by Vic Crume, 1975.

Jenny Blair is a gloomy gus who often gets premonitions of impending doom, much to the annoyance of her siblings.  They poke fun at her pessimism, but some of those premonitions start to come true when her youngest brother falls ill on a family vacation to the beach and needs to be taken to the hospital.

Jenny and her twin brother, Chris, accompany their older teenage brother and sister as they start the long drive home while their parents tend to their younger brother at the hospital. On the way home, the kids accidentally become stranded during a storm and seek out help from a large old house that they had mistaken for a hotel. With a fallen tree blocking the road, the inhabitants of the house reluctantly agree to take them in until they can continue their trip home, but all of the kids can tell that there is something sinister about their hosts.  Miss Cliff makes it obvious that she resents the children’s presence, and Dr. Cliff is a peculiar kind of scientist working on . . .  something . . . in the basement.

GhostCameAlivePicThey tell the kids that the house is supposed to be haunted and people can often hear the ghost of Andrea Cliff calling out in the night.  The kids soon hear this spooky voice themselves, calling for help.  Trapped in the house with the ghost and unfriendly people, the Blairs decide that they have to figure out what’s really going on, but the danger is worse than they know, and Jenny’s premonition of doom is getting stronger all the time . .

The book is available to borrow and read for free online through Internet Archive, but the version there does not have pictures.

My Reaction:

This creepy little book has been a favorite of mine for years!

Young people trapped in a spooky old house with a ghost story during a storm is a common trope of spooky stories, but this one is a particular favorite because of the way it’s done. I like the implication that Dr. Cliff might be some kind of mad scientist. Mad scientists appear in other books in children’s literature, but it’s an element that provides a nice twist on the ghost story and allows readers to wonder whether Dr. Cliff or the ghost might be the bigger threat.

The ghost story and the mysterious voice the kids hear is also well done, and they confront the problem very practically. For those who like the Scooby-Doo style of mystery, where the “ghosts” turn out to be people, and there’s an explanation for everything . . . you’ll love this story.  Not all copies of the book have pictures, but my book contains a few black and white illustrations.  The one I used in my review is the scene where the kids hear the ghost’s voice for the first time.

There is one final twist at the end of the story that readers might see coming if they pay close attention to the story. There’s even a clue to this twist that is shown in pictures if you have a copy with pictures, but I’m not going to spoil it here.

Posted on by TracyC

The Mystery in Dracula’s Castle

MysteryDraculasCastleThe Mystery in Dracula’s Castle by Vic Crume, 1973.

This is a novelization of a live action Disney movie of the same name and contains photographs of scenes from the movie. The title of the book and the movie is a little misleading because, although the main characters are unaware of what is going on for most of the story, the audience finds out pretty quickly who the bad guys are and what they’re doing. In a way, it’s kind of like a Columbo story where the suspense is in watching the hero figure it all out. Also, there is no real castle or Dracula. Sorry. 😦 In spite of these short-comings, it’s still a fun story, and although the movie has not been released on dvd, it is possible to see it on YouTube (as of this writing).

Alfie and Leonard are spending yet another summer at their family’s beach house in a small town while their mother works on the new book she’s writing. They think this summer is going to be dull, but with jewel thieves in town, it soon becomes apparent that it’s anything but!

MysteryDraculasCastlePicAlfie is an aspiring film maker. Specifically, he wants to make horror movies, and he talks his younger brother into playing the part of Dracula in his latest Super 8 film. Leonard is only a reluctant vampire because he doesn’t like horror movies. He really wants to be a detective, like Sherlock Holmes. Back home, he and his brother saw police investigating the scene of a robbery at a jewelry store, and he’s decided that he wants to investigate crimes like that. Soon after they arrive at the beach house, Leonard adopts a stray dog and names him Watson so that he can be his sidekick.

Alfie laughs at his brother’s detective fantasies, but Leonard gets his chance to prove himself when they become involved with the thieves who robbed the jewelry store. The location that Alfie has picked for his movie is an old lighthouse, which he thinks looks like Dracula’s castle, and that is where the thieves are staying.  With the sheriff’s daughter acting as their baby-sitter and the heroine of their film and the necklace ending up in Leonard’s hands by accident, the thieves struggle to get it back before Leonard realizes what it is and where it came from.

This book is currently available through Internet Archive.  When the movie first aired on tv, it was shown in two parts.  Internet Archive also has the second part of the movie, but not the first (at least, not right now).  Sometimes, you can find part or all of the movie on YouTube.