Posted on by TracyC

The Case of the Visiting Vampire

VisitingVampireThe Case of the Visiting Vampire by Drew Stevenson, 1988.

This is the second book in the series about J. Huntley English, Monster Hunter, an extremely intelligent boy who also believes in real-life monsters and is determined to become a monster hunter so that he can find some. Along with his best friend, Raymond (who narrates the books), and Verna, a bossy girl who goes to school with Raymond, he investigates possible monsters around their small Pennsylvania town. The stories are humorous mysteries, and in a kind of Scooby-Doo fashion, there are other explanations besides monsters for the mysterious things that happen.

In this story, the Big Lake Theater in Barkley, PA, is putting on a play called The Count of Castle Dracula, and a visiting actor from Romania working at a local college is playing the part of the vampire. When Verna gets a part in the play, she becomes convinced that the actor, Bela Mezgar, is a real vampire. He behaves strangely and is never seen out during the daytime. Then, Verna overhears him talking on the phone to someone about his coffin and saying that “one heart must die so the other may live.” She tells Raymond and Huntley what she heard, and the monster hunter eagerly begins his investigation. However, a mysterious stranger also seems to be showing an unusual interest in the actor.

This book was written before the end of the Cold War, when Romania was still a communist country. Although things have changed since then, I don’t think that modern kids would have too much trouble understanding the situation. It’s a fun mystery for elementary school kids.

The book is currently available online through Internet Archive.

Posted on by TracyC

The Case of the Horrible Swamp Monster

horribleswampmonsterThe Case of the Horrible Swamp Monster by Drew Stevenson, 1984.

This is the first book in the Monster Hunter series.

Raymond Almond knows that his class project isn’t going to go well when he finds out that bossy Verna Wilkes is in his group. Verna convinces the group that their project should be a movie because her father recently gave her a movie camera. What makes it bad is that she insists that it should be a monster movie and that Raymond should play the part of the monster.

Raymond is embarrassed about having to stumble around the spooky Lost Swamp in the ridiculous monster costume, but he puts aside his embarrassment when what looks like a real swamp monster appears in the background of the footage.  Even bossy Verna is scared at the idea of a monster living in the swamp where they were filming.

Fortunately, Raymond’s best friend is J. Huntley English, an intelligent boy and amateur cryptozoologist (or Monster Hunter, as he likes to put it). When Raymond and Verna tell Huntley what they’ve seen, he’s quick to join in the investigation, eager to discover proof of a real monster.

horribleswampmonsterpicThe 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.

The book is available online through Internet Archive.

Posted on by TracyC

Something Queer in Rock ‘n’ Roll

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Something Queer in Rock ‘n’ Roll by Elizabeth Levy, illustrated by Mordicai Gerstein, 1987.

SQRockPic1Gwen 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.

When they audition for the station, the put on dog ear costumes to match Fletcher’s ears and call themselves Fletcher and the Gang.  The people at the station love their act, especially Fletcher’s howl, and they are accepted onto the program.

However, shortly afterward, Fletcher disappears.  They search everywhere for him and put up posters, but no luck.  Jill is convinced that Fletcher must have been abducted because he would never run away.  It turns out to be true, and they discover it for sure when they get a phone call telling them where to find Fletcher.

SQRockPic2Fletcher 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?

The other rock bands in the contest are all hilarious with themes that include spiders, potatoes, mummies, and clowns.

The book also includes the music and lyrics for the kids’ rock song about Fletcher: “Hungry All the Time.”

It is part of the Something Queer Mysteries.

Posted on by TracyC

Something Queer at the Birthday Party

SQBirthdaySomething Queer at the Birthday Party by Elizabeth Levy, illustrated by Mordicai Gerstein, 1989.

Jill and some other friends are throwing a surprise birthday party for Gwen. They send out invitations secretly and create a mystery game for Gwen with a series of clues to lead her to the party.  As part of the game, Jill pretends that someone broke into her house and stole a painting of her and her dog, Fletcher.  The clues to the thief lead Gwen into the room where all of their friends are hiding, waiting to surprise her.

Gwen loves their little mystery and the surprise, and the party seems a success. But when it’s time to bring out the cake and open presents, Jill discovers that they are missing from the closet where they were hidden. At first, Gwen thinks that it’s just another mystery game, but Jill tells her that the presents really are missing. Who took the presents, and where are they now?

SQBirthdayPic1Gwen 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.

The solution to this mystery touches on a problem that children with a birthday near Christmas understand: When your birthday is near a major holiday, people don’t pay as much attention to it or give as many presents.  My grandmother said it was the same with her when she was young, and she was also the eldest child in a large family, so her birthday was never quite what it should have been.  In the story, one of the girls’ friends had this problem, and it was the motive behind this temporary theft.  The culprit didn’t mean to keep the presents forever, they just wanted to pretend that they were all theirs for a little while.  Gwen forgives the culprit and shares the rest of her birthday with this person.

The book is part of the Something Queer Mysteries.

Posted on by TracyC

The Witch King

WitchKingThe Witch King by Maeve Henry, 1987.

Robert is the son of a fisherman in a small village by the sea. All his life, he’s grown up hearing stories of a mysterious City to the south that was fashioned ages ago from a silver tree. Wondrous things are said to happen there. People from the City used to visit the Witch Women in Robert’s village for advice, but no one has come there from the City in a long time, and people now doubt whether the City really exists. People have even stopped believing in the Witch Women. However, Robert believes in the old stories, and he wants desperately to see the City for himself.

The stories say that someday the Witch King will come to the City and plant a seed so that a new tree will grow. Robert wants to see this story come true, and Granny Fishbone, a strange old woman who tells Robert the old stories, says that the time of the Witch King is close. She gives him a pendant in the shape of a fish and tells him that it came from the City and that it is time for Robert to take it back there.

With some misgivings, Robert’s family lets him set off on his seemingly crazy quest of finding the City. To Robert’s surprise, he is met on the road by the Royal Wizard of the City. As Granny Fishbone said, the time of the Witch King is near, and there is trouble in the City. The Spell that controls the City is failing, and the King has been seeking a remedy for the problem.

The City has become corrupt because a usurper murdered the rightful king years ago and took over the City. He had his wizards cast a spell on the City that let him control everything in it, and he manipulated historical accounts to make it seem as though he was the founder of the City himself. Robert knows differently because Granny Fishbone is really one of the Witch Women, and she told him the true story about the miraculous tree and the founding of the City. The king’s grandson, David, is also corrupt and wants to learn to control the spell over the City for his own power. He believes that he is the prophesied Witch King, and he tries to convince Robert of it so that he will help him.

When Robert learns that David’s plans for controlling the spell may mean sacrificing his own sister, Princess Sophie, who Robert loves, Robert does his best to thwart his plans by telling the king and the Royal Wizard.  Although David at first seems to have the upper hand, he is not the true Witch King. Granny Fishbone was correct that the time of the true Witch King has come, and Robert has a much bigger role to play in the story than he thinks.  As the ancient prophesy says, the City will have to be destroyed in order to be saved.

Posted on by TracyC

Prayers at Eastertime

PrayersEastertime

Prayers at Eastertime by Pamela Kennedy and Stephanie McFetridge Britt, 1989.

This was a present given to me one Easter many years ago, and I always liked it, especially because of the nice pictures.  Some of the prayers and accompanying Bible quotes are specifically for Easter and springtime, but others are just more general.

There are multiple copies of this book available online through Internet Archive.

Happy Easter!

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Posted on by TracyC · 1 Comment

Mandie and the Forbidden Attic

MandieForbiddenAttic#4 Mandie and the Forbidden Attic by Lois Gladys Leppard, 1985.

Mandie is unhappy because her mother and Uncle John are sending her to a boarding school in Asheville. It is the same school her mother attended years ago, and her grandmother lives in the same town. Mandie is upset about leaving all of her friends and family behind, but Uncle Ned says that he will still visit her.

By the time that Mandie arrives at her new school, everyone else already knows each other, and none of them seem interested in making friends with her. One girl in particular, April Snow, takes a dislike to Mandie, which is difficult because they have been assigned to the same room.

Things change when Celia Hamilton comes to the school. She and Mandie become best friends, and Mandie is allowed to share a room with her. Then, strange things start happening. Mandie and Celia keep hearing strange noises during the night from the attic floor above them, and some of Mandie’s clothes disappear. At first, they suspect that April Snow may be playing a mean trick on them, but it turns out that she is not actually at fault. There is someone at the school who doesn’t belong, but finding this person may get Mandie and Celia into trouble.

This adventure requires Mandie to meet with her grandmother again.  Mandie is nervous about seeing her grandmother because her grandmother helped break up her parents’ marriage and sent her away with her father when she was a baby. Surprisingly, Mandie’s grandmother seems to like her and her friend Celia. She admires their spirit and even says that Mandie reminds her a little of herself when she was young.  This meeting helps the granddaughter and grandmother to make peace with each other and the past.

The book is currently available online through Internet Archive.

Posted on by TracyC

Mandie and the Ghost Bandits

MandieGhostBandits#3 Mandie and the Ghost Bandits by Lois Gladys Leppard, 1984.

Mandie and her family are going to proceed with the plan to create a hospital for the Cherokees with the gold that they found in the cave. To do that, they need to take the gold to a bank in Asheville.  They decide to take the gold secretly on a train. Uncle Ned stays in the baggage car to watch the gold as they set out on their journey.

When the kids decide to leave their car to go visit him, strange things begin to happen. They see riders dressed as ghosts out the window. Then, the car with Uncle Ned and the gold inside is disconnected from the rest of the train, crashing into a ravine. The train comes to a stop, and the kids jump off to see if they can help Uncle Ned.

Before they can find him, the train starts up again, leaving them behind, and they are taken prisoner by the mysterious ghost bandits. They are after the gold in the baggage car, but how did they know it was there when Mandie’s family tried so hard to keep it a secret? Mandie and her friends must escape and find the others before it is too late!

In some respects, I would call this more of an adventure story than a mystery, although there is still the question of how the bandits knew where the gold was in order to steal it.

The book is currently available online through Internet Archive.

Posted on by TracyC

Mandie and the Cherokee Legend

MandieCherokeeLegend#2 Mandie and the Cherokee Legend by Lois Gladys Leppard, 1983.

Mandie is going to visit her Cherokee relatives with her mother and Uncle John. Mandie is eager to meet her relatives, and she hopes that they all like her. The Cherokees all knew her father well, and most of them are eager to meet her. All except for her cousin, Tsa’ni, that is.

Tsa’ni knows the stories of how white men have oppressed the Cherokees and forced them to move off of their land years ago, and he resents all white people because of it. The others tell him that he is wrong to hate all white people because of what some of them did in the past and that Mandie and her Uncle John are good people. However, Tsa’ni doesn’t listen to them, and he plays a mean trick on Mandie, Joe, and Uncle Ned’s granddaughter, Sallie. He offers to show them a cave, but then he abandons them inside.

The three kids have to find their own way out, but they discover a fortune in gold nuggets in the process. First, the children have to make it back to Uncle Ned’s house after a frightening night in the woods. Mandie, Joe, and Sallie accidentally stumble onto a still (machinery for making alcohol) that belongs to a white couple while they are wandering around in the woods after leaving the cave. The couple are worried that they will tell people about their illegal still, so they hold the kids prisoner.

Although the kids manage to escape, they must return to the cave to find the treasure again (while dodging Tsa’ni’s tricks to foil their efforts) and keep it safe (from the still operators and anyone else who might want to steal it) until they can decide what to do with it. As far as Uncle Ned and the other Cherokees are concerned, gold is bad luck because it was the discovery of gold which forced the Cherokees out of their old homeland. However, the origin of this gold may help to change their minds.

This book is one of the Mandie Books.  It is currently available online through Internet Archive.

Posted on by TracyC

Mandie and the Secret Tunnel

MandieSecretTunnelMandie and the Secret Tunnel by Lois Gladys Leppard, 1983.

Young Amanda Shaw is almost twelve when her father dies, leaving her with a bully of a sister and a mother who doesn’t really love her. Her only friends are Joe, who is the son of the local doctor, and Uncle Ned, a Cherokee Indian. Amanda and her father are part Cherokee, and Uncle Ned helps to look after her now that her father is gone. Then, Amanda’s mother remarries and sends her to live with another family who want someone to help them look after their young son. However, the family is rather mean to Mandie, exploiting her for cheap labor, and Uncle Ned offers to take Mandie to live with her uncle in the town of Franklin.

Mandie never knew that her father had a brother (Uncle Ned is Mandie’s “uncle” by affection, not blood), but she readily agrees to go to him. Uncle Ned and some other Cherokees help Mandie to sneak away in the middle of the night and make the journey to Franklin. When she arrives at her uncle’s house, she is taken in by the servants, but she is told that her uncle is away in Europe.  Mandie’s uncle turns out to be rich, and Mandie is very happy in his house. She gets new dresses for the first time in her life and makes friends with Polly, the girl next door.

Then, word comes that her uncle has died in Europe. Her uncle’s will is missing, and no one knows exactly what will happen to her uncle’s property or to Mandie until it is found. Strangers come to the house, saying that they are also relatives of Mandie’s uncle, but Mandie wonders if they really are who they claim to be. With the help of Polly and Joe, who comes to visit her, Mandie searches for her uncle’s missing will and accidentally finds a secret tunnel leading out of her uncle’s house.

As Mandie and her friends investigate this mysterious situation, where things and people aren’t what they claim to be, Mandie learns that her own past isn’t what she believed it was.  Her family has kept many secrets from her, and learning these secrets leads her to a better future than she’d ever imagined.

This book is one of the Mandie Books.  It is currently available online through Internet Archive.