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The Clue in the Classroom

The Bobbsey Twins

#9 The Clue in the Classroom by Laura Lee Hope (Stratemeyer Syndicate), 1988.

Before I begin, I’d like to acknowledge Sean Hagins, for supplying me with photos of this book! Usually, I take pictures of books myself, but I just couldn’t find a physical copy of this one. Sean is a big fan of the Bobbsey Twins, particularly the New Bobbsey Twins mysteries, and you can see some of his video reviews as well as videos about his photography work on his YouTube channel, SJHFoto. Thanks, Sean!

Nan and Bert are walking to school when Bert starts trying to follow Nan, practicing shadowing someone, like his favorite comic book detective, Rex Sleuther. Nan thinks that Bert’s attempts at following her are ridiculous, especially since she already knows he’s there. Then, she spots a tall man who is really being shadowed.

The tall man keeps looking over his shoulder and ducking into doorways, like someone is after them. It doesn’t take the kids long to realize who is following him because a man in a trenchcoat, who is walking behind the tall man, keeps pausing and pretending to tie his shoe or look in store windows every time the tall man glances back. It’s not very subtle. When the man in the trenchcoat sees Nan and Bert watching him, he gives them a menacing look and seems like he’s about to confront them, but then, he leaves. They lose sight of the tall man. It’s a bizarre experience, and it ends when the kids’ mother drives up with their younger siblings and gives them a ride.

At school, Nan meets her new science teacher, and she realizes that he is the tall man who was being followed by the man in the trenchcoat. He introduces himself as Mr. Newman (ha, ha), and he seems much more relaxed than he was before. That is, until they all see the message written on the blackboard in the classroom: “Newman, give up your plans. We’re watching you.” Mr. Newman exclaims, “Oh, no! They’ve found out! They know!” (I seriously wish that at least one of my old teachers had started their first day in class by saying that exact thing.) Mr. Newman doesn’t explain what it’s about. He just quickly erases the message on the board and begins talking about the science project he’s assigning.

When Nan tells her siblings about Mr. Newman and what happened in class, Freddie says that Mr. Newman will also be teaching the afternoon science club that he joined. Mr. Newman will be teaching them about robots, and they’re going to have a meeting at his house, where Mr. Newman will show the club his inventions. Bert says that Freddie can help them figure out what Mr. Newman is doing and what and who he’s afraid of after he’s seen the projects that Mr. Newman is working on.

Bert decides to take a walk past Mr. Newman’s house to get a look at it before Freddie goes there. While he’s doing his reconnaissance, Bert sees what looks like people fighting in one of the windows. When he knocks on the door to see if Mr. Newman is all right, Mr. Newman says that he is and insists that there’s no one else there. Then, a strange woman shows up and starts asking Bert questions about Mr. Newman. She says that she’s his former boss at a computer company and wants to know if Bert saw anything in his house. She seems very interested in what he might be working on, but Bert just says that Mr. Newman was too busy for visitors.

Is this woman really Mr. Newman’s former boss, and does she have anything to do with the mysterious man in the trenchcoat? Someone breaks into the school and trashes Mr. Newman’s classroom. What is this secret invention of Mr. Newman’s that everyone seems so interested in, and why would someone threaten him over it or try to put a stop to his work?

The book is available to borrow and read for free online through Internet Archive.

My Reaction

The kids’ first thoughts about the mysterious people who are after Mr. Newman is that they might be spies, and they’re partly right. This is a matter of industrial espionage. People are after Mr. Newman’s invention because they can make a lot of money from it.

The robot Mr. Newman is building is really impressive, even by modern 21st century standards. Back in the 1980s, when this was written, a robot that large and sophisticated would have seemed almost like science fiction, although increasing developments in robotics technology would have made it seem more possible. Companies were working on developing robots during the 1980s, and Honda was working on a humanoid robot that could walk on two feet. Kids had toy robots. (I wanted one but never got one.) I don’t remember any classes for building robots for kids, but there may have been some that I didn’t know about at the time because I was still pretty young in the 1980s. In the 21st century, there are modern robotics classes for kids, and they sometimes show off their robots at competitions.

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The Chocolate-Covered Clue

The Bobbsey Twins

#10 The Chocolate-Covered Clue by Laura Lee Hope (Stratemeyer Syndicate), 1989.

Before I begin, I’d like to acknowledge Sean Hagins, for supplying me with photos of this book! Usually, I take pictures of books myself, but I just couldn’t find a physical copy of this one. Sean is a big fan of the Bobbsey Twins, particularly the New Bobbsey Twins mysteries, and you can see some of his video reviews as well as videos about his photography work on his YouTube channel, SJHFoto. Thanks, Sean!

Flossie has made a new friend, Casey Baker, whose parents own Baker’s Bakery. They invite her to come for a tour of the bakery to see how they make everything. It means getting up very early on a school morning because the baking has to start very early. They need to have everything freshly baked by the time the bakery opens for customers. Although it’s difficult to get up that early, Flossie enjoys the tour, seeing the large electric mixers where they make the cake batter and the enormous oven where they can bake over 100 cookies at once.

While the Bakers are showing her everything, they all realize that they feel cold. Someone has left the door to the alley open. Nobody is around, so they assume that it must have just been left open by a deliveryman making an early delivery.

Later, while Flossie and Cassie are admiring a beautiful chocolate cake, something really strange happens. A masked man suddenly runs into the shop, grabs the cake, and runs away with it! Who could be so desperate for chocolate cake that they have to resort to theft? The Bobbsey Twins’ mother is covering a series of recent burglaries for the local newspaper, but this is the weirdest theft the kids have ever heard of.

It gets weirder as the day goes on. While Freddie and his mother are running errands, they stop at a diner, and the same masked man runs in and smashes the chocolate cake on the counter with his bare hands! Freddie tries to chase him, and the man throws cake at him. The cake that was smashed was also from Baker’s Bakery.

The Bobbsey Twins talk to Casey, and she tells them that someone stole their delivery list. From then on, this crazy cakenapper starts tracking down and stealing and smashing every chocolate cake Baker’s Bakery made that day – including the one that the Bobbseys had delivered to their house.

What’s behind all of this cake carnage and chocolate destruction? Does someone have a grudge against the Bakers or against chocolate-based desserts?

The book is available to borrow and read for free online through Internet Archive.

My Reaction and Spoilers

I really liked the premise of this mystery! It’s such a fun, crazy concept of someone going all over town, smashing cakes, apparently for no reason. It’s the sort of mystery that I sometimes call a “Bizarre Happenings” mystery. That’s a mystery where strange things happen that encourage the characters to investigate, but it’s not obvious what’s behind it all or what sort of crime is really being committed. An example from adult literature would be the Sherlock Holmes story, The Red-Headed League, where the characters know that someone has been deceived into joining a special club for red-headed men that doesn’t actually exist and paid to copy entries from the encyclopedia, but they’re not sure why at first. In the case of the Bobbsey Twins mystery, the characters know that someone is stealing and destroying chocolate cakes, which is a very bizarre form of theft, but they’re not sure why. Readers can guess from the beginning that this rash of cake thefts is related to a different crime.

Actually, the solution to the story is very similar to that of another Sherlock Holmes story, The Adventure of the Six Napoleons, where someone is stealing and smashing busts of Napoleon. It has nothing to do with Napoleon or the busts themselves. There is something hidden inside one of the busts that someone is desperate to find, but because the busts all look alike, they have to track down and smash them all to find the one they really want. It’s like that with the cakes. The destruction of the cakes has nothing to do with the Baker family, their business, or the cakes themselves. Someone came into the bakery, looking for a place to hide, and dropped something in the cake batter while it was being mixed. Because the batter in the massive mixer was made into multiple cakes, they can’t be sure which cake now contains what they want. They need to track down the right cake in a hurry, before someone else finds what they hid. What seems to be an oddball crime puts the Bobbsey Twins up against a dangerous criminal!

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Encyclopedia Brown Takes the Cake

Encyclopedia Brown

Encyclopedia Brown Takes the Cake by Donald J. Sobol with Glenn Andrews, 1982, 1983.

This book is a little different from other books in the Encyclopedia Brown mystery series. Like other books, it’s a collection of short solve-it-yourself mystery stories with the answers to the mysteries in the back. However, this book also has special sections with recipes and cooking tips after each story. The recipe sections are based on things that happen in each of the stories. It’s best to read the stories first to avoid some of the spoilers in the recipe sections.

The book is available to borrow and read for free online through Internet Archive (multiple copies).

Stories and Recipe Sections:

The Case of the Missing Garlic Bread

Encyclopedia Brown’s neighborhood nemesis, Bugs Meany, and his friends stole some garlic bread and a chocolate cake meant for a birthday party. They deny it, but Encyclopedia Brown knows how to prove that they’re the thieves.

Kitchen Basics

The birthday boy’s mother gives the kids kitchen tips, like how to peel and cut vegetables.

The Case of the Fourth of July Artist

On the Fourth of July, a local boy known for trying to cheat people attempts to sell a picture of the Liberty Bell supposedly painted by one of his ancestors on July 4, 1776. Encyclopedia explains why the painting is a fake. (It was a good enough painting that the guy should have just tried to sell it as an ordinary painting instead.)

The Fourth of July Party

Encyclopedia and his friends make oven-fried chicken, some side dishes, and a red, white, and blue shortcake for their Fourth of July party. All the recipes are provided.

The Case of the Oven Mitt

A friend of theirs has started working in her father’s kitchenware store. On her first day, while she’s helping their friend, Hermes, to decide on a present for his mother, someone sneaks in the back and steals a couple of mixers. She feels badly about it, and at Hermes’s birthday party, Encyclopedia realizes that the thief is one of the party guests.

Hermes’s Birthday Brunch

In honor of a friend’s tooth collection, all of the food at the birthday party has something to do with teeth or foods that resemble teeth, like corny chowder and tooth-collector’s chocolate cake with frosting and teeth in the form of bits of marzipan and slivered almonds.

The Case of the Overstuffed Pinata

Bugs Meany steals a pinata from another boy. He insists that it’s his, but Encyclopedia proves it’s not.

A Mexican Fiesta

Encyclopedia and his friends make Mexican food, including cookies called polvorones, which are also known as Mexican Wedding cookies.

The Case of the Missing Watchgoose

A girl’s pet watchgoose goes missing. I didn’t like the solution to this one.

An Italian Dinner

The goose’s name was Christopher Columbus Day, so the kids cook an Italian-themed dinner.

The Case of the Secret Recipe

A friend of Encyclopedia’s, Beauford Twitty, invites his friends to his private potato museum to see his exhibits and sample a new recipe he’s created with a new variety of potato that his grandfather developed on his farm. While they’re there, someone steals a potato autographed by Yankees pitchers.

Dinner at the Twittys’

As a reward for helping to recover the potato, the Twittys give a dinner with no potato dishes at all: cream of chicken soup, meat loaf, corn pudding, baked tomatoes, lemon-buttered green beans, and apple pie.

The Case of the Chinese Restaurant

Oliver, who is a fan of Chinese food and the treasurer of the Service Club, is suspected of stealing from the Letterman’s Club treasury that was entrusted to him. Encyclopedia proves that he’s innocent.

A Chinese Banquet

Encyclopedia and his friends make Chinese food, including egg drop soup, Chinese riblets, egg rolls, and sweet and sour meatballs.

Snacks and Lunches

This section isn’t a story, just a collection of additional recipes for things like pizza made with pita bread, a variety of sandwiches, Twitty’s recipe for French fries from the potato story, French toast, cookies, and brownies.

Pointers from Pablo

Pablo, a young artist, offers advice on how to present and serve food while helping himself to cookies that Encyclopedia and Sally made.

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Hilda’s Restful Chair

Hilda’s Restful Chair by Iris Schweitzer, 1981.

One hot morning, Hilda finishes watering her garden and decides that she needs to rest for a while.

When Hilda needs to rest, she has a special place she likes to go – an old armchair that she keeps in a shed. She calls the chair her “restful chair.”

Hilda is joined in her restful chair by Osbert the wombat and Cadbury the cat. However, Osbert and Cadbury aren’t the only animals who enjoy the restful chair. Soon, a pair of rabbits ask to join the others in the chair.

As Hilda and her animal friends sit in the restful chair, other animals come to join them. As the chair becomes more loaded with animals, it starts to creak and groan.

Eventually, the chair just can’t take it anymore, and it falls over, dumping everyone onto the floor.

Still, all the animals decide that they had a good rest. As the animals leave, Hilda sets the chair up again, and she and her animal friends go inside to have some watermelon.

The book is available to borrow and read for free online through Internet Archive.

My Reaction

This is a cute, fun story about animals who enjoy a comfortable chair as much as a little girl. Kids like stories with repetition, and they would probably enjoy seeing the parade of animals who come to join Hilda in her chair. They would probably also see the ending coming, that the chair won’t be able to hold everyone. It’s just a question of which animal is going to be the last straw for the chair. Fortunately, no animals were harmed by this experience, and even the chair seems okay, even though it fell over.

Because there is a wombat in the story, I assumed that the story takes place in Australia. It probably does, but from the publication information, it looks like it was first printed in Great Britain. The author was originally from Israel, but she was living in London at the time the book was published.

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The Secret of the Sunken Treasure

The Bobbsey Twins

Bobbsey Twins The Secret of the Sunken Treasure cover

The Secret of the Sunken Treasure by Laura Lee Hope (Stratemeyer Syndicate), 1989.

Before I begin, I’d like to acknowledge Sean Hagins, for supplying me with photos of this book! Usually, I take pictures of books myself, but I just couldn’t find a physical copy of this one. Sean is a big fan of the Bobbsey Twins, particularly the New Bobbsey Twins mysteries, and you can see some of his video reviews as well as videos about his photography work on his YouTube channel, SJHFoto. Thanks, Sean!

The two sets of Bobbsey Twins and their parents are on vacation in Florida for a week. It’s just a fun family vacation, although Mrs. Bobbsey is hoping to write an article about a sunken treasure ship called the Granada. The Bobbsey Twins are intrigued at the idea of searching for sunken treasure, although nobody has detected a sign of the treasure since the ship sank in 1801. Dan Chester, he brother of a family friend, lives in the town where the Bobbseys are staying along with his 15-year-old daughter, Meg. Dan and Meg are divers, and they have been searching for the wreckage of the Granada, and they think they have a lead. The Bobbsey Twins are excited to think that they might be able to participate in the search for the treasure or be there when the Chesters find it!

However, when Dan and Meg pick them up at the airport, they have bad news. Although they were able to locate the wreckage of the Granada, they were delayed reaching shore to claim their find because their boat propeller broke, and someone else claimed the Granada before they could. Joe Lenox, the man who claimed the wreckage, runs an underwater salvaging company, and he’s tough competition for the Chesters because he can afford all the latest sonar equipment. It’s a heavy blow to Dan and Meg, losing such an important find when they were so close to claiming it. The only consolation is that everyone will be able to watch the old safe from the wreckage being hauled to the surface. The safe is supposed to contain the treasure the ship was carrying.

When Joe Lenox learns that Mrs. Bobbsey is an out-of-town reporter, he invites the entire Bobbsey family to come with him on his boat to see the treasure being recovered. They accept the invitation, although the kids feel a little funny about it because Joe is Dan and Meg’s competitor.

On the boat, Joe shows the Bobbseys his equipment and explains how everything works. (I grew up in Arizona and have never been diving, so I have very little context for understanding diving equipment. This part looks informative, but since this book was published decades ago, there may have been some changes in equipment since then. I wouldn’t know.) Flossie is hoping that, when the treasure is brought up, she will get the chance to try on the famous tiara that is supposed to be in the safe. However, everyone is in for a shock. When the divers go to recover the safe, they discover that someone has already managed to open it and remove the strongbox containing the treasure!

Now, Joe feels cheated out of a treasure he thought he had safely claimed, and he wants to know who’s responsible. The logical suspects would be Dan and Meg, who felt cheated out of their opportunity to claim the treasure first and who have the diving skills needed to reach the safe. A charm belonging to Meg is found in the safe, making Joe and the police believe that the Chesters are guilty. Although, there are also the other members of Joe’s crew to consider. They were the only other people who knew where the wreck was. Could any of them gone out to raid the wreck before the official salvage operation? Can the Bobbsey Twins find the real thieves?

The book is available to borrow and read for free online through Internet Archive.

My Reaction

I had a couple of favorite suspects early on in the story. The book establishes that it would have taken at least two people to deal with the safe, so I was looking for a pair of people. I was only partly right, though, because there’s another suspect who isn’t introduced until later in the book. The first person I suspected is guilty, but there were more people involved than I thought.

The book explains a little about how a person can lay claim to a sunken ship. The characters say that they have to fill out paperwork at the courthouse. There are laws regarding claiming a sunken ship and official procedures to follow. It’s not as simple as finders keepers. It does matter who found it, where they found it, and who the ship belonged to originally. There were also some changes to the laws around the time this book was written and published with the Abandoned Shipwreck Act of 1987. I’m not completely sure whether each Joe or Dan and Meg could have legally claimed the ship. It partly depends on whether or not it was within US territorial waters or outside the official three-mile limit, and it also depends on whether or not the ship was property of a foreign government which could lay claim to it. For the purposes of the story, we have to assume that Joe Lenox was able to successfully lay a claim to the ship and that Dan and Meg could have done so if they had reached the authorities first. What makes me doubt this is how it would have worked in real life is that the treasure on the ship belonged to a Spanish countess, which makes me think that it could be regarded as property of the Spanish government, but it would be difficult to determine that without additional information.

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The Secret in the Sand Castle

The Bobbsey Twins

#4 The Secret in the Sand Castle by Laura Lee Hope (Stratemeyer Syndicate), 1988.

Before I begin, I’d like to acknowledge Sean Hagins, for supplying me with photos of this book! Usually, I take pictures of books myself, but I just couldn’t find a physical copy of this one. Sean is a big fan of the Bobbsey Twins, particularly the New Bobbsey Twins mysteries, and you can see some of his video reviews as well as videos about his photography work on his YouTube channel, SJHFoto. Thanks, Sean!

The two sets of Bobbsey Twins and their parents are spending a few weeks in an old house at Beachcliff Bay. It’s sort of a working vacation for their parents. Mr. Bobbsey owns a lumber yard, and he’s helping a local builder, Jim Reade, to either find some antique Victorian wooden gingerbread house trim or make new ones to match a home restoration project. Meanwhile, Mrs. Bobbsey is planning to write a travel article about the area for their local newspaper.

The house where the family will be staying is called the Wilson house, and it’s one of Mr Reade’s recent renovation projects. Flossie is the first in the family to go inside, and she is startled by what she thinks is a ghost. It turns out that it’s only the caretaker, Pete Smedley, taking the old dust sheets off the furniture. It’s not entirely reassuring because Pete says that there are stories about the old Wilson house being haunted by the ghosts of its former owners, who drowned in the nearby bay. He says that he knows when the ghosts have been there because they move things around and leave trails of water, seaweed, and seashells. Mr. Reade thinks that Pete’s stories are nonsense and that the strange things he’s observed are due to windows in the house being left open or something like that.

The inside of the Wilson house is as elaborate as the outside. The Bobbsey twins unpack their things and claim rooms for themselves upstairs. Flossie is quick to claim the biggest room with the best view for herself, and she asks Bert to help her move a mirror she likes into her room. They don’t have anything to hang the mirror, so they set it on Flossie’s bed. Strangely, they later find the mirror still on the bed but broken, and they don’t know how that happened.

Nan is curious about the Wilson family and the history of the house, so she and Freddie take a trip to the local library. There, Nan learns that the last two members of the Wilson family were a brother and sister, called Clay and Jennie. They were both artists, but they never made much money. Badly in need of money, they apparently robbed an armored car and stole gold bars. They tried to escape in a boat, but it was lost in a storm. The Wilsons apparently drowned, although their bodies were never found. The police thought they might have hidden the gold somewhere before getting on the boat, but nobody ever found the gold they stole.

Mr. Reade tells the children that his son, Jimmy, is entering a local sand castle contest, and the Bobbsey twins decide that they would like to enter the contest, too. Nan thinks they should try to build a replica of the Wilson house in sand. Unfortunately, Jimmy turns out to be a troublemaker, and it doesn’t look like he wants to be friends with the Bobbsey twins.

While the girls go to the store, Bert and Freddie decide to check out the old root cellar at the house, and someone traps them inside. The girls let them out when they get back. Then Flossie finds a secret passage and hidden stairs. Mr. Bobbsey says that it was once a servants’ entrance that had been sealed off. Later that night, a ghostly figure tries to enter Nan’s room! Could it have been Jimmy. playing a nasty prank, or is it someone looking for the lost gold? Could it even be a real ghost?

The book is available to borrow and read for free online through Internet Archive.

My Reaction

From the beginning of the book, I had a favorite suspect. However, this is one of those mysteries where there is more than one person involved, and they’re not working together. In the end, I was right about my main suspect, but having a second person doing suspicious things made the mystery more interesting. The title is a little misleading because the story is really about the search for the hidden gold from the robbery, not about the sand castle contest. The sand castle contest is more of a side issue, although studying the design of the house to build the sand castle version leads the kids to the solution of the mystery.

Because this book is from the late 1980s, there are things in the story that were more a part of my childhood than the lives of 21st century children, like renting videotapes. I was about the age of Freddie and Flossie when this book was first published, so it’s a bit of a fun nostalgia trip for me, both because I read books in this series when I was young and because some of the things the kids do in these stories are similar to things I did at their age.

Posted on by TracyC · 3 Comments

The Secret of Jungle Park

The Bobbsey Twins

#1 The Secret of Jungle Park by Laura Lee Hope (Stratemeyer Syndicate), 1987.

Before I begin, I’d like to acknowledge Sean Hagins, for supplying me with photos of this book! Usually, I take pictures of books myself, but I just couldn’t find a physical copy of this one. Sean is a big fan of the Bobbsey Twins, particularly the New Bobbsey Twins mysteries, and you can see some of his video reviews as well as videos about his photography work on his YouTube channel, SJHFoto. Thanks, Sean!

Twelve-year-old twins Nan and Bert Bobbsey are part of a rock band with some of their friends. They call themselves The Aliens, and they’re participating in a Battle of the Bands at the amusement park Jungle Park. Nan plays the keyboard, Bert plays the drums, and their friends, Jimmy and Brian, play guitars. Flossie, their younger sister, wishes that she could join the band, too, but she’s still too young. Flossie and her twin brother, Freddie, are there to help their older siblings get ready and watch them perform. (And, the case of the boys, use some fake blood to play a trick on the girls.)

While they watch the first bands perform, they see some smoke. At first, they think that it’s just a stage effect, but it becomes thicker, and they realize that something is really wrong! Most of the audience flees, but Bert stays behind to save his band’s equipment. Nan tells him it was a dangerous thing to do, but Bert says that he doesn’t think it was a real fire. Fire fighters come, and so does their police officer friend, Lieutenant Pike. Lieutenant Pike also tells Bert that he took a foolish risk, but he agrees with Bert’s impression that the smoke was actually caused by a smoke bomb. Even though a smoke bomb isn’t real fire, setting one off in a crowded auditorium can still be very dangerous because someone could have been hurt in the panic when everybody rushed out.

Lieutenant Pike confides in the children that the police have been called to the park three other times recently for other apparent accidents and problems. He says that if things like this keep happening, they might have to shut down Jungle Park due to safety concerns. The four Bobbsey Twins don’t think that’s fair. They love Jungle Park, and they want to catch the person who set the smoke bomb!

Lieutenant Pike lets the kids look around after the police and fire fighters are finished with the auditorium. There are two clues that they find: a black eye patch and a swizzle stick. Bert doesn’t think that the swizzle stick is much of a clue, but Freddie thinks it might mean something. The eye patch points to two possible suspects that the kids know about: a member of a rival band in the contest and a man the girls saw who was lurking around the dressing room area. Bert thinks that the rival band was trying to disrupt the contest so they would win, but the others aren’t so sure. It turns out that the guy with the eyepatch was hired by one of the owners of the park to make some repairs, but could he have been hired to do more than that? Could one of the owners have a reason to make sure the park closes? What about the woman who takes care of the animals at the park? She doesn’t seem happy about the conditions they’re kept in.

As the kids investigate their suspects, they get chased by elephants, hunt for a suspect in a fun house, tackle someone in a gorilla suit, and win the band contest!

The book is available to borrow and read for free online through Internet Archive.

My Reaction

Like Sean, this particular Bobbsey Twins series was the one that I read as a kid. I didn’t even know the difference between the New Bobbsey Twins series and the earlier series until I was older. The Bobbsey Twins series, like other Stratemeyer Syndicate series, is typically set contemporary to when the stories were written, so the New Bobbsey Twins series is set in the late 1980s and early 1990s, when they were originally written and published.

That time period was when I was a kid myself, so things that the kids did in the New Bobbsey Twins series were very like things kids my age were doing when I was a kid. A lot of kids wished that they could be part of a band. At one point, Flossie talks about something she saw in a teen fashion magazine. Flossie isn’t a teenage herself, but as I recall, teen magazines were largely popular with pre-teens (or “tweens”), who wanted to look like teenagers. Later, she pretends to be collecting signatures for Save the Whales, which was a popular and well-known cause at that time.

The mystery in this book was pretty good. I was sure from the beginning that the kid from the rival rock band wasn’t the park saboteur, but I wasn’t completely sure which of the adults was responsible for much of the book.

Posted on by TracyC

The Invitation

The Invitation by Nicola Smee, 1989.

This fun picture book is written in comic book form. Almost all of the text is in speech bubbles in the pictures.

One morning, Leo finds an unexpected prize in his cereal box: an invitation to dinner at a fancy restaurant! He and his parents decide to accept the invitation, getting dressed up for the occasion.

The food is great, and Leo notices that there is a band playing. He asks his mother if she’s going to dance, and on a whim, she decides to dance with the waiter with the dessert cart.

From there, the evening goes from good to great for everyone! The restaurant turns into a party with everyone dancing, Leo’s mother swinging from the chandelier, and the musicians having the time of their lives!

Then, a lady who is a dancing with Leo loses one of her diamond earrings. Leo volunteers to find it for her, and it turns up in an unexpected place.

The evening is such a success that the owner of the restaurant invites them to dinner the next night, too!

The book is available to borrow and read for free online through Internet Archive. It was first published in Great Britain.

My Reaction

In real life, fancy adult restaurants tend to serve foods that kids don’t like and require a level of etiquette that kids often find stifling, but in this fun, comic book style story, Leo and his parents have the time of their lives on this fun evening out! All of the adults in the story are open to some zany fun, and even the owner of the restaurant enjoys himself so much that he’d love to have them back the next day.

Like all picture books, it’s the details in the pictures that really make the story. The story doesn’t tell you that the reason why the cereal box prize was an invitation to this restaurant is that the restaurant owner also owns that brand of cereal, but it’s shown in the pictures, with his name on the box. When Leo and his parents arrive at the restaurant, the owner meets them and compliments them on their taste in cereal. Later, he’s shown eating a bowl of his cereal himself. I also loved the picture that includes Leo’s mother letting loose and swinging on the chandelier. The other people in the restaurant are also eccentrics. One of the dancing women is wearing a dress with a banana print and a matching hat with a banana on it, and while Leo is searching for the lost earring, he finds a lady in an elephant print dress and fuzzy slippers. There’s nothing dull about this elegant dinner or the people enjoying it!

Posted on by TracyC

Fin M’Coul

Fin M’Coul retold and illustrated by Tomie de Paola, 1981.

This is a retelling of a classic Irish folktale. The story is fun and silly, but one of the parts of this story I like the best is the introduction of the Giant’s Causeway – a real place with a magical look. There’s a geological explanation of this rock formation, but this story introduces the folkloric explanation.

In ancient times, when Ireland was inhabited by giants and magical creatures, a giant named Fin M’Coul lived on Knockmany Hill with his wife, Oonagh. One day, as he is building a causeway between Ireland and Scotland, Fin M’Coul hears that another giant, Cucullin, is coming.

Cucullin has a fearsome reputation, and he has beaten up many other giants, just to prove how strong he is. So far, Fin M’Coul has been able to keep out of his way, but Cucullin is now looking for Fin M’Coul to beat him. In fact, he’s so close that there’s no time for Fin M’Coul to get away.

Fin M’Coul goes home to his wife and asks her what he should do. Oonagh says that he won’t have any peace until he gets this confrontation with Cucullin over with, but Fin M’Coul doubts that he could be a match for Cucullin in a fight. Oonagh decides that they’re going to have to defeat Cucullin with cunning rather than strength.

She quickly does a special charm to bring them success, and then, she begins setting the scene for the trick they’re going to play on Cucullin. She makes up a giant cradle and makes her husband dress in baby clothes and sit in the cradle. It’s ridiculous, but Oonagh has a plan.

When Cucullin comes, Oonagh tells him that her husband isn’t home, but she invites him to come in and wait with her and her “baby.” Not only is the “baby” astonishingly large, even by giant standards, but Oonagh carefully convinces Cucullin of the baby’s unusual strength. She tricks him into thinking that the “baby” can eat bread and cheese that’s rock hard while giving Cucullin bread with a frying pan in the center and a real stone instead of cheese. Not only does Cucullin break his teeth on these things, but if Fin M’Coul’s “baby” can eat these things, how much stronger could Fin M’Coul be?

Oonagh’s tricks allow Fin M’Coul to get the upper hand against Cucullin and defeat him once and for all!

There is a brief section in the back of the book that explains a little about the background of the legend. I love the pictures in this version of the story. Tomie de Paola books always have fun illustrations, but if it weren’t for the little people and animals in the pictures with the giant characters, you might almost forget that the main characters in the story are all giants.

The book is available to borrow and read for free online through Internet Archive.

Posted on by TracyC

Pecos Bill

Pecos Bill retold and illustrated by Steven Kellogg, 1986.

I remember this book from when I was in elementary school! This was the book that my teacher or librarian (I forget which one now) used to introduce us to the concept of tall tales. Tall tales, like the story of Pecos Bill, are a major feature of American folklore, particularly Western American folklore.

When the story begins, young Bill is traveling west from New England with his family as part of a wagon train. As they cross the Pecos River, Bill tries to fish, but an enormous trout pulls him out of his family’s wagon. Bill is rescued by a coyote, and he spends some time living and growing up with the coyotes and other animals in Texas.

Eventually Bill meets up with a cowboy named Chuck, who explains to him that he’s a human and a Texan, not a coyote. Chuck gives him some extra clothes to wear (because he’s long outgrown his childhood clothes). Chuck tells Bill that many Texans are outlaws, but they would be better if they started herding cattle and became ranchers. Bill decides to try life as a Texas rancher.

Because of his wild upbringing, Pecos Bill is able to perform amazing feats of strength, like subduing a giant rattlesnake to the point where it becomes tame and allows Pecos Bill to use him as a lasso. He also gets the hide of a monster to make other lassos to give to the worst gang of outlaws around. The outlaws are so impressed with Bill’s ability to subdue wild creatures that they agree to make him the boss of their gang, and they all become cowboys.

Bill subdues a wild horse called Lightning and uses the language of wild animals to befriend him. He leads the other cowboys on a massive cattle drive, and he creates the impossible Perpetual Motion Ranch on Pinnacle Peak.

Then, Pecos Bill meets a pretty girl named Sue and decides to get married. However, Sue’s bustle is so tight that when she tries to sit on Bill’s horse, Sue bounces in the air so high that she reaches the moon. Every time she hit the ground, she bounces into the sky again, so Pecos Bill has to lasso a tornado to catch up with her.

When they finally land, they land on top of Bill’s family’s wagon in California. Apparently, they’re still wandering after all these years, trying to find a place to settle. Pecos Bill convinces his family to settle with him and his bride in Texas.

I’m not very big on tall tales, in spite of having grown in the American Southwest, where many of these types of stories evolved, but I have some sentimental attachment to this one because it was my first as a kid. The pictures in the book are wild and chaotic, just like the action in the story.

The book is available to borrow and read for free online through Internet Archive (multiple copies).