Posted on by TracyC

Mystery of the Melted Diamonds

Mystery of the Melted Diamonds by Carol Farley, 1986.

This is the last book in the Kipper and Larry mystery series.

This time, Larry has come to visit Kipper and his family on their farm in Kansas while his father attends a police convention in Florida and will be spending Christmas with them. At first, Kipper thinks that Larry probably regrets this visit because Kansas isn’t very exciting, and it’s snowing while Larry’s father is in sunny Florida.

The situation gets worse when Kipper gets into a fight with his friend Scooter when Larry and Kipper were supposed to be spending the night at Scooter’s house. Scooter apparently cheated at a game, and Kipper got so mad that he said that he and Larry would just go home. The problem is that the boys have to walk a couple of miles to reach the farm where Kipper’s family lives, and the snow has turned into a blizzard.

The boys start to get scared that they might freeze to death when Larry spots a light from a house nearby and heads toward it. Kipper thinks that it’s a dangerous mistake because the house with the light is the old Morgansterne house, and it’s been empty for years. However, when the boys reach the house, there are oil lanterns burning in the windows and a fire in a wood-burning stove. Out of desperation, the boys let themselves into the house to warm up, but then they start to wonder who lit the fire and the lanterns. They search the house to see if there’s anyone there, but they don’t find anyone. The only thing they find upstairs is an old box of Christmas ornaments.

The boys spend the rest of the night in the house without seeing anyone and continue to the farm in the morning. When they explain to Kipper’s mother what happened and where they spent the night, she’s concerned, both because the boys were out in the snowstorm and because nobody should be in the old Morgansterne house. Old Miss Morgansterne, who owns the house, has been living in a retirement home, and no one else is supposed to be there. Kipper’s mother decides to call the sheriff and have him look into it.

The sheriff comes and questions the boys about what they saw in the house, and they ask him about a robbery at a jewelry store in town that the family heard about on the radio while waiting for him to arrive. Larry wonders if there’s a connection between the robbery and the supposedly empty house that seemed to be occupied by someone before they arrived. The sheriff doesn’t see why there would be a connection between the two events, but Kipper’s younger brothers think that maybe the robbers were in the house the whole time, hiding in some kind of secret passageway, like in books and movies. The sheriff thinks that the boys have overactive imaginations.

However, there is more to the theory that the house and the robbery are connected than the sheriff thinks. Soon, the sheriff is alerted that the car that is believed to belong to the robbers has crashed into a pond near a dangerous curve in the road and the two men inside the car are dead. When they search the car, they find some of the jewelry from the robbery, the less expensive costume jewelry, so it seems that they were correct that these men were the robbers, but strangely, the most expensive jewels from the robbery, diamonds, are still missing. The sheriff says that it’s almost like they melted away, like the diamond-like snow that Larry commented on earlier.

It makes sense to the boys that the robbers were in the Morgansterne house before they were. They remember seeing a car like the robbers’ car along that road before the snow storm got bad, and it would explain why the house was empty all that night. The robbers accidentally saved the boys’ lives by lighting the stove in the house for them, but they never returned to their hideout in the empty house because they had their car accident. But, somewhere along the way, the diamonds they stole seem to have vanished. Can the boys figure out how?

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

My Reaction

Overall, I liked the story. I had more than one theory about where the diamonds were, and one of them turned out to be correct, but there was enough doubt in my mind to keep the story interesting until the end.

Posted on by TracyC

Mystery of the Fog Man

Mystery of the Fog Man by Carol Farley, 1966.

This is the first book of the Kipper and Larry mystery series. Kipper (real name Christopher) and Larry are 13-year-old cousins. The two boys meet each other for the first time in this book, when Kipper comes to visit Larry and his family in Michigan. The boys had written letters to each other before, but they were both excited to finally meet in person.

Larry and his father live in Ludington, on the shores of Lake Michigan, and Larry takes Kipper fishing soon after he arrives, which is when Kipper first encounters the mysterious figure known only as The Fog Man. This strange old man starts Kipper, and Kipper finds him eerie. Larry explains to Kipper that The Fog Man is kind of a local eccentric. He is apparently both deaf and mute. No one knows his real name. He apparently lives in the nearby forest, but during the summer, he comes to the beach to collect driftwood, which he sells to tourists, who are fascinated by this eccentric old man, and to the lady who runs the nearby gift shop, Miss Norton.

Shortly after this encounter, the boys learn that someone has stolen thousands of dollars from the safe on one of the car ferries that travel back and forth across Lake Michigan and Wisconsin. (Another book by the same author but in a different series takes place on one of these car ferries, The Case of the Vanishing Villain.) Kipper and Larry are able to see the scene of the robbery because of Larry’s father’s position as the local chief of police. However, the boys’ adventures are just beginning.

The most likely suspect in the robbery seems to be a man called Karminsky, who worked on the ferry. He disappeared around the time of the robbery, and Larry’s father thinks that he’s hiding out somewhere in the area, waiting for the police to stop looking for him so he can make his getaway. Larry is intrigued by the idea that the robber might be hiding out in the woods nearby. Although his father forbids the boys to go looking for the robber, they can’t resist checking out the woods anyway.

Larry confides in Kipper that he really wants to help his father catch this robber so that his father will be a big success and get public recognition. Larry sometimes feels bad that he and his father have been alone since his mother died when he was young. He thinks that, if his mother was still alive to help his father take care of him, his father would be able to do much more in his life and career, so Larry wants to be the help that he thinks his father really needs.

Soon, the boys think that they’ve found Karminsky’s hideout in the woods, but even though they lie in wait for him all night, they don’t manage to catch him there. The only person they see in the area is the Fog Man, and to Kipper’s shock, he sees the Fog Man walking without his characteristic limp!

When the boys later find the Fog Man’s coat and a fake white beard, they reach different conclusions about what happened. Kipper thinks that the Fog Man was involved in the robbery all along and that he was always in disguise from the beginning. However, Larry is accustomed to thinking of the Fog Man as a harmless old eccentric who has hung around town for the last few years, selling driftwood to tourists. Larry thinks that the Fog Man might be an innocent victim of Karminsky’s, that Karminsky may have killed him so he could take his place and blend in with the usual beach scene until he could make his escape.

Then, Larry’s father tells them that Karminsky has been found in another town, apparently having missed being on the ferry in the first place. So, if Karminsky was never on the ferry and never in Ludington, who stole the money and masqueraded as the Fog Man?

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

My Reaction

I bought this book because I always liked the Flee Jay and Clarice mystery story that I mentioned before and wanted to see more by the same author. I liked it because, while I thought that I understood things pretty quickly in the story, there are some surprising twists to the mystery. I thought that I had it figured out twice, but I was surprised both times, and the true identity of the Fog Man remains a mystery until the very end.

Posted on by TracyC · 1 Comment

The Berenstain Bears Trick or Treat

The Berenstain Bears

The Berenstain Bears Trick or Treat by Stan and Jan Berenstain, 1989.

“Even little bears
expect a good fright
when they go out for treats
on Halloween night.”

Brother and Sister Bear are looking forward to trick-or-treating on Halloween night with their friends. Sister is going as a ballerina, and Brother is dressed as a monster. When Brother jumps out at Mama in his monster costume, she pretends to be frightened, and when he takes off his mask, Mama comments that “appearances can be deceiving.” Sister asks what that means, and Mama explains that “things aren’t always what they look like.”

This is the first year that Brother and Sister will be allowed to go out trick-or-treating without their parents. They plan to trick-or-treat with friends, and they talk about the houses that they plan to visit. The one house in the neighborhood that they don’t want to visit belongs to Miz McGrizz. Miz McGrizz’s house looks spooky, and the kids think that she might be a witch. Mama tells them that’s nonsense and that Miz McGrizz is a nice person.

As the young bears set out to trick-or-treat with their friends, some of the bigger, tougher cubs in the neighborhood try to talk them into joining them in some pranks. First, they want to decorate Miz McGrizz’s house with toilet paper.

However, before the cubs can do anything, Miz McGrizz comes out of her house, and seeing the cubs, tells them that she’s ready for them. Although the kids are frightened at first, it turns out that Mama really was correct about Miz McGrizz. Miz McGrizz is just a nice old lady who has a special treat for the cubs who are brave enough to visit her house.

In real life, trick-or-treaters shouldn’t go into the houses of people they visit unless they know them very well, but in this case, it’s not so bad because the cubs’ mother approves of Miz McGrizz and would be fine with the children visiting her.

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

Posted on by TracyC

Corduroy’s Halloween

Corduroy’s Halloween, based on the character created by Don Freeman, pictures by Lisa McCue, 1995.

I’ve seen this book as both a regular picture book and a lift-the-flap book. The basic story is the same either way, and the illustrations are similar in either copy. I just happen to have the lift-the-flap copy. This is one of the Corduroy books where Corduroy lives on his own with his stuffed animal friends and no humans are present in the story.

Corduroy and his friends are excited because Halloween is coming! There are many things to do, like raking leaves, choosing pumpkins for jack o’lanterns, and entering a window-painting contest.

Corduroy shops for the supplies that he will need for his Halloween party.

By Halloween night, all of the decorations are up, and Corduroy gets his first trick-or-treaters, including some trick-or-treating for UNICEF.

Corduroy and his friends also take part in the Halloween costume parade. In the lift-the-flap copy, you can lift up character’s masks and see their faces. I think that makes this a good book for helping to explain to young children that people in scary costumes are just ordinary people beneath the masks.

Then, they return to Corduroy’s house to have their party and bob for apples. Happy Halloween!

Posted on by TracyC

Clifford's Halloween

Clifford

Clifford’s Halloween by Norman Bridwell, 1986.

Halloween is Emily Elizabeth’s favorite holiday! Emily Elizabeth talks about the various holidays that she and Clifford enjoy, but Halloween is the one they enjoy the most.

Last Halloween, she considered various costumes for Clifford, but Clifford decided that he wanted to be a ghost, covered with a giant sheet. (I love how they say that nobody could guess who the giant ghost is, like there could be someone else in the neighborhood that big.)

When you’ve got a giant dog, bobbing for apples doesn’t go the way you expect.

However, when you’ve got a giant dog, nothing else is very scary, either.

The book ends with Emily Elizabeth considering different costumes for Clifford for this Halloween, inviting the reader to think of other possible costumes.

I like the idea of letting kids consider which Halloween costumes they like the best from the ones that Emily Elizabeth considers. Kids like making choices, and trying to think of costumes that would work on a gigantic dog presents a creative challenge. When Emily considers dressing Clifford as a knight, they don’t consider where she’s going to get a suit of armor that size, but the books in this series don’t worry much about the logistics of caring for a dog the size of Clifford.

When I first read this book back in the 1980s (I was four years old when the book was new, although I can’t remember exactly how old I was when I first read it), I didn’t think too much about the Indian (Native American) costume with a pipe, although I wouldn’t think of suggesting that as a costume for anyone now. It’s partly because there’s something of a stigma against Native American costumes now. It’s not enough of a stigma to get people to stop wearing them and major costume retailers from selling them, but enough that some people raise eyebrows at them because of some of the connotations attached to them. If you read some of the reviews of Native American costumes on Amazon, like I did, it seems that more of them were purchased for school plays and projects or Thanksgiving plays than for Halloween. However, the part about this costume that particularly jumped out at me was the ceremonial pipe. Kids sometimes dressed as American Indians for Halloween when I was young, although the practice is discouraged now, but with all of the anti-smoking campaigns aimed at children when I was young, most of our parents wouldn’t have even considered giving us a peace pipe as part of a costume, even ignoring the social and cultural implications of that. I think that idea shows the age of the book’s creator. I grew up in the American Southwest, but I didn’t grow up on old western shows where peace pipes were a common feature. I didn’t see those shows until I was older, and by then, they looked pretty cheesy. I think that the book’s author was from the generation that was raised on those westerns and had nostalgic associations with them.

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

Posted on by TracyC

Count Draculations!: Monster Riddles

Count Draculations!: Monster Riddles compiled by Charles Keller, 1986.

This is one of those themed joke books for kids that has monster and Halloween-themed jokes.  The jokes are the basic kid-friendly question-and-response type with lots of puns.  There are also some cute black-and-white illustrations.

Some of my favorite jokes:

Why do witches get A’s in school?

Because they are good at spelling.

How do you get into a locked cemetery?

With a skeleton key.

Why did Frankenstein’s monster go to the psychiatrist?

He thought he had a screw loose.

Why did the invisible man go crazy?

Out of sight, out of mind.

Posted on by TracyC

Halloween Cookbook

Halloween Cookbook by Susan Purdy, 1977.

I remember getting this book from my school library when I was a kid. I never actually made anything from it because it was a little beyond my cooking skills. Still, I was fascinated by the recipes in the book, especially the stew inside the pumpkin.

Some recipes in the book use specifically Halloween shapes and colors, while others are more general fall and harvest-themed recipes. The recipes are organized by category with section for food that can also be used as Halloween decorations and other sections for brunch and lunch, vegetable dishes, meat dishes/main courses, and snacks and desserts.

Some of the recipes are old, traditional ones from around the world, such as the ones for Fried Pumpkin Blossoms (an Italian recipe) and the Indonesian Corn Fritters. A brief section at the beginning of each recipe explains a little about the recipe’s background.

In the beginning of the book, there are notes about converting between units of measurement, including converting between imperial and metric units. There is also a guide for converting between Celsius and Fahrenheit temperatures. There are other cooking tips for beginners, such as how to separate eggs (I’ve never done it with my hands, like in the book, but it’s useful to know) and how to chop onions and press garlic.

Posted on by TracyC

The Spookster’s Handbook

The Spookster’s Handbook by Peter Eldin, 1989.

This is a fun book of jokes and tricks for Halloween or just having some spooky fun with friends, possibly at a sleepover. The book is divided into the following sections:

Making Monsters – How to make costume pieces and turn yourself into a bug-eyed monster, a warty witch, and more! There are also tricks, like making a ghost image appear on a wall, casting a glowing face on someone else’s shadow, and making Bigfoot footprints.

Screamingly Funny – A chapter of ghost jokes.

Ghostly Tricks – Magic tricks that look somewhat ghostly, like making a friend “float” in the air and making magical symbols appear on blank cardboard.

Monster Pranks & Practical Jokes – Tricks that produce ghostly illusions, like how to take ghostly pictures, produce taps with no obvious source, and cause ghostly flashes of light in a dark room.

Haunting Your Own House – Describes typical do-it-yourself haunted house tricks for producing scary noises.

Monster Laughs – A chapter of monster jokes.

Scare Your Friends – Tricks and pranks for spooking your friends with a finger in a box, strange noises, or a glowing skull.

Terrible Trivia – Fun facts about superstitions and telling the future.

Fang-Tastic! – A chapter of jokes about vampires.

My favorite parts of the book are the superstitions and the ways to make scary haunted house noises. I haven’t actually tried the noise tricks yet, but at some point, I’m planning to try a few!

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

Posted on by TracyC · 5 Comments

We’re Going on a Ghost Hunt

We’re Going on a Ghost Hunt by Marcia Vaughan, illustrated by Ann Schweninger, 2001.

On Halloween night, two kids go out on a ghost hunt. This is a cute picture book, told as a poem, with a lot of repetition of phrases and sound words, like “thump” and “stomp.” The book also encourages children to notice details. The “ghost” appears in the scene where the children pass through the “swamp” and the ghost costume appears again at the end of the book.

As the kids go on their ghost hunt, passing through a swamp and past a haunted house and other scary things, they repeat that they’re not afraid.

The kids are brave, right up to the point where they finally find a ghost.

The kids run home to their mother, who gives them cupcakes and reads them a story.

Three guesses who the red-sneakered ghost was. Happy Halloween!

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

Posted on by TracyC

The Ankle Grabber

The Ankle Grabber by Rose Impey, 1989.

This book is part of the Creepies series, where children have fun imagining monsters. The stories are about the power of imagination and the fun of being a little scared. Sometimes, even though the children know that they made up the monsters themselves, they also get scared of their creations. Books in this series can be good for talking to children about how their imaginations can run away with them and scare them, but I’d use caution when introducing them to very young children because they can make nervous children more nervous by feeding their imaginations. These books would probably be best for ages seven and up. Fortunately, even when the kids’ imaginations run away with them, the stories always end in reality, and the hero of this story is … Dad!

Every night, a little girl has her mother check her room for monsters, but no matter how well her mother searches for them, the girl is still terrified of the monster who lives in an invisible swamp under her bed. She calls this monster the Ankle Grabber because she believes that if she isn’t careful, the monster will reach out from under the bed and pull her down into the swamp by her ankles.

But, as is inevitable when you’ve got a monster under your bed, the girl realizes that she has to go to the bathroom. Getting in and out of bed without being caught by the Ankle Grabber is a tricky proposition. The girl tries to get into and out of bed by jumping so that she can avoid the monster.

When she misses her jump back into bed and lands on the floor, her father comes in to see what’s wrong. Her father has scared off monsters for the little girl before, so he sticks his head under the bed to scare off the Ankle Grabber, too.

Nothing is so scary that Dad can’t make it better!

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