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The View From the Cherry Tree

viewcherrytreeThe View From the Cherry Tree by Willo Davis Roberts, 1964.

Things have been difficult around Rob Mallory’s house since preparations for his sister’s wedding began, but things are about to get a whole lot worse. While his mother and sisters are rushing around, making last minute arrangements for the wedding guests and finding a replacement for a sick bride’s maid, Rob’s father is trying to help Uncle Ray stay out of jail after he stole some money from his boss. To make matters worse, old Mrs. Calloway, their unpleasant, eccentric next door neighbor, has been causing trouble again, spying on people with her binoculars and provoking arguments with everyone in the neighborhood.

The only peaceful place Rob can find to escape all the chaos at his house is the cherry tree that stands between his house and Mrs. Calloway’s. While he is up in the tree, Rob witnesses an argument between Mrs. Calloway and a man Rob can’t see inside her house. Then, Rob sees the man shove Mrs. Calloway out of her window. Her binoculars get tangled on a tree branch, and she is strangled to death. Rob runs to his house to get help, and the authorities come and take Mrs. Calloway’s body away. However, no one believes Rob when he says that Mrs. Calloway was pushed. Everyone thinks that her death was an accident. Then, a series of strange “accidents” happen that seem to threaten Rob’s life.

Rob’s family is too caught up in the wedding plans and family troubles to realize what is happening, but Rob is convinced that Mrs. Calloway’s murderer is trying to silence him forever.  Can he outwit the murderer and learn his identity?  More importantly, can he survive until the evening when his father is supposed to return home and can help him convince the police that he’s in real danger?

I have to say that I really hated the mother in this story.  She struck me as being a very silly and shallow woman, obsessed (and that is not too strong a word) with the trappings of her daughter’s wedding.  She speaks of the wedding as an “opportunity” that she doesn’t want spoiled, a word that seriously bothers me in this context.  “Opportunity” implies some kind of expected benefit, not just a momentous “event” in their lives or a rare “celebration.”  I kept wondering, and still wonder what kind of gains she was anticipating from her daughter’s marriage and why.  The only thing I can think of is a selfish desire to be at the center of attention, or as close to it as she can get.  As a married woman, she can no longer be the beautiful, blushing bride on her special day, but she might get a vicarious thrill from being the mother of the beautiful, blushing bride, reliving her own glory “day” from the past.

Maybe I’m getting a little too psychological with her, but that was the vibe I got, a grown-up mother-of-the-bride-zilla who can’t see past the champagne and pretty dresses to anything more important, whether it’s her own brother’s serious brushes with the law or the attempts on her young son’s life.  When Rob tries to tell his mother what’s happening, she almost slaps him because she’s so “overwhelmed” by everything that she has to do, but I’m not buying it because it seems like everyone else is really taking care of pretty much everything for her.  She has plenty of people around her and plenty of support if she wanted to recruit more.  She freaks out about any problems that happen, no matter how big or small, and wants to sweep every bad thing under the rug as much as she can because, apparently, weddings should be perfect at all costs and she wants nothing to invade that lovely bubble in her mind.  I didn’t like her when I read this story as a kid, and I’ve discovered that I hate her even more now.  Her motives have become less understandable and her personality less sympathetic now that I’ve grown older instead of more so, and that’s not a good sign.  As an adult, I would have urged her prospective son-in-law to reconsider marrying into this family on the basis of the mother’s behavior, although the bride’s offer to call off the wedding until her brother is found when he goes into hiding shows that she might have her priorities more straight than her mother’s in the end.

The book is currently available online through Internet Archive.

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Baby-Sitting Is a Dangerous Job

Baby-Sitting Is a Dangerous Job by Willo Davis Roberts, 1987.

Thirteen-year-old Darcy knows that babysitting the Foster kids isn’t going to be easy. Jeremy, Melissa, and Shana Foster are young children and rather spoiled. Their parents are wealthy, but they don’t spend much time with their children. When Darcy babysits them, the children go off in different directions and do things they know they aren’t supposed to do.

On top of that, Darcy is worried that someone will figure out that she and her friend Irene have been helping to hide their friend Diana, who ran away from home because her father was beating her. Diana is afraid to go to the police because her sister tried to tell them about their father’s abusive behavior, and no one believed her. She thinks that the police will just take her home and her father will beat her again.

One day, while Darcy is babysitting the Foster kids, some men break into the house and kidnap them all for ransom. Darcy feels guilty for not preventing the kidnapping, but she’s determined to make sure that she and the kids make it home safely to their parents.  When the kidnappers make a slip that allows Darcy to discover their true identity, she must come up with a daring plan to save herself and the children, who turn out to be surprisingly resourceful themselves.

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

My Reaction

I enjoyed this book! The Foster kids start out being nightmares to babysit because they’re badly behaved, but Darcy can tell that their bad behavior is because they’re neglected. They act out for attention and because their parents haven’t paid enough attention to them to teach them about boundaries and how to behave. On the outside, it might seem like the Foster kids are fortunate because their family has money, but when Darcy starts babysitting for them, she can see that their lives aren’t really as great as they seem. However, the kids do turn out to be clever and resourceful, and they really help Darcy when they’re all in danger.

There is an element of mystery to the story about who has kidnapped the children. Part of what makes their situation dangerous is that Darcy actually knows their kidnappers, and when they realize that she has recognized them, Darcy fears that they will try to eliminate her and possibly the young children, to avoid being identified to the police.

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Abigail

abigailAbigail by Portia Howe Sperry and Lois Donaldson, 1938.

Susan is a little girl living on a farm in Kentucky during the 1800s.  Her family has recently decided to move to Indiana, which is the new frontier of the United States.  Her uncle and his family are already living there, and he has persuaded Susan’s parents of the opportunities that await them.

As the family packs up to leave, Susan’s grandmother gives her a special present that she and Susan’s aunt made for her: a new doll.  Unlike Susan’s old wooden doll, this doll is a soft rag doll that she can sleep with.  They made the doll to look like Susan herself, but Susan names the doll Abigail after her grandmother.

Abigail accompanies Susan on her adventure as the family heads west to Indiana in their covered wagon.  Susan is sad and a little afraid at first, but when she thinks of what Abigail would say to her about her need to be brave and to explain to her all the strange things they will encounter on the journey, Susan regains her courage.

The family does have adventures on their two-week trek to Indiana.  They have to cross rivers, face down a bear, and worry about whether they will encounter unfriendly Indians (Native Americans).  Even after they arrive in Indiana, joining their other relatives, they will still have to get used to life in a new place.

Throughout the book, there are little side-stories, poems, and hymns that the family sings and tells each other.  Through it all, Abigail is Susan’s constant companion, helping her to feel at home in her new home.  I loved this book when I was a child because I always loved dolls.  This book was a bigger part of my youth than the Little House on the Prairie series, but it would probably appeal to Little House on the Prairie fans.

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

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Starlight in Tourrone

starlighttourroneStarlight in Tourrone by Suzanne Butler, 1965.

This is a story about a group of children in southern France during the middle of the 20th century, not too long after World War II, who want to stage a special Nativity scene at Christmas. One of the older men in the small village of Tourrone tells his grandchildren about how, when he was young, the village had held a live Nativity scene at the chapel on the hill with the youngest baby in the village playing the part of the Christ child and his mother playing Mary. Then, all the people in the town would climb the hill to the chapel and present gifts to Mary and the baby Jesus in a ceremony called the March to the Star.

However, these traditions have been lost because, following World War II, the village has lost much of its population, and the chapel is an unused ruin. The children and their friends, inspired by the grandfather’s stories, decide that they want to hold the March to the Star and the Nativity scene this year.

starlighttourronemarchAt first, most of the adults in the village are skeptical. Since there are no young couples living there anymore and no babies have been born there for several years, no one knows where the mother and child for the Nativity scene will come from. Many of the adults are too busy with their own problems and worries about the future to help. Still, the children continue to work faithfully on their plans, drawing in the adults in spite of themselves.

starlighttourronepreparationsstarlighttourronelanternJust as people in the village start to feel hopeful again, something happens that threatens to ruin everything, but there is still one more miracle yet to come, thanks in part to the one person who never doubted it would happen.

It’s a beautiful story about the power of faith and how miracles come to those who are prepared for them. The last page of the book contains the music for the Provencal Carol that the children sing along with the English translation.

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

starlighttourronenativity

starlighttourronecarol

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Mystery Up the Winding Stair

Mystery Up the Winding Stair by Helen Fuller Orton, 1948.

Harry Hunter and his mother have been living with his grandfather in his big mansion while his father is in Japan doing work for the government. His family has owned the mansion for a long time, and it has a small museum in it containing Native American artifacts and things relating to pioneer life, including a small log cabin built in a large room up a winding staircase.

When Harry’s mother goes on a trip to see his father, Harry and his grandfather invite Harry’s cousins to visit them: Ned and his sister Lou, and Carol, whose family has only recently moved to the area.  When the children try to decide what they would like to do together, Carol suggests a treasure hunt.  Their grandfather sends them on a treasure hunt to find something that he hid himself a long time ago: a set of silver spoons made by Paul Revere and a diamond. The explanation is that the grandfather is rather absent-minded and has forgotten where he hid the treasure, although he knows that it’s somewhere in the house.

A storm leaves them all snowbound in the mansion, but they are not alone. There are mysterious footsteps, someone using a secret staircase to the attic, and signs that the bed in the cabin has been slept in. The children begin to realize that someone else is in the house with them, and this person wants the treasure for himself!

This book is out of print, but you can borrow and read it online for free through Internet Archive.  Internet Archive requires you to sign up for an account to borrow books, but the account is free, and you read the books directly in your browser.  There are no overdue fees because the books simply disappear from your virtual loan list when your time is up.  You are allowed to re-borrow books as long as copies are available (not being “borrowed” by other people).

My Reaction and Story Background

The house the mansion in the book was based on was the old summer home of Governor Washington Hunt, located in Lockport, New York. (I learned about the house from an article about the story behind the book and an event related to the book that was held at the library in Lockport, but the site that had the article doesn’t have it up anymore. I think I saved a copy somewhere, but I’m having trouble finding it right now.)  It was called Wyndham Lawn and later became a children’s home. It’s now a private school called the Henrietta G. Lewis Campus School.  When the author, Helen Fuller Orton, was young, some of her relatives rented Wyndham Lawn from its owner, and she lived with them for a time.  In the article, the author noted that the house had been changed somewhat since the time when she lived there in the 1880s in order to accommodate the needs of the children’s home.

When I first read this book, I thought that the part about the grandfather simply forgetting where he hid an important treasure was a little cheesy, but the treasure hunt in a mansion with its own museum is fun. It’s a little spooky when the kids realize that there’s an intruder in the house with them while they’re snowbound, although it’s pretty obvious to readers of the story who the intruder was. The house really makes the story because it is a fantastic setting! It’s a very cozy mystery for winter.

I enjoyed the story and learning about the history of the real house. I also considered what Harry’s father is doing in Japan because this book was published just after WWII. I don’t think they ever explain why Harry’s father is in Japan on government work, but I’m sure he’s involved with the occupation and reconstruction of Japan after the war. It’s a subtle reference to current events at the time this story was written that’s not part of the main story but is used as part of the reason why the main story is happening.

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Cranberry Thanksgiving

cranberrythanksgivingCranberry Thanksgiving by Wende and Harry Devlin, 1971.

Maggie and her grandmother like to invite friends to spend Thanksgiving with them.  Grandmother always tells Maggie to invite someone who doesn’t have anyone else to spend the holiday with.  This year, Grandmother has invited Mr. Horace, a pleasant man with an elegant manner staying at the local hotel.  Maggie has invited Mr. Whiskers, a friendly but somewhat scruffy sailor who has been on his own for years.

Grandmother has never really approved of Maggie’s friendship with Mr. Whiskers (whose real name is Uriah Peabody, but is called Mr. Whiskers because of his long, busy beard).  Mr. Whiskers’s unkempt appearance and lack of refinement have always bothered her.  She also suspects Mr. Whiskers of wanting to steal the secret recipe for her famous cranberry bread because he often shows up when she’s making it.  Some people have offered her a great deal of money for her recipe, but she insists that it’s a family secret that she’s leaving to Maggie.  Still, Mr. Whiskers has been a good friend to Maggie, so she allows him to come to Thanksgiving dinner.

As it happens, someone is out to steal Grandmother’s recipe, but not the person that she suspects.  It’s a nice holiday story about how appearances can be deceptive and real friendship is shown through honest behavior.

This book is part of a series, and like all the other books in the series, there is a recipe in the back.  The recipe in this book is for Grandmother’s Famous Cranberry Bread.

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The Tap Dance Mystery

eeetapThe Tap Dance Mystery by Susan Pearson, 1990.

The kids in Ernie’s class are assigned to groups to plan different acts for the show that they will have when their parents visit the school on Parents’ Night. The Martians are assigned to different groups. R. T.’s group is going to do magic tricks. Michael’s group is going to pretend to be a music group from Jupiter and play different homemade instruments. Unfortunately, William and Ernie are in the same group as Marcie, a mean and bossy girl who always smells sticky and sweet, like Juicy Fruit gum.

Marcie convinces the others that their group should tap dance because she has been taking lessons and can teach the others. William and Ernie struggle to learn the steps and make homemade tap shoes by tacking washers onto the bottoms of their shoes. Jason, the fourth member of their group, really likes dancing and shows a lot of talent for learning the moves. Still, only Marcie really looks the part of a dancer in her fancy costume and beautiful tap shoes.

Several kids ask Marcie if they can try on her tap shoes, including Jason, but she refuses to let them. Every day, she hides her shoes in a different place in their classroom when she isn’t there to watch them. When the shoes disappear, Marcie is convinced that Jason took them, but he says he didn’t. Ernie believes him, but she has to hurry if she is going to find the shoes and clear his name before Parents’ Night.

The solution to this mystery is fairly simple, but the story also has some interesting insights into the reasons why Marcie acts the way she does and the effect that parents’ expectations can have on their children.

This is part of the Eagle-Eye Ernie series.  The book is available to borrow and read for free online through Internet Archive.

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The Mystery in Old Quebec

mysteryoldquebecThe Mystery in Old Quebec by Mary C. Jane, 1955.

Mark and Kerry, a brother and sister, are visiting Quebec with their father, who is on a business trip. Their father allows them to explore the city on their own during the day while he works (something that would be unlikely to happen in modern times). The kids enjoy sight-seeing and learning French words and phrases.  They even make a new friend in the city, but they are troubled by events at the quaint little inn where they are staying.

On their first day there, Kerry’s coat mysteriously disappears and reappears with some strange messages in the pocket.  A boy wants them to take a message to someone in the city.  At night, Kerry hears someone crying in the next room. Is the boy being held prisoner at the inn? If so, why? Kerry and Mark are determined to help in any way they can, but time is running out.

The book is currently available online through Internet Archive.

My Reaction and Spoilers

mysteryoldquebecpicThe solution to the mystery involves family quarrels, custody issues, and racial tensions. In spite of that, this is actually a very gentle story.  In the end, the kids are dependent on the people the mysterious message was intended for to help a troubled, lonely child.  It turns out that the boy is an orphan, and some of his relatives are white, and some are First Nations (Native American). There is a fight for the boy’s custody, but the boy knows where he really wants to be.

The author describes the atmosphere of Quebec in some detail. The famous landmarks probably haven’t changed much, although I don’t know if all the descriptions are accurate anymore. I also thought it was interesting how the author includes some French phrases and their pronunciations and translations as the kids learn to communicate with French-speaking people in the city.

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The Talking Table Mystery

TalkingTableThe Talking Table Mystery by Georgess McHargue, 1977.

Annie Conway and her friend How are helping her great aunt to clear out her basement when they find a table that How thinks would work for his pet guinea pig’s cage. However, it’s not an ordinary table. It makes strange noises whenever they press on it, and in the box tied to the top of the table, they find a strange assortment of objects, including a little silver piccolo and some diaries.

Most of the diaries belong to Annie’s great grandfather, but there is one written by an unknown young girl. The girl apparently stayed in Annie’s great grandfather’s house years ago, and her diary refers to the girl’s mother’s strange behavior and the girl’s fears that something bad will happen. The diary itself is mysterious, but soon the kids start receiving threatening notes, telling them to hand over the diaries or something bad will happen. Who wants the diaries and why?

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

My Reaction and Spoilers

The basis for the mystery is 19th century spiritualism.  The former owner of the table was a spiritualist who used it for seances, creating rapping noises when the “spirits” were present.  Her daughter was the girl who wrote the diary.  She wasn’t happy about how she and mother kept moving around in search of new clients and how she had to help her mother by playing ghost during seances. They were staying with Annie’s great-grandfather because he was suffering from grief over the death of his young son, and the spiritualist was holding seances to try to contact his spirit.  At least, that’s what Annie’s great-grandfather thought.  The bad thing that the girl thought would happen was that she and her mother would be caught faking their seances, which turns out to be exactly what happened.  Annie’s great-grandfather was angry at being deceived and threw them out of the house, but he confiscated the rigged table and other things they used in their seances, including the girl’s beloved silver piccolo, so they wouldn’t be able to try their act on anyone else.

However, there is one more secret about Annie’s great-grandfather and the spiritualist. Annie and How eventually discover that they had a love affair during the spiritualist’s stay in the house. There is some discussion among the adults about how the spiritualist suffered more consequences and stigma for the affair than the great-grandfather did, although he was a married man when it happened.  As for what eventually happened to the girl and her mother after this incident, the clues are contained in the diary and with the people who now want them.

I thought that the use of the rigged spiritualist table in the story was fascinating. It’s basically like a piece of antique magician’s equipment that not everyone would know existed.  The story also introduces some interesting historical details about the concept of 19th century spiritualism and the types of people who followed it.  Annie’s great-grandfather was grieving for the loss of one of his young children, and like others of his time, he wanted to reach out to the spirit of the one he lost, in search of solace for the loss.  How much of the affair with the spiritualist was fueled by his grief and gratitude for someone he thought was helping him is unknown because we never hear his perspective on that, but his anger at discovering how he had been deceived shows that he did honestly believe that the seances were real and felt betrayed to realize they weren’t.  However, actions have consequences, and there were still some consequences from this incident that were never fully resolved.

The author is very knowledgeable on the subject of spiritualism, and she also wrote a nonfiction book on the subject.

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The Mystery at Fire Island

mysteryfireislandThe Mystery at Fire Island by Hope Campbell, 1978.

Darcy Littlewood, called “Dash,” is appalled when her art teacher tells her not to draw anything over the summer.  Drawing comes almost as naturally as breathing to Dash, who wants to be a cartoonist when she grows up.  She’s always doing sketches and caricatures of people she sees, especially her younger brother, JC (James Colson Littlewood, also known as “Coleslaw”).  But, her art teacher thinks that her style has grown too strong and inflexible too early in her life.  He thinks that if she takes a break from drawing for the summer, she’ll be able to come back to it with a fresh approach that will allow her to try different styles as she grows older.

To Dash, the idea of not drawing at all is intolerable, especially since she broke her leg shortly before the start of summer vacation.  She can’t go much of anywhere or do much of anything while her family is staying at their beach house on Fire Island.  Without much to do, she doesn’t know how she’d entertain herself if she couldn’t draw.

Her older sister, Candace, isn’t happy about spending the summer on Fire Island, either.  She says that there’s never anything to do there, although their mother attributes part of her boredom to the fact that she’s the only one in the family who doesn’t have an outstanding talent or a particular goal in her life.  Everyone else in the family is artistically-inclined in some way.  Mrs. Littlewood is a writer, Mr. Littlewood teaches drama, JC has acting skills and a special talent for imitating people, and Dash has her art.  Mrs. Littlewood thinks that Candy’s attitude would improve if she found something that she was especially good at and truly cared about.

While Dash is brooding about her inability to stop drawing in spite of her art teacher’s request, she makes the acquaintance of Mrs. Guizot, an eccentric older woman who spots her drawing caricatures.  It turns out that Mrs. Guizot is an art lover, and she quickly becomes a fan of Dash’s work.  But, there is something mysterious about Mrs. Guizot, or at least the man they see her talking to.

Both Dash and JC notice that the man has a peculiar way of standing and walking.  Dash draws it, and JC imitates it.  So, when they see the same man on the beach later that night, looking different without his beard and wig, but still walking and standing the same way, they wonder why the man was in disguise.  Also, he seems to be going out surfing when there aren’t any waves for surfing.  Then, they discover that he’s bringing scuba tanks with him, and they aren’t real scuba tanks.  What is the man doing?

The kids try to investigate the mysterious man with JC doing much of the leg work at first because Dash can’t get around very well.  JC is worried about what they might learn because the man might turn out to be truly sinister and violent.  He even has suspicions about Mrs. Guizot.  Later, Dash’s leg improves and she’s able to take a more active role in the investigation, but the kids pretend like she’s still laid up as a cover for their activities.  The kids’ investigation doesn’t go as planned, but they do uncover a crime and also inadvertently help their sister to find her life’s vocation.

Part of the story has to do with seeing with depth.  Part of the reason why Dash’s art teacher wants her to observe more and draw less is so that her art will contain more depth.  Dash also learns to see the depths of people, the things they keep hidden behind their facades.  Her sister, Candy, also has hidden depths which even she doesn’t appreciate yet.

The story was later made into a tv movie by the same name, and the picture on the front cover of this edition of the book is from the movie.