My Crazy Cousin Courtney by Judi Miller, 1993.
Cathy Bushwick usually spends the summer at camp, but this summer, her mother is having her stay in the city because her cousin Courtney is coming to visit them in New York. Cathy and Courtney are actually second cousins because their mothers are first cousins. They’re the same age (thirteen) and met once when they were five, but neither of them remembers it. All that Cathy really knows about Courtney before she arrives is that she’s somewhat neurotic (Courtney is troubled by anxiety and panic attacks) and that the reason she’s coming to visit is that her parents are thinking of getting a divorce and need time alone to discuss it.
Cathy understands what it’s like to live with a single parent. Her parents are divorced, and her father went to California years ago to become an actor. She hasn’t heard from him since. Her mother used to be an actress, but with Cathy to take care of, she became a theatrical agent for animals instead (she finds animals for people to use in commercials). So, when Cathy hears that Courtney will be visiting from Beverly Hills, she’s very excited. At first, she hopes that she and Courtney will be like sisters and that Courtney might have even heard of her father in California.
Cathy’s illusions are shattered almost immediately. Courtney not only hasn’t heard of her father but she’s nothing like Cathy imagined. When she and her mother go to meet her at the airport, she’s wearing heart-shaped sunglasses and a hot pink shirt that says, “KISS ME QUICK,” and she has a pile of luggage. She’s used to having money and getting the best of everything, and she’s immediately disappointed with the modest apartment where Cathy and her mother live. When she learns that they don’t even have a pool, she gets upset and wants to go home. But, it’s no use. She’s stuck there for the summer. And, they’re stuck with her.
But, things don’t turn out to be as bad as Cathy fears they’re going to be. In some ways, they’re worse. Once Courtney reconciles herself to spending the summer in New York, she has some very specific ideas about things that she’d like to do, and a lot of them end up getting the girls in trouble. Shy, sensible Cathy finds herself getting locked in Tiffany’s after closing time because Courtney thought she saw a spy stealing their designs, rescuing Courtney from the dolphin pool at the aquarium, and lots of other things that she never thought she’d find herself doing. Then, one day, the girls think they’ve witnessed a murder. What are they going to do? Is Cathy going to survive the summer with her crazy cousin Courtney?
This book is the first in a series about Cathy and Courtney. Courtney may be a bit wild, but she’s not as crazy as Cathy thinks. Over the course of the summer, the two become friends, and they learn quite a few things about each other and about themselves. By the time Courtney has to go home, a little of each of them has rubbed off on the other, and neither will be quite the same again.
The book is available online through Internet Archive.
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang by Ian Fleming, 1964.
The Night Crossing by Karen Ackerman, 1994.
This is a pretty short chapter book. Although the subject matter is serious, and parts might be frightening to young children (the part where Clara and Marta are chased and perhaps some of the parts where the family is hiding), there are only vague references to more dark subjects like concentration camps (people who already know what they are and what happened there would understand, but children who haven’t heard about them wouldn’t get the full picture from the brief mentions). The book would be a good, short introduction to the topic of the Holocaust by putting it in terms of the way it changed the lives of ordinary people who had to flee from it. Actually, it wouldn’t be a bad way to start a discussion of the Syrian refugees in Europe by putting it into the context of ordinary people fleeing the violence of war.
Never Hit a Ghost with a Baseball Bat by Eth Clifford, 1993.
The girls explore the trolleys parked in the museum and admire the manikins dressed in old-fashioned clothing that are part of the displays in each trolley car, but more strange things happen. A teddy bear seems to speak to them, even though it isn’t the kind with a string and a talk-box. The manikins start to seem creepier. Mary-Rose and Jo-Beth are only armed with a baseball bat from one of the displays and the old teddy bear (which terrifies Jo-Beth). But, Mary Rose is determined to find the ghost, even if it’s the last thing she does!
The Dastardly Murder of Dirty Pete by Eth Clifford, 1981.
Harry Onetree and the girls find a ghost town with a hotel, an opera house, and several other buildings. Although Harry only means to look around for a little while, he forgets to set his parking brake (something else Mary Rose warns him about, which he ignores), and their car rolls backward into a ditch. Since it’s getting dark, they’re stranded in the ghost town for the night. But, they’re not alone there.
Scared Silly by Eth Clifford, 1988.
While the Onetree family is visiting the museum, a pair of shoes that once belonged to a Chinese emperor disappears. Like the two Onetree sisters, Gus considers himself the sensible brother and doesn’t take Razendale, the dreamier sibling, very seriously. He thinks Razendale ran off with the shoes as a prank. But, Erik, who seems more sensible than either of his uncles, says that they can’t just accuse him without proof. Gus provides them with an invention that could settle the whole matter, but that depends on whether or not they can trust Gus.
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