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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.

Posted on by TracyC

Frankenstein and the Whiz Kid

Frankenstein and the Whiz Kid by Vic Crume, 1975.

This book is a novelization of a made-for-tv Disney movie called The Whiz Kid and the Carnival Caper (some editions of this book also use that title).  There was also an earlier movie with the same characters called The Whiz Kid and the Mystery at Riverton.  I haven’t been able to find either of these movies for sale or on YouTube.  Both of the movies are based on a character created for a series of books by Clifford B. Hicks.

The “Whiz Kid” is Alvin Fernald, a boy who is always creating amazing inventions.  He has quite a reputation in his town.  Sometimes, people also call him “The Magnificent Brain.”

One day, his sister, Daphne (called “Daffy”), borrows one of Alvin’s rockets, showing a friend how they work.  However, the rocket ends up falling down a storm drain, and Daffy climbs in to retrieve it.  Alvin comes along as Daffy has trouble getting out and gives her directions to the storm drain’s opening.  Daffy follows the directions and gets out, but while she’s still walking around in the storm drain, she sees a mysterious man with a gun.  Fortunately, he doesn’t spot her, but she wonders what he was doing in the storm drain with a gun.

The place where the storm drain comes out is near a carnival that has come to town.  Alvin, Daffy, and Alvin’s friend Shoie want to go to the carnival, but they need some money.  To get some, Alvin brings out one of his earlier invention, a car-washing machine.  The others are dubious about that invention because it has caused problems before, but Alvin says that he’s fixed it.

Their first prospect for a car wash is the person who has moved into a spooky old house in their neighborhood.  It turns out to be a beautiful young woman named Cathy Martin.  Alvin is eager to impress her, but unfortunately, his invention goes haywire and ends up making a mess that the kids have to clean up (as well as making apologies to other people affected by the chaos).  However, Cathy agrees to go to the carnival with Alvin.

The carnival turns out to be an opportunity for another of Alvin’s inventions when the automaton that they’re using as Frankenstein’s monster in a carnival show breaks down.  Alvin also has a robot that he has built, and he offers the use of it to the man who works on the carnival’s automaton, so the show won’t have to close down.  The man accepts Alvin’s offer, and Daffy volunteers to help with the robot’s costume.

Cathy meets them at the carnival, and to Alvin’s annoyance, suggests that the four of them have fun together, instead of just her and Alvin.  The four of them do have fun, but they stumble onto something strange about Cathy.  They spot a man who Alvin and Shoie met at Cathy’s house.  Cathy said that he was her younger brother, on leave from his base, and that he had to be heading back there soon.  But, Alvin and Shoie wonder what he’s doing at the carnival if he’s supposed to be back and his base.  Then, Daffy recognizes him as the man she saw in the storm drain with a gun!  Who is he really?

The kids decide to spy on Cathy’s house, and they learn that the man, called Ernie, and the magician from the carnival, Moroni, are planning a bank robbery and that Cathy is in on their plans.  It’s a terrible disappointment to Alvin because he liked Cathy, but he thinks that they have a duty to tell Police Chief Moody about their plans.

Chief Moody is somewhat skeptical about what the kids overheard, but he and he deputy stakeout the bank.  When nothing happens, he thinks that the kids raised a false alarm, but it turns out that the robbers’ plan is more complicated than they know.

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The Mysterious Queen of Magic

KleepQueenMagicThe Mysterious Queen of Magic by Joan Lowery Nixon, 1981.

This is part of the Kleep: Space Detective series.

Kleep and Till meet a strange young man who is looking for Kleep’s grandfather, Arko.  The young man, Mikkel, tells them a wild story, that an evil wizard is after him.  He is controlling Mikkel’s people on the planet Durth, putting them under a spell and forcing them to become his slaves. Mikkel believes that Arko may have the key to getting rid of him because an old wise man told him to ask Arko how to find Queen Stellara.  Queen Stellara was a legendary queen who could do magic, and Arko has some old write-rolls, scrolls of the kind people used to use before people began using computers alone for learning, that talk about her and her kingdom.  However, Arko doesn’t believe in wizards or magic spells or anything of the kind.

Kleep remembers Arko telling her the old stories from the write-rolls when she was little, and unlike her grandfather, she believes that wizards and magic may be real and wants to try to help Mikkel.  When Arko says that he doesn’t believe in magic and can’t help Mikkel, Kleep and her friend Till decide to use the scrolls to try to help Mikkel find Queen Stellara.  Taking Kleep’s robot, Zibbit, with them, they journey to the planet Loctar, where Queen Stellara was supposed to live.

Although this series is mostly sci-fi with a bit of mystery thrown in, this book is more fantasy.  When Kleep and her friends arrive on the planet Loctar, they discover that they must face a series of challenges to reach the legendary queen’s palace, like heros in a fairy tale.  Magic is real, and they must prove themselves worthy in order to meet the queen and ask her for the solution to the problem of the evil wizard.  But, their ordeal doesn’t quite end there because, while Queen Stellara provides them with the means to fight the wizard, they must face him themselves!

A little corny, but fun, although it’s not my favorite book in the series.  The others were more sci-fi, and this is more fantasy.  Also, for a “detective” series, there isn’t much mystery, more adventure.  It sort of reminds me of the original Star Trek episode Catspaw, except that the magical beings in this one are apparently really magical and not just aliens.  Like the other books in this series, I like the pictures, too.

KleepQueenMagicPic3

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Kidnapped on Astarr

KleepKidnappedAstarrKidnapped on Astarr by Joan Lowery Nixon, 1981.

This is part of the Kleep: Space Detective series.

Till’s mother, Falda, has mysteriously disappeared, and Till is sure that someone has abducted her.  The only clue he has is an unfinished note that his mother left for him with the letters “RU” on it.  He takes it to Kleep and her grandfather Arko, and the three of them puzzle over what it could mean.  Arko and the kids decide that the two most likely things the letters could be part of are a kind of metal that Arko and Falda are using in the project they’re currently working on (“ruthenium”) or a group of people who are enemies of theirs, the Ruzenians.  The people of Ruzena lived on Astarr before Kleep’s people arrived from Ruel (another possible “RU” word that they ruled out) and have resented their intrusion.

Arko decides that he will first visit the mine where they get their metal, hoping that Falda has gone there in connection with their project to create a new way to anchor small space ships at outer space docks.  However, Kleep and Till can’t help but think that the Ruzenians have kidnapped Falda.  Arko wants them to stay at the house with the robot Zibbit until he returns, but they feel like they can’t wait and decide to take Zibbit with them to investigate the Ruzenians.

It’s a harrowing journey through Ruzenian territory, through a dark forest with giant worms and singing trees whose music threatens to overtake their minds, but they do discover that is where Falda is being held prisoner.  Unfortunately, Kleep, Till, and Zibbit are also captured.  With the king of Ruzena suspicious of the projects that Arko and Falda are working on (he thinks they’re designing weapons, but they’re not), what can they do to escape or get help?