Vacation in Tupelo Landing - with ghosts

 

A good book is like a mind vacation.  And that's what reading The Ghosts of Tupelo Landing was like.  Mo Lebeau, Miss Lana, Dale and the Colonel are back with a local history assignment, a new kid in class, and an auction at the abandoned inn.

Miss Lana and Grandmother Miss Lacy conspire to purchase the inn. (The other bidder was despicable!)  And the inn comes with a ghost - in the fine print of the deed.

The members of the Desperado Detective Agency (Mo and Dale) decide to unmask that ghost with terrifying and edifying results.

I love fiction - because it's not fact.  There are kids out there as quick-witted - or quick-mouthed - as Mo.  We just don't run into them all that often.  There are friendships like Mo and Dale's, too.  Still, Mo's mindfulness about Dale's thinking ("rhetorical" "social skills") and Dale's just plain niceness work to warm the reader's heart. ( Of older readers, anyway.)

There is a little incident toward the end of the book.  Dale has visited his dad, Macon, in jail and Dale's older brother, Lavender, asks about the visit.  "Same dog, same spots,"  Dale says (mixing up the leopard/spots thing.).  Mo notices that Lavender's face goes soft, the way that Miss Lana's face looks sometimes when Miss Lana looks at Mo.  And the reader knows that Lavender truly loves - no, cherishes - his little brother.

Yeah, I wish Tupelo Landing was a real place.  I wish I could visit with the Colonel and Mo and Miss Lana.  And I hope that there's another book about this cozy, folksy little town.

And the ghost part?  It's intriguing and, in the end, it's the stuff of fairy tales and happy endings.  Pan from the strings of lights to the twinkling stars, please.  Fade.

Battle Joined

I have not read tomorrow's contestants in The Battle of the Kids' Books.  They are Endangered! by Eliot Schrefer and Three Times Lucky by Sheila Turnage.  The judge is Kathi Appelt.

Unfortunately for me, the two largest public libraries close to me do not own Endangered!  Yeah!  I know!  It's a National Book Award Finalist, for golly sakes!  They both own Three Times Lucky, but obviously the word is out that this is an awesome book because it is on hold at my hometown library and out at the "other" library.

(And, with huge apologies to all the booksellers out there who do such awesome work keeping literature alive, I only buy books that I have learned to love.  It's a cheapster thing.)

So I have read a few reviews and I have investigated the judge.  And, even though I am totally unqualified to make a prediction, I will!  I predict that the small-town girl will beat out the orphaned chimpanzee. 

  Who can resist a message in a bottle?

I predict that tomorrow, Three Times Lucky will move on to the next round.  I predict this for three reasons. 

Reason 1:  Kathi Appelt's own work leans toward small-town and rural characters.
Reason 2:  Sassy orphans beat out orphaned animals most of the time.
Reason 3:  The American South is more appealing than the Congo, especially now.

But the New York Times review of Endangered! gives me pause.
There just might be a surfeit of small-town mysteries in children's books right now.  The suspense and tension of Sophie's attempt to save her small bonobo friend may tip the scales in Endangerd!'s favor.

He looks so frightened.  I want to save him, myself.

I wish I had a chance to read just one of these books!!!

I have nothing to lose!  I stand by my prediction. Three Times Lucky will win tomorrow.  (maybe)