Skeleton Cave

by Cora Cheney

It couldn't be—but it was! There in the cave lay a human skeleton.
How did it get there? What did it mean? Davy could hardly wait to go back to the cave with his grandfather to solve the mystery.
But sadly, Davy has to promise his Ma that he won't go back to the cave alone. Pa is away. Grampy is sick and can't use his legs. If only Davy could think of a way to get Grampy to the cave!
He does. And at the same time he learns the answer to the riddle of the skeleton in the cave.

91 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1954

About the author

Cora Cheney Partridge, feminist who wrote children's novels and was one of the oldest women to be ordained an Episcopal priest, has died. She was 82.
Partridge, who wrote more than 20 books of fiction, history and folklore under her maiden name, died Feb. 21 of complications from a stroke in her Tacoma Park, Md., home.
Her first and most memorable book was "Skeleton Cave," which she wrote in 1954 describing a boy who finds American Indian relics near his home.
As matriarch of an itinerant Navy family, Partridge took her four children to postings of her husband, Benjamin W. Partridge Jr., in the Philippines, Iceland and across the United States. The locales found their way into many of her 15 children's novels, such as "The Pegged Leg Pirate of Sulu," 'The Girl at Jungle's Edge," "Tales from a Taiwan Kitchen" and "The Case of the Iceland Dogs."
Her 1977 history book (revised in 1981), "Vermont, the State with the Storybook Past," is still in use there as a school textbook. Partridge combined history and folklore in her 1980 book "Alaska: Indians, Eskimos, Russians and the Rest."
After her husband retired and their children were on their own, Partridge mentioned her interest in becoming an Episcopalian priest. With the encouragement of her husband, she was ordained at age 65, one of the oldest American women to do so.
Her husband followed her to assignments in Vermont, Delaware and Florida, where she helped establish rural church missions. She worked with shut-ins and the elderly, often using a portable altar a son had made from an ironing board.
In 1989, Partridge helped organize an abortion rights march of "the matriarchs," a group of women in their 60s and 70s, in Tallahassee, Fla.
"We have lived long enough to know that women have to have the choice," Partridge told the St. Petersburg Times. "It's a gut thing, not something that is political, social or economical."
Partridge was active at St. John's Church in Tallahassee and founded St. Mark's Episcopal Mission in that area.
In addition to her husband, she is survived by two sons and two daughters, B. Waring, Alan, Marika and Denny Partridge; two sisters and nine grandchildren.

Reviews

[Hannah · Rating 1 out of 5]

You'd think a children's book called "Skeleton Cave" would have all kinds of spooky, exciting, adventurous things between the pages.

You'd be wrong.

Snoozefest.

[C. (Comment, never msg). · Rating 2 out of 5]

I pegged “Skeleton Cave” with excitement. An eerie synopsis suggests a mysterious discovery to solve, spent stimulatingly in a cave. No dice! Grandpa knew their cave for years, with a shelf-full of oddments he collected. After a skeleton appears in it, the whole novel is about promising a worry-wart Mother Davy won't re-enter the cave! She is busy holding the home and garden together, with her Dad physically shaky, and Davy's Dad mending an injury in hospital. They are poorer than dirt, stereotypically and Davy believes the only way he can get an adult to that cave is to buy Grandpa a wheelchair.

Gosh, how many needless strains of stress and stupid plots can we avoid, if people work at a polite debate until we come to an agreement? Davy's Grandpa reads an advertisement with a money opportunity and all Davy or Grandpa himself had to do is retry his Mom later. Say “I want to respect your wishes but here is why I need one careful trip to the cave”. Instead, this becomes a novel about a country boy braving a trip to the city on his own, to see a professor of archaeology. It is all about sneaking into a neighbour's truck, who is going to the city, and being as daring as he can be, while being disobedient as little as possible. All needless and not in keeping with the exciting cave expedition that was presented.

Yes, a little flavour of 1954 country life in the United States is nice but this wasn't billed as a poverty story, with a boy trying to afford a wheelchair and the adventure being the city. Dear Cora Cheney, please give us something mysterious if that's what you promise, or please categorize contents accordingly. Paul Galdone illustrated some of the pages.

[Kim · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was a simple little book. I gave it five stars because I loved it when I read it as a child.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Invalid Grandpa tells his young grandson Davy about a cave where Indian artifacts have been found. Davy also finds a human skeleton. How will Davy be able to get his grandfather to the cave to see the skeleton? What is Davy's idea to purchase a wheelchair for his grandfather so he can get him to the cave? You must read the book to find out.

This book was written in 1954; the copy I have is a Scholastic copy printed in 1967. I probably read this book around that time, so in 2nd or 3rd grade. I loved to read mysteries when I was a kid; so I enjoyed this book. Not sure kids today of that age would enjoy it as much; so many things have changed. Gathering 'greens from the garden' and getting 'water from the spring' are unfamiliar things to most kids today. Having said that though, I enjoyed re-reading this book from my childhood.

[Jason · Rating 3 out of 5]

I got this book through a school sponsored reading club in the mid 1970s

It’s a very simple story. As a child I remember reading it with increasing disappointment as it turned out to be a very tame “adventure” story and little mystery or suspense. It has a fairly heavy handed Christian flavour to it as well although this probably would have well reflected the time and place of its setting (rural America 1954).

I reread it as an adult a few years ago and sadly did not find much to enjoy in it.