Elizabeth Gail and the Teddy Bear Mystery

Elizabeth Gail Wind Rider #3

by Hilda Stahl

Libby found herself right in the middle of a mystery when she was given the responsibility of protecting Teddy from a menacing stranger. Where could she get the courage to face the dangerous man who threatened Grandma Feuder?.

Genres: Christian Fiction, Mystery, Fiction, Christian, Childrens, Middle Grade

124 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 1979

About the author

Hilda Stahl was an American author of middle grade and young adult novels, many of them in series. Most of her books are classified as Christian fiction.

Biography from one of her books: "Hilda Stahl was born and raised in the Nebraska sandhills. As a Young teen she attended Bible college, where she met her husband, Norman. They raised their seven children in Michigan, where she lived until her death in 1993. When Hilda was a young mother with three children, she saw an ad in a magazine for a correspondence course in writing. She took the test, passed it, and soon fell in love with writing. She wrote whenever she had free time, and eventually began to sell her work. The first Elizabeth Gail book, The Mystery at the Johnson Farm, was made into a movie in 1989. It was a real dream come true for Hilda. She wanted her books and their message of God's love and power to reach and help people all over the world.
— biography from Elizabeth Gail and the Mystery at the Johnson Farm

Reviews

[Elizabeth Dragina · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book destroyed me. In no pleasant manners.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

For a reading I had to read a childhood favorite. This was fun to read again.

[Jreads · Rating 2 out of 5]

☆2
This book is laughably bad but has- some charm?

Elizabeth Gail is a girl who lives in- some rural area and she's a foster kid. I enjoyed the depiction of foster kids and how they're bullied, it's important for kids to learn basic empathy and seeing a main character going through struggles because of their situations helps with that.

I'm just going to say this right now I had NO IDEA this was a Christian book. They mentioned God and I was like "huh.. ok" and then they hammered home the Christian book by mentioning God or Jesus over and over and over again.
Yes you can write good stories about God without the story centering around specifically God but this is NOT the way to do this.
Of course it couldn't be Christian media without a conversion and there are multiple honestly laughable conversions in this book. They had the chance to make some nice conversions that actually make sense but instead chose to depict not one but two characters completely changing their world view within MINUTES it's insane and just overall bad writing?
It's like the author didn't feel like putting time into some Apologetics for young kids so she just had the characters say "Jesus loves you" and thats all they need.
You think I'm exaggerating but no Elizabeth or other characters are like "but Jesus" and the converted character is like "understandable, I'm a Christian"
I laughed out loud at so many points in this book, honestly it felt like a parody except they were being serious.
Don't get me wrong there were some nice moments of Christianity where Elizabeth and her foster parents prayed with her and Elizabeth just enjoying her faith but everything else just felt like too much.

One character, Adam, spends the entire book being miserable and not believing in God while Elizabeth and her grandmother talk about God NONSTOP in front of him. He's not a Christian throughout 80% of the book and then deus ex machina Ben comes out of nowhere and is like "I need to talk to Adam" they have quote unquote; "a long conversation" and Adam comes out as a bland washed version of himself repeating lines you'd find painted on the walls of a chic Fila.
"Ben talked to me and now I've accepted christ as my savior" WHAT
HE ACTS LIKE HES NEVER HEARD OF JESUS BEFORE LIKE WHAT IS THIS??
If I wasn't a Christian and read this book, I'd continue to not be a Christian because as soon as a character with any kind of personality converts they lose all their personality.
The great thing about conversion story's is that everyone's is different, God reaches them in their own way. But with this everyone is just like "Jesus loves me? Woah that's novel time to change the worldview I've held for 10+ years"
It's just lazy

Besides the lazy Christian writing there's even more lazy writing, like, Grandma's dogs name is lapdog and the teddy bear that makes up the whole plot is just called teddy. You couldn't think of some names???
Also who invites people inside for bananas and milk??
And Bob dupont if you're trying to make someone feel like you're not a creep, NEVER SAY " Hey, you don't have to be afraid of me. I don't hurt little girls" (<- that's an exact quote)

I don't understand how this book ISNT a parody
☆2 ▪︎ 124 pg

[Mini Van Mama Bear · Rating 5 out of 5]

I gave this book 5 stars and I will give all of them 5 stars.

I will agree with others that the writing is dated (written in the 80s I believe). I decided to re-read all of the Elizabeth Gail books this year. I'm in my 40s and as soon as I open the cover, I'm transformed back to my pre-teen/teen self who was mesmerized by the story unfolding. I was adopted as an infant and never faced the challenges of a foster child, but inwardly I always kind of felt like an unwanted kid purely because I was adopted. I believe that God ordered my steps and placed me in the family where I needed to be, but I sure did wish I lived on the Johnson farm with Elizabeth Gail and her family.

[Jenna]

Don't judge! I was young, and really bored!

[Sara · Rating 2 out of 5]

Teddy bears are a good place to hide your valuables. And old ladies are sweet, and they like to ply young kids with tea and cookies.

[Abi Maldonado · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was passed down to me as a kid. Nice story