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Pratt Twins #6
The Candy Cane Caper
Twins Chris and Sue Pratt travel to Vermont to spend Christmas with their grandparents, discover that someone is embezzling funds from the local children's hospital, and set out to find the culprit.
- GenresYoung Adult
124 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1976
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
July 25, 2021
Candy Cane Caper
Plot: Chris and Susan will be spending Christmas in Vermont with their grandparents because Chris wants a more traditional Christmas (with snow). Chris and Susan arrive and are taken back to their grandparent's place by Andy Connors (who does housework for them). After they catch up, their grandparents drop the bomb that they want to sell their house and move to Florida to a retirement center. Susan and Chris vow to find a way while they are there to change their minds.
The next day Chris goes off ice skating and Susan goes Christmas shopping in town. She meets a boy her age (Brian) and a younger boy with a bandaged arm building a snowman. Full of curiosity that the younger boy makes a comment about her being lucky that she gets to spend Christmas with her family, she invites them both over to her Grandparent's house. Later she sees Brian again and he tells her that Danny (the younger boy) is a patient at the hospital he works for. But it looks like due to a lack of funds the hospital will be closing soon and there won’t be much money for gifts for the kids. Not only that Danny probably won’t be able to see his family because they live a little bit away. He invites Susan out sledding before leaving to go home.
Susan, Brian, Chris, Andy, go sledding (along with their grandparents). Susan introduces Chris to Betty (a little with a craft store in town). The next day Brian gives Susan a tour of the hospital. He warns her about bumping into the director Mr. Stone and describes him as “some-timey”. Susan is even more determined when she meets the kids and sees how devoid the hospital is of holiday spirit to turn things around. Chris spends the day unsuccessfully looking for presents. While exploring the attic with Emily Pratt she finds out that her Grams is good at homemade crafts. Later Susan comes up with the idea to hold a Ridgewood Christmas Bazar. With the money, they make selling crafts, trees, and cookies they can not only give the kids a great Christmas but Chris can also find presents for her twin and grandparents.
Things get underway. Andy gets permission to use the church’s community center room. Grandpa John says he can cut down Christmas trees and sell them. Grandma Emily says she can donate some of her handmade crafts and plus she has a lot of friends that are also creative. Susan says she can raffle off a big Gingerbread house and Brian’s sister can also make cookies. Chris says she’ll go around and see if the shops are willing to give items to the Bazar. Andy says he knows of a lady that will play Christmas carols on the piano. Another lady that makes hot cider to sell. Then yet he knows another lady that is working with kids that will do a Christmas performance. So everything is looking up!
Chris gets a lot of support from the shop owners. Some like the owner of the book store even throw in free merchandise to give as presents. While having lunch with Brian, Susan finds out that there’s a rumor Mr. Stone might be the cause of the hospital’s financial troubles, because it’s said he’s embezzling money. But he then shows up and he seems excited about the plans for the Bazar. Not only that he offers the hospital’s help. Chris tho wants to dig into the rumor and the Candy Cane Caper is given its name (and born).
The twins meet Brian at a fancy Italian restaurant (Alfredo’s) to tell him the plan. Surprise! Surprise! M r. Stone shows up again and then reveals that he’s not only a major investor he also plans to open up eight other Alfredo’s restaurants. But where’s he getting all that money? At the Christmas Bazar, Mr. Stone grabs Susan and tells her that she and her sister better keep their noses out of his business. Then he catches them snooping around his office, and to let them know he’s on to them, he tells them they’d better both be at the party.
And they are. Only the twins manipulate the heat at the kid’s Christmas party so Chris leaves to go snoop in Mr. Stone’s office and Susan changes into Chris’s clothes and pretends to be her. While in his office, Chris finds a disk in his briefcase that shows the actual budget for the hospital and the budget he submits that’s for a lot more. The party is a success. Two Santa’s show up at the party and Danny is told that Santa like Chris and Susan has a twin. Assumingly Chris turns in the report to the Board of Director’s and Mr. Stone is fired. The hospital is saved. Susan and Chris end up in the newspaper, Mr. and Mrs. Pratt shows up on Christmas (deciding they can’t be apart from the twins and come home from Mexico, and the Grandparents decide not to sell the house (only there’s another book when they do decide to sell the house and move to the retirement center).
My Thoughts: I really liked the mood and atmosphere of this one (the small Vermont village, the shops, the mention of the making of gingerbread houses and cookies, the twin’s sledding date, the description of how the Grandparents house was decked out with candles, wreaths, a fireplace. I understood why Chris and Susan were longing for a traditional Christmas. Maybe not so much the snow (I’ve never really cared about that) but these days the extent of our Christmas spirit is putting automatically timed candles in the window. Long gone are the days when we put up a Christmas tree and had presents underneath or there were stockings filled with treats. And I also loved the activities (the Christmas Bazar, the Christmas party for the kids). This book just *felt* good. I loved that the book store was the first to volunteer to give the kids books as presents (because I ADORE books) and that left a warm, feeling of “this is what Christmas spirit is all about”. I also thought that Brian was one of the most SENSIBLE characters I’ve read about in this series! Every other guy just seems so taken by the twins that they just go along with whatever DANGEROUS thing they “just feel like they need” to be involved in. Brian actually tries to talk them out of it. I just do not understand why they feel like they need to risk their lives like this themselves. Surely Vermont has PI (Private Investigators). We know they have a Board. Could it have been voiced to the Board their suspicions and THEY look into it? As a matter of fact, WHY hasn’t the Board looked into it ON THEIR OWN? I’ve Susan and Chris make it to see middle age I’d be very surprised because one day I think one day their luck is gonna run slap out and they’re gonna be doing something because they feel it’s their super twin duty and wind up in the hospital or worse… It started so late in the book that they suspected Mr. Stone at all, I wondered how in about 4 chapters they were gonna solve the mystery and conclude the book.
Rating: 7 Visually and conceptually it was charming! I loved with Susan and Chris did for the hospital and the kids!
Plot: Chris and Susan will be spending Christmas in Vermont with their grandparents because Chris wants a more traditional Christmas (with snow). Chris and Susan arrive and are taken back to their grandparent's place by Andy Connors (who does housework for them). After they catch up, their grandparents drop the bomb that they want to sell their house and move to Florida to a retirement center. Susan and Chris vow to find a way while they are there to change their minds.
The next day Chris goes off ice skating and Susan goes Christmas shopping in town. She meets a boy her age (Brian) and a younger boy with a bandaged arm building a snowman. Full of curiosity that the younger boy makes a comment about her being lucky that she gets to spend Christmas with her family, she invites them both over to her Grandparent's house. Later she sees Brian again and he tells her that Danny (the younger boy) is a patient at the hospital he works for. But it looks like due to a lack of funds the hospital will be closing soon and there won’t be much money for gifts for the kids. Not only that Danny probably won’t be able to see his family because they live a little bit away. He invites Susan out sledding before leaving to go home.
Susan, Brian, Chris, Andy, go sledding (along with their grandparents). Susan introduces Chris to Betty (a little with a craft store in town). The next day Brian gives Susan a tour of the hospital. He warns her about bumping into the director Mr. Stone and describes him as “some-timey”. Susan is even more determined when she meets the kids and sees how devoid the hospital is of holiday spirit to turn things around. Chris spends the day unsuccessfully looking for presents. While exploring the attic with Emily Pratt she finds out that her Grams is good at homemade crafts. Later Susan comes up with the idea to hold a Ridgewood Christmas Bazar. With the money, they make selling crafts, trees, and cookies they can not only give the kids a great Christmas but Chris can also find presents for her twin and grandparents.
Things get underway. Andy gets permission to use the church’s community center room. Grandpa John says he can cut down Christmas trees and sell them. Grandma Emily says she can donate some of her handmade crafts and plus she has a lot of friends that are also creative. Susan says she can raffle off a big Gingerbread house and Brian’s sister can also make cookies. Chris says she’ll go around and see if the shops are willing to give items to the Bazar. Andy says he knows of a lady that will play Christmas carols on the piano. Another lady that makes hot cider to sell. Then yet he knows another lady that is working with kids that will do a Christmas performance. So everything is looking up!
Chris gets a lot of support from the shop owners. Some like the owner of the book store even throw in free merchandise to give as presents. While having lunch with Brian, Susan finds out that there’s a rumor Mr. Stone might be the cause of the hospital’s financial troubles, because it’s said he’s embezzling money. But he then shows up and he seems excited about the plans for the Bazar. Not only that he offers the hospital’s help. Chris tho wants to dig into the rumor and the Candy Cane Caper is given its name (and born).
The twins meet Brian at a fancy Italian restaurant (Alfredo’s) to tell him the plan. Surprise! Surprise! M r. Stone shows up again and then reveals that he’s not only a major investor he also plans to open up eight other Alfredo’s restaurants. But where’s he getting all that money? At the Christmas Bazar, Mr. Stone grabs Susan and tells her that she and her sister better keep their noses out of his business. Then he catches them snooping around his office, and to let them know he’s on to them, he tells them they’d better both be at the party.
And they are. Only the twins manipulate the heat at the kid’s Christmas party so Chris leaves to go snoop in Mr. Stone’s office and Susan changes into Chris’s clothes and pretends to be her. While in his office, Chris finds a disk in his briefcase that shows the actual budget for the hospital and the budget he submits that’s for a lot more. The party is a success. Two Santa’s show up at the party and Danny is told that Santa like Chris and Susan has a twin. Assumingly Chris turns in the report to the Board of Director’s and Mr. Stone is fired. The hospital is saved. Susan and Chris end up in the newspaper, Mr. and Mrs. Pratt shows up on Christmas (deciding they can’t be apart from the twins and come home from Mexico, and the Grandparents decide not to sell the house (only there’s another book when they do decide to sell the house and move to the retirement center).
My Thoughts: I really liked the mood and atmosphere of this one (the small Vermont village, the shops, the mention of the making of gingerbread houses and cookies, the twin’s sledding date, the description of how the Grandparents house was decked out with candles, wreaths, a fireplace. I understood why Chris and Susan were longing for a traditional Christmas. Maybe not so much the snow (I’ve never really cared about that) but these days the extent of our Christmas spirit is putting automatically timed candles in the window. Long gone are the days when we put up a Christmas tree and had presents underneath or there were stockings filled with treats. And I also loved the activities (the Christmas Bazar, the Christmas party for the kids). This book just *felt* good. I loved that the book store was the first to volunteer to give the kids books as presents (because I ADORE books) and that left a warm, feeling of “this is what Christmas spirit is all about”. I also thought that Brian was one of the most SENSIBLE characters I’ve read about in this series! Every other guy just seems so taken by the twins that they just go along with whatever DANGEROUS thing they “just feel like they need” to be involved in. Brian actually tries to talk them out of it. I just do not understand why they feel like they need to risk their lives like this themselves. Surely Vermont has PI (Private Investigators). We know they have a Board. Could it have been voiced to the Board their suspicions and THEY look into it? As a matter of fact, WHY hasn’t the Board looked into it ON THEIR OWN? I’ve Susan and Chris make it to see middle age I’d be very surprised because one day I think one day their luck is gonna run slap out and they’re gonna be doing something because they feel it’s their super twin duty and wind up in the hospital or worse… It started so late in the book that they suspected Mr. Stone at all, I wondered how in about 4 chapters they were gonna solve the mystery and conclude the book.
Rating: 7 Visually and conceptually it was charming! I loved with Susan and Chris did for the hospital and the kids!
September 4, 2018
Teenaged twin sisters Christine and Susan Pratt are spending Christmas in Vermont with their grandparents. The quaint, snowy, picturesque location has the girls all full of holiday spirit. But they find out the local children's hospital may be forced to shut down because someone has been embezzling the hospital's funds. It sounds like a case for the sisters to solve in The Candy Cane Caper by author Cynthia Blair.
This is the sixth book in the Pratt Twins series and the fourth one for me. I picked it up because 1) I've enjoyed the other books I've read in the series so far, 2) I stay on the lookout for wholesome YA fiction that isn't dark, since I wouldn't say it's the easiest to find, and 3) I stay on the lookout for Christmas reads that aren't romances, since holiday romances are easy enough for me to hear about without looking out for them.
Another fun read in the series, with the added bonus of being ultra Christmassy. Yes, as I expected, the style is old-fashioned (which I like) and pretty corny, with too many exclamation points and such. The mystery is a simple, obvious kind of case, and unlike the sisters' Banana Split, Hot Fudge, and Marshmallow schemes I've read before, the Candy Cane's "caper" doesn't begin until more than halfway through the book.
Still, it's one of the Pratt twins' more serious adventures. Plus, I appreciate how Chris and Sooz are consistently such proactive girls. They think, they plan, and they take action. They're not teenagers only dealing with what they're going through because something happens; they make stuff happen.
The going's been good, so I plan on reading at least one more book in this thirteen-book series.
This is the sixth book in the Pratt Twins series and the fourth one for me. I picked it up because 1) I've enjoyed the other books I've read in the series so far, 2) I stay on the lookout for wholesome YA fiction that isn't dark, since I wouldn't say it's the easiest to find, and 3) I stay on the lookout for Christmas reads that aren't romances, since holiday romances are easy enough for me to hear about without looking out for them.
Another fun read in the series, with the added bonus of being ultra Christmassy. Yes, as I expected, the style is old-fashioned (which I like) and pretty corny, with too many exclamation points and such. The mystery is a simple, obvious kind of case, and unlike the sisters' Banana Split, Hot Fudge, and Marshmallow schemes I've read before, the Candy Cane's "caper" doesn't begin until more than halfway through the book.
Still, it's one of the Pratt twins' more serious adventures. Plus, I appreciate how Chris and Sooz are consistently such proactive girls. They think, they plan, and they take action. They're not teenagers only dealing with what they're going through because something happens; they make stuff happen.
The going's been good, so I plan on reading at least one more book in this thirteen-book series.
December 12, 2023
Very cheesy and what you would expect, but it is wholesome. That isn't what I had a problem with as sometimes I am just in the mood for those types of books. What I personally didn't enjoy was the repetativeness of the conflicts. The author presented multiple conflicts multiple times. The editing also wasn't the best. I think it would have been better if it focused on the mystery (which only came into play the last bit of the book) instead of the other components. Still, if you are looking for a quick, feel-good book for Christmas, this hits the mark.
October 10, 2021
3.5 stars
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews