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Mysteries of Trash and Treasure #1
The Secret Letters
Colin and Nevaeh, whose parents own rival junk-removal businesses, uncover mysteries hidden in attics and basements and discover how trash can become treasure. In The Secret Letters, Colin and Nevaeh find vintage letters that lead to interlocking mysteries from the 1970s and '80s, and they learn about "women's lib," the ERA, and other social issues from that time in history--and the way echoes from that era affect Colin and Nevaeh themselves.
When Colin finds a shoebox full of letters hidden in a stranger's attic, he knows he's supposed to throw them away. That's his summer job, getting rid of junk. But Colin wants to rescue the letters--and find out what really happened to best friends Rosemary and Toby way back in the 1970s.
Meanwhile, across town, Nevaeh also finds a mysterious letter. But this one reads like a confession to a crime. And Nevaeh knows her father, the "Junk King," expects her to join the rest of the family in blaming a single suspect: his business rival, Colin's mom.
But that's not what Nevaeh wants, either.
Even as one set of letters bring Colin and Nevaeh together, the one Nevaeh found threatens to tear them apart. Is their new friendship as doomed as Rosemary and Toby's?
Each book in the Mysteries of Trash and Treasure series will examine a different time period in history and make readers think about how we value the stuff we hold on to--and what it is that makes it valuable.
When Colin finds a shoebox full of letters hidden in a stranger's attic, he knows he's supposed to throw them away. That's his summer job, getting rid of junk. But Colin wants to rescue the letters--and find out what really happened to best friends Rosemary and Toby way back in the 1970s.
Meanwhile, across town, Nevaeh also finds a mysterious letter. But this one reads like a confession to a crime. And Nevaeh knows her father, the "Junk King," expects her to join the rest of the family in blaming a single suspect: his business rival, Colin's mom.
But that's not what Nevaeh wants, either.
Even as one set of letters bring Colin and Nevaeh together, the one Nevaeh found threatens to tear them apart. Is their new friendship as doomed as Rosemary and Toby's?
Each book in the Mysteries of Trash and Treasure series will examine a different time period in history and make readers think about how we value the stuff we hold on to--and what it is that makes it valuable.
400 pages, Hardcover
First published September 20, 2022
55 people are currently reading
3251 people want to read
About the author
Margaret Peterson Haddix
129 books6,337 followersMargaret Peterson Haddix grew up on a farm near Washington Court House, Ohio. She graduated from Miami University (of Ohio) with degrees in English/journalism, English/creative writing and history. Before her first book was published, she worked as a newspaper copy editor in Fort Wayne, Indiana; a newspaper reporter in Indianapolis; and a community college instructor and freelance writer in Danville, Illinois.
She has since written more than 25 books for kids and teens, including Running Out of Time; Don’t You Dare Read This, Mrs. Dunphrey; Leaving Fishers; Just Ella; Turnabout; Takeoffs and Landings; The Girl with 500 Middle Names; Because of Anya; Escape from Memory; Say What?; The House on the Gulf; Double Identity; Dexter the Tough; Uprising; Palace of Mirrors; Claim to Fame; the Shadow Children series; and the Missing series. She also wrote Into the Gauntlet, the tenth book in the 39 Clues series. Her books have been honored with New York Times bestseller status, the International Reading Association’s Children’s Book Award; American Library Association Best Book and Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Adult Readers notations; and more than a dozen state reader’s choice awards.
Haddix and her husband, Doug, now live in Columbus, Ohio, with their two children.
She has since written more than 25 books for kids and teens, including Running Out of Time; Don’t You Dare Read This, Mrs. Dunphrey; Leaving Fishers; Just Ella; Turnabout; Takeoffs and Landings; The Girl with 500 Middle Names; Because of Anya; Escape from Memory; Say What?; The House on the Gulf; Double Identity; Dexter the Tough; Uprising; Palace of Mirrors; Claim to Fame; the Shadow Children series; and the Missing series. She also wrote Into the Gauntlet, the tenth book in the 39 Clues series. Her books have been honored with New York Times bestseller status, the International Reading Association’s Children’s Book Award; American Library Association Best Book and Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Adult Readers notations; and more than a dozen state reader’s choice awards.
Haddix and her husband, Doug, now live in Columbus, Ohio, with their two children.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 157 reviews
October 18, 2022
I enjoyed this book. Its story was down-to-earth and engaging. I can tell this was a story Haddix was passionate about. The only thing keeping me from rating it 4 stars or higher is that I found it to be very heavy-handed with its message. The School for Whatnots was similarly heavy-handed, but I think this book's more grounded plot made those constant reminders from Nevaeh to Colin of gender inequality in the 70s stick out to me all the more. For most of the book (with the exception of the ending), it doesn't feel like I'm being shown this inequality so much as I'm having it told to me over and over. It's kind of a problem I remember having with some of Haddix's work even when I was little. If you're going to write about these mature and difficult themes such as in this, the Shadow Children series, or the Children of Exile, why not trust your readers a little more to pick up on these messages? It's a small gripe compared to what I love about this story, but I hope I explained it well because it did hold me back a little from fully enjoying it.
February 1, 2023
it was goood! i read it with my book bestie kira and idk if we're doing a conclusion but yeah splendid book
July 7, 2022
New York Times bestseller Margaret Peterson Haddix is one of my favorite authors and this new book lived up to her talent for engaging readers. As a seventies child,myself, I really enjoyed reading the references to my decade from the beginning to the conclusion of the afterword.
Colin and Nevaeh, have parents who own rival junk-removal businesses. The children are not the proudest of the family business. As they become involved in helping one summer, they uncover mysteries hidden in attics and basements and discover how trash can become treasure. One day Colin and Nevaeh become intrigued by a box of vintage letters that lead to interlocking mysteries from the 1970s and ‘80s. They begin a world opening up the issues of yesterday and sadly in sone ways still exist in the 21st century… “women’s lib,” the ERA, and other social issues from that time in history.
Junk removers mantra is to dispose, not keep so when Colin finds a shoebox full of letters hidden in a stranger’s attic, he knows he’s supposed to throw them away. That’s his summer job, getting rid of junk. But Colin wants to rescue the letters, and find out what really happened to best friends Rosemary and Toby way back in the 1970s as laid out in the forgotten art of letter writing.
Meanwhile, across town, Nevaeh also finds a mysterious letter. But this one reads like a confession to a crime. And Nevaeh knows her father, the “Junk King,” expects her to join the rest of the family in blaming a single suspect: his business rival, Colin’s mom.
But that’s not what Nevaeh wants.
The set of letters bring Colin and Nevaeh together, in an intricate and intriguing mystery.
This is Margaret Peterson Haddix first installment in the series of The Mysteries of Trash and Treasure. The series will examine a different time period in history in each book and make readers think about how we value the stuff we hold on to, and what it is that makes it valuable.
Haddix is talented at giving Colin and Nevaeh different voices as they work together to solve mysteries they run across while helping their semi-feuding families in their respective junk removal businesses while also learning about history in a fun, new way. I'm so happy to offer this new Haddix series to pre-teen readers.
January 24, 2023
I’m usually not a big mystery reader but I really enjoyed this book. The characters were well written and I liked how it gave examples of issues women had to deal with in the past. I would recommend this book for mystery and realistic fiction readers.
May 31, 2022
I received this advanced copy through NetGalley.
I really loved the twists, turns, and mysteries in the treasure found in this book. Collin and Naveah come from similar, but contrastingly different families. Navaeh's father is the local "Junk King". She is destined to continue in her father's footsteps. Collin's mother is the competition of the Junk King. Her mission is to help people downsize and purge their possessions. The parents are truly opposites. Her father doesn't buy anything new and his mother rids herself of clutter. I can nearly imagine both parents on some DYI or Home Decor television show. Collin, while "working" for his mother for the summer, literally lands on the mystery. He discovers a box of letters written years before by Toby to his friend Rosemary. Collin becomes entangled in the details of their friendship, which abruptly ends. On the hunt for Rosemary's side of the story, Collin stumbles onto Nevaeh and unlikely friendship. Their search exposes even more mysteries! These mysteries unfold skillfully and don't take the attention from the main plot.
I have always enjoyed the characters and plots of Haddix books. Again, Margaret Peterson Haddix didn't disappoint. Collin and Nevaeh were believable and relatable. Their story, in true Haddix format, left me guessing. I am ready for the next installment of this series.
I really loved the twists, turns, and mysteries in the treasure found in this book. Collin and Naveah come from similar, but contrastingly different families. Navaeh's father is the local "Junk King". She is destined to continue in her father's footsteps. Collin's mother is the competition of the Junk King. Her mission is to help people downsize and purge their possessions. The parents are truly opposites. Her father doesn't buy anything new and his mother rids herself of clutter. I can nearly imagine both parents on some DYI or Home Decor television show. Collin, while "working" for his mother for the summer, literally lands on the mystery. He discovers a box of letters written years before by Toby to his friend Rosemary. Collin becomes entangled in the details of their friendship, which abruptly ends. On the hunt for Rosemary's side of the story, Collin stumbles onto Nevaeh and unlikely friendship. Their search exposes even more mysteries! These mysteries unfold skillfully and don't take the attention from the main plot.
I have always enjoyed the characters and plots of Haddix books. Again, Margaret Peterson Haddix didn't disappoint. Collin and Nevaeh were believable and relatable. Their story, in true Haddix format, left me guessing. I am ready for the next installment of this series.
February 8, 2023
Excellent bedtime read. An intriguing, enjoyable mystery that grabs hold, but also let's go without too much fuss. Relatable characters and family dynamics, cozy-small community vibe, all good stuff.
July 11, 2025
I LOVED all of the discussions of the two family businesses. Colin's mom's organization business and Nevaeh's dad's junk removal business. I have a strange and persistent interest in both of those fields, and it's not something I've ever seen discussed in a book.
A large majority of this book was about women's rights. While I am totally on board with the topic, by the end, it felt like the author was beating a dead horse. haha
I didn't love the huge emphasis on keeping secrets from parents. When everything eventually comes out, having the parents in the loop was actually extremely helpful (imagine that).
The characters are 12 in the book, but I'd put the target audience as a little younger. Maybe 10 or so?
No language or sex or innuendo.
A large majority of this book was about women's rights. While I am totally on board with the topic, by the end, it felt like the author was beating a dead horse. haha
I didn't love the huge emphasis on keeping secrets from parents. When everything eventually comes out, having the parents in the loop was actually extremely helpful (imagine that).
The characters are 12 in the book, but I'd put the target audience as a little younger. Maybe 10 or so?
No language or sex or innuendo.
December 23, 2022
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August 27, 2022
What a fun book! Colin and Neveah are each working for their parents for the summer. Colin's mom Felicia is a minimalist -- helping people clear out the clutter. Neveah's family is in the junk business. Her father calls himself The Junk King. They specialize in upcycling. The two businesses consider themselves to be competitors. But are they really? A box of letters found under an attic board draws Colin back into the 70's through the eyes of a boy named Toby. When he tells Neveah about his find, they hunt for the letters that his local penpal Rosemary might have kept. Their experiences with the letters turn this book into a 70's time capsule. Why did the letters stop? What happened to Toby and Rosemary? Colin and Neveah are determined to find some answers. Could their partnership lead to a better relationship between the two businesses? Topics like the Bicentennial, pet rocks, ERA, Pong, and current TV shows took me back to my childhood. For kids of this century, it will be a window into the past and Margaret Peterson Haddix adds some notes at the end to elaborate on 70's events and pop culture. Informative and entertaining. I am looking forward to seeing what happens next in this series.
Thank you to Harper Audio and NetGalley for an audio ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Thank you to Harper Audio and NetGalley for an audio ARC in exchange for an honest review.
April 26, 2023
An interesting, sweet story about the importance of true friendship when obstacles like familial rivalries and grudges cloud our judgement. On top of this, there was an intriguing mystery that left you wanting to know more after each chapter. Another masterpiece by Haddix.
May 10, 2024
This book was so good, I actually could not put it down and stayed up way too late reading it (oops). I liked the plot and how they were trying to find the people. I liked the characters (except Steve. I despise Steve)
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March 22, 2023This started off really strong and interesting but then the middle lagged for me so I just skipped ahead and read the ending. Disappointed.
April 3, 2023
This book was so good! Great mystery, great vintage talk about the 70s and some great takeaways. Not just for kids!
July 5, 2024
A fun middle grade mystery series. I liked the history that was part of the plot, and it appears that other books in the series will be similar. Still not as good as her dystopian books, but Margaret Peterson Haddix will always be one of my middle grade favorite authors. #amongthehidden
August 28, 2024
2.75
Boring, and too big of topics for kiddos imo. Loved the info about the 70’s in the end credits.
Children Choice Award Nominee
Boring, and too big of topics for kiddos imo. Loved the info about the 70’s in the end credits.
Children Choice Award Nominee
August 12, 2025
This felt very preachy. There's a way to teach kids about the history of womens' rights while seamlessly weaving it into an engaging plot without moralizing, and this was not it.
It is an engaging premise; these kids whose parents are business rivals find old letters and want to find out where the letter writers are now while trying to prevent their parents from finding out about their burgeoning friendship.
But there's some times the kids seem so ignorant. An elderly woman mentions growing up during the Great Depression and then getting married "between the wars," and Colin doesn't know what wars she's talking about. She literally just mentioned the Great Depression; what other wars could she be talking about? How on earth does this kid not know what World War I and World War II were?
The teenagers helping Colin and his mother clean out an attic mention Gulliver and Lilliput, and Colin doesn't know what that is either. But you don't need to have read Gulliver's Travels to know the basics about Gulliver and Lilliput. I've never read Gulliver's Travels, and I didn't read it when I was twelve either, but most people have at least heard of the words Gulliver and Lilliput because it's a cultural reference! Has he really never heard these words before?
Colin has never heard of pet rocks or mood rings, either. I have seen mood rings on sale. They still exist. Has he never, ever, heard of these things? Apparently not!
And it's not just Colin, either. Nevaeh is completely clueless as to what women's lib was. She had no idea that women used to not be able to get many jobs, or that married women used to be called "Mrs. Husband's Name." How on earth has she never heard of any of this? I definitely knew some of this when I was twelve. No, I didn't know the details, but I knew that nowadays women were able to do things that years earlier they weren't able to. Nevaeh seems to have been completely oblivious to all this until now.
Nevaeh was also oblivious to the fact that "employers could say they didn't want any women to apply for a particular job, only men." She never knew this? At all?
It also wasn't only women who were discriminated against in job hiring, you know. Employers could discriminate based on religion or race too. I grew up on stories about job ads saying "Christians Only Need Apply" and shop signs saying "No Jews or Italians." Has Nevaeh never heard of any of this?
At a certain point, Colin's and Nevaeh's ignorance of the fact that cell phones did not exist forty or fifty years ago just seems to beggar belief.
It also seems unusual for Rosemary, a twelve-year-old wealthy girl, to have been so vehement about womens' lib at her age and stage. She acts like a modern-day teenager, not a girl from the seventies. If she was even just a few years older, it would be more believable, but why and how does a twelve-year-old have such strong and clear opinions on the matter? She's upset about literally everything involving women in the seventies, to the point where she gets upset when Toby's mother jokingly calls her his girlfriend. I'm fairly certain in the past 'girlfriend' didn't just mean a romantic partner but also simply a girl who was a friend.
There's a line that goes "And somehow, if Rosemary had managed to do great things with her life, even after growing up in a time when women could be fire for not making coffee..." The implication being that it was very unlikely that Rosemary would be able to do great things with her life because of when she lived. What, you don't think women managed to do great things with their lives anyway? The entire reason women nowadays can do things they couldn't then is because of women who did great things back when they were restricted!
There's also all the time the narration refers to "males and females." I don't know about you but I use "male" and "female" to describe animals. How is calling people "male and female" - that's it, no other descriptor - somehow more advanced than calling them men and women or girls and boys?
After Nevaeh starts talking about the womens' rights movement Colin starts overthinking every little thing he says to her because he worries it's sexist, which....is not a good way to continue being friends. Not every remark about girls or boys is sexist.
It's noted that none of Rosemary's dreams came true, the implication being that the characters are worried that none of her dreams were able to come true because she was a girl. Now, Rosemary's dreams were things like competing for the Olympics and being the president and being a famous actress. Very few people have managed to do those things, let alone all those things. The fact that Rosemary didn't succeed in these isn't a marker of misogyny, especially considering that she was twelve at the time. And there's nothing remotely like this concerning Toby. Nevaeh and Colin don't seem concerned about Toby's future and if his dreams came true.
Nevaeh asks her mother what she wanted to be when she grew up when she was Nevaeh's age, and doesn't believe her when the answer is "a wife and a mother and an X-ray tech." Is it so impossible that girls *gasp* actually want to be wives and mothers sometimes? Why is this so impossible for Nevaeh to believe?
Prilla apologizes for teasing Nevaeh about Colin being her boyfriend. Which is good and all, but it...doesn't sound quite right coming from a 17 year old. "I hated them teasing me all the time....they made me feel so stupid...so it's stupid that I did that to you too." You know that post about fictional characters talking like they've had hours and hours of therapy? This sounded a bit like that. So did that part later on when Nevaeh encourages Colin to ask his mother about his father. "You're twelve, right?...Sometimes parents forget how old that is. Maybe you just need to tell your mom you're ready to have your questions answered." I don't know any twelve-year-olds who would talk like that.
Prilla also says that she got her brothers to stop teasing her by exaggeratingly joking about being a medieval princess and not doing any work lest her ruin her marriage prospects, but I can tell you from experience that that route. Does not work. I have siblings.
Prilla confides in Nevaeh that she and their brother Roddy are going to college, even though that "just wasn't how Greeveys did things." Why is their such an emphasis on not going to college? It isn't just for economic reasons; if there was, they'd be happy about Roddy getting a scholarship, wouldn't they? It seems like it's a principle for the Greevey family to not go to college, for some reason (except the mother, apparently) but that's never explained.
The kids also have never heard of the glass factory that was a main source of employment for their town until its closure fortysomething years earlier, which seems unlikely? Was this never mentioned in school? Did no grandparents or family friends or anything ever mention it?
Colin is completely flabbergasted at the thought of an elderly woman living in the 1970s being prejudiced against people who weren't white, because "wasn't that after Martin Luther King and the civil rights movement?" Barely a decade after the civil rights movement and he expects people who lived their entire lives before it to suddenly conform to modern day standards? Has he literally never heard of racism before? And am I the only one who finds it a bit unlikely that wealthy white 12-year-old Rosemary in the 1970s who doesn't seem to actually know any nonwhite people cares so much about this? Where does she get her opinions from?
Rosemary is portrayed as wanting to help women because of what happened to her friend Maribel....but what about Toby, Professor Carter? He described his mother as being pretty much his father's servant. Yes, he was a boy, he wouldn't have faced gender discrimination, but after growing up in such a household don't you think he'd maybe want to try to make sure other women weren't treated like his mother was?
Toby's parents also seemed to me like less of a "sexist jerk abuses his wife solely because he hates women" situation and more of a "low-income family with a man who struggles to make enough money to pay rent and buy groceries taking out his stress on his wife" situation. After all, Rosemary's upper-class parents also lived in the seventies, and there's no indication that their relationship had any problems at all.
Professor Carter also talks about his parents with the caveat "it was the seventies," as though that explains everything. What, because nowadays domestic violence and spousal abuse don't exist anymore? Of course they do! Look at Colin's own mother!
I was also getting sick of the characters talking about the seventies like it's a completely alien foreign unrecognizable time period hundreds or thousands of years ago. It's not even two generations, for goodness' sake.
Another thing I didn't like is the complete obliviousness of any of the characters to acknowledge that, hey, maybe in different time periods people....maybe....actually valued and believed different things than we do? And maybe that should be taken into account? And maybe what people believed was wrong, but that was what they believed, and they were still people. You can't understand history, any history at all, without understanding that. Why bother learning about the past at all if you're just going to write off the entire human race as sexist or racist or whatever?
When Professor Carter tells them about how his family was evicted, Colin is surprised and asks "They could just break into your house and leave your things outside?" Past tense. And yes, that's how it works. Pretty sure that's how it still works. Yet another thing he has somehow never heard of.
Nevaeh starts being skeptical about Maribel and Arthur's relationship when she finds out that she was twenty and he was forty. That's literally all she knows about them at the moment, and she's already doubting their marriage. Now, as it happens, she was right, he was abusive to her, but drawing that conclusion from that single fact is pretty flimsy.
It's also portrayed that one of the reasons Arthur was bad is because he married such a young woman. Like....they do know age gaps exist in real life too, right? Nowadays, not just the 70s. And that sometimes people in a relationship with an age gap have a perfectly good relationship. Sometimes people just meet and hit it off, and it doesn't matter that one is older than the other. It's not like age gaps don't exist anymore.
Nevaeh's first reaction to finding out the twenty year age gap is "That makes him old enough to be her father!" Which surprised me that that was her first conclusion because given how this book was going I would have thought the idea of becoming a parent before you're, like, twenty-five or thirty would be treated with complete anathema lol.
YES NEVAEH PEOPLE TALKED LIKE THAT IN THE 1980S STOP BEING SO FLABBERGASTED THAT THEY MAYBE HAD DIFFERENT OPINIONS THAN YOU the shock at things like this got older after a while. Every single time the characters had the same reaction. We get the point.
Nevaeh feels disgust at Maribel for being all "Yes Dear" - y to her husband and wonders if she "even had a brain of her own." Which seems pretty unfair. Heaven forbid a woman show affection to her husband in public, apparently. Yes, as it turns out, the saccharine sweet relationship between Maribel and Arthur was fake, and their marriage was abusive, but they acted perfectly in public and nobody except Maribel's best friend knew that. Let alone some twelve year old kid reading newspaper articles forty years later. Nevaeh's reactions seems to be "woman is sweet to her husband and values his business = brainless idiot." Then again, we don't see much of Nevaeh's own parents. They have one interaction I can remember, besides the meeting at the end, and that was arguing.
And then the meeting at the end. Don't even get me started. I'm not going to run through the entire thing because I have WAY too many things to say about it, but Steve. Steve made no sense. He was a stock one-dimensional character whose only purpose in the story was to be sexist. That's it. No other qualities about him, neither positive or negative. That's not very good character building.
There's one part where Steve is saying something sexist and Nevaeh's father tells him to stop, and he does, and Nevaeh wonders why it took a man saying that to get Steve to stop. Except that neither she nor Rosemary had actually told Steve to stop, so in fact they don't know what response he would have had.
Steve's reaction to finding out Maribel's husband was abusive is basically "Oh, so she got into an argument with her husband and overreacted." Hi. No. Has this guy literally never heard of spousal abuse in his life? There's a limit to how stupid and prejudiced you can make a character, isn't there?
Nevaeh's immediate reaction to finding out Rosemary was called to the principal's office the day of her fight with Toby is that Rosemary was being punished but not Toby because she was a girl. But that reaction makes no sense. The entire fight consisted of a single note from each of the pair passed to the other. There's no way the school would know about it. And even if they did there's no way they would punish for it. At this point Nevaeh seemed kind of hypersensitive to any perceived slight against women.
There's also that part at the end where Nevaeh tries to convince her father to partner with Colin's mother instead of Steve. Totally warranted, Felicia needs the extra business, I approve...except that isn't it a bit unlikely that Nevaeh's dad has been working with Steve for at least twelve years and has been completely ignorant of Steve's attitude towards women until now? A much more likely scenario would be that he actually knew all along but just didn't care or turned a blind eye. Except, of course, that he couldn't be written that way because that would show complexity and nuance the way the real world is! And we can't have that in such a preachy book.
I was also never quite certain as to why Colin's mother and Nevaeh's father hated each other so much. Especially when it turned out his wife was her friend. Honestly for the first half of the book I was suspecting that he'd cheated on his wife with Felicia and that was the cause of their rivalry/Felicia being fired/quitting/why she never talked about Colin's father/et cetera.
There's this part in the author's note at the end where the practice of women not having been allowed to own credit cards without the permission of a male relative is called "horrifying." That isn't horrifying. I reserve "horrifying" for things like sexual assault. Women not being allowed credit cards on their own is demeaning and derogatory, but it isn't horrifying.
All in all I liked Haddix's older books much better - Running Out of Time, The Missing, Shadow Children - but it seems like she's lost her touch these past few years.
It is an engaging premise; these kids whose parents are business rivals find old letters and want to find out where the letter writers are now while trying to prevent their parents from finding out about their burgeoning friendship.
But there's some times the kids seem so ignorant. An elderly woman mentions growing up during the Great Depression and then getting married "between the wars," and Colin doesn't know what wars she's talking about. She literally just mentioned the Great Depression; what other wars could she be talking about? How on earth does this kid not know what World War I and World War II were?
The teenagers helping Colin and his mother clean out an attic mention Gulliver and Lilliput, and Colin doesn't know what that is either. But you don't need to have read Gulliver's Travels to know the basics about Gulliver and Lilliput. I've never read Gulliver's Travels, and I didn't read it when I was twelve either, but most people have at least heard of the words Gulliver and Lilliput because it's a cultural reference! Has he really never heard these words before?
Colin has never heard of pet rocks or mood rings, either. I have seen mood rings on sale. They still exist. Has he never, ever, heard of these things? Apparently not!
And it's not just Colin, either. Nevaeh is completely clueless as to what women's lib was. She had no idea that women used to not be able to get many jobs, or that married women used to be called "Mrs. Husband's Name." How on earth has she never heard of any of this? I definitely knew some of this when I was twelve. No, I didn't know the details, but I knew that nowadays women were able to do things that years earlier they weren't able to. Nevaeh seems to have been completely oblivious to all this until now.
Nevaeh was also oblivious to the fact that "employers could say they didn't want any women to apply for a particular job, only men." She never knew this? At all?
It also wasn't only women who were discriminated against in job hiring, you know. Employers could discriminate based on religion or race too. I grew up on stories about job ads saying "Christians Only Need Apply" and shop signs saying "No Jews or Italians." Has Nevaeh never heard of any of this?
At a certain point, Colin's and Nevaeh's ignorance of the fact that cell phones did not exist forty or fifty years ago just seems to beggar belief.
It also seems unusual for Rosemary, a twelve-year-old wealthy girl, to have been so vehement about womens' lib at her age and stage. She acts like a modern-day teenager, not a girl from the seventies. If she was even just a few years older, it would be more believable, but why and how does a twelve-year-old have such strong and clear opinions on the matter? She's upset about literally everything involving women in the seventies, to the point where she gets upset when Toby's mother jokingly calls her his girlfriend. I'm fairly certain in the past 'girlfriend' didn't just mean a romantic partner but also simply a girl who was a friend.
There's a line that goes "And somehow, if Rosemary had managed to do great things with her life, even after growing up in a time when women could be fire for not making coffee..." The implication being that it was very unlikely that Rosemary would be able to do great things with her life because of when she lived. What, you don't think women managed to do great things with their lives anyway? The entire reason women nowadays can do things they couldn't then is because of women who did great things back when they were restricted!
There's also all the time the narration refers to "males and females." I don't know about you but I use "male" and "female" to describe animals. How is calling people "male and female" - that's it, no other descriptor - somehow more advanced than calling them men and women or girls and boys?
After Nevaeh starts talking about the womens' rights movement Colin starts overthinking every little thing he says to her because he worries it's sexist, which....is not a good way to continue being friends. Not every remark about girls or boys is sexist.
It's noted that none of Rosemary's dreams came true, the implication being that the characters are worried that none of her dreams were able to come true because she was a girl. Now, Rosemary's dreams were things like competing for the Olympics and being the president and being a famous actress. Very few people have managed to do those things, let alone all those things. The fact that Rosemary didn't succeed in these isn't a marker of misogyny, especially considering that she was twelve at the time. And there's nothing remotely like this concerning Toby. Nevaeh and Colin don't seem concerned about Toby's future and if his dreams came true.
Nevaeh asks her mother what she wanted to be when she grew up when she was Nevaeh's age, and doesn't believe her when the answer is "a wife and a mother and an X-ray tech." Is it so impossible that girls *gasp* actually want to be wives and mothers sometimes? Why is this so impossible for Nevaeh to believe?
Prilla apologizes for teasing Nevaeh about Colin being her boyfriend. Which is good and all, but it...doesn't sound quite right coming from a 17 year old. "I hated them teasing me all the time....they made me feel so stupid...so it's stupid that I did that to you too." You know that post about fictional characters talking like they've had hours and hours of therapy? This sounded a bit like that. So did that part later on when Nevaeh encourages Colin to ask his mother about his father. "You're twelve, right?...Sometimes parents forget how old that is. Maybe you just need to tell your mom you're ready to have your questions answered." I don't know any twelve-year-olds who would talk like that.
Prilla also says that she got her brothers to stop teasing her by exaggeratingly joking about being a medieval princess and not doing any work lest her ruin her marriage prospects, but I can tell you from experience that that route. Does not work. I have siblings.
Prilla confides in Nevaeh that she and their brother Roddy are going to college, even though that "just wasn't how Greeveys did things." Why is their such an emphasis on not going to college? It isn't just for economic reasons; if there was, they'd be happy about Roddy getting a scholarship, wouldn't they? It seems like it's a principle for the Greevey family to not go to college, for some reason (except the mother, apparently) but that's never explained.
The kids also have never heard of the glass factory that was a main source of employment for their town until its closure fortysomething years earlier, which seems unlikely? Was this never mentioned in school? Did no grandparents or family friends or anything ever mention it?
Colin is completely flabbergasted at the thought of an elderly woman living in the 1970s being prejudiced against people who weren't white, because "wasn't that after Martin Luther King and the civil rights movement?" Barely a decade after the civil rights movement and he expects people who lived their entire lives before it to suddenly conform to modern day standards? Has he literally never heard of racism before? And am I the only one who finds it a bit unlikely that wealthy white 12-year-old Rosemary in the 1970s who doesn't seem to actually know any nonwhite people cares so much about this? Where does she get her opinions from?
Rosemary is portrayed as wanting to help women because of what happened to her friend Maribel....but what about Toby, Professor Carter? He described his mother as being pretty much his father's servant. Yes, he was a boy, he wouldn't have faced gender discrimination, but after growing up in such a household don't you think he'd maybe want to try to make sure other women weren't treated like his mother was?
Toby's parents also seemed to me like less of a "sexist jerk abuses his wife solely because he hates women" situation and more of a "low-income family with a man who struggles to make enough money to pay rent and buy groceries taking out his stress on his wife" situation. After all, Rosemary's upper-class parents also lived in the seventies, and there's no indication that their relationship had any problems at all.
Professor Carter also talks about his parents with the caveat "it was the seventies," as though that explains everything. What, because nowadays domestic violence and spousal abuse don't exist anymore? Of course they do! Look at Colin's own mother!
I was also getting sick of the characters talking about the seventies like it's a completely alien foreign unrecognizable time period hundreds or thousands of years ago. It's not even two generations, for goodness' sake.
Another thing I didn't like is the complete obliviousness of any of the characters to acknowledge that, hey, maybe in different time periods people....maybe....actually valued and believed different things than we do? And maybe that should be taken into account? And maybe what people believed was wrong, but that was what they believed, and they were still people. You can't understand history, any history at all, without understanding that. Why bother learning about the past at all if you're just going to write off the entire human race as sexist or racist or whatever?
When Professor Carter tells them about how his family was evicted, Colin is surprised and asks "They could just break into your house and leave your things outside?" Past tense. And yes, that's how it works. Pretty sure that's how it still works. Yet another thing he has somehow never heard of.
Nevaeh starts being skeptical about Maribel and Arthur's relationship when she finds out that she was twenty and he was forty. That's literally all she knows about them at the moment, and she's already doubting their marriage. Now, as it happens, she was right, he was abusive to her, but drawing that conclusion from that single fact is pretty flimsy.
It's also portrayed that one of the reasons Arthur was bad is because he married such a young woman. Like....they do know age gaps exist in real life too, right? Nowadays, not just the 70s. And that sometimes people in a relationship with an age gap have a perfectly good relationship. Sometimes people just meet and hit it off, and it doesn't matter that one is older than the other. It's not like age gaps don't exist anymore.
Nevaeh's first reaction to finding out the twenty year age gap is "That makes him old enough to be her father!" Which surprised me that that was her first conclusion because given how this book was going I would have thought the idea of becoming a parent before you're, like, twenty-five or thirty would be treated with complete anathema lol.
YES NEVAEH PEOPLE TALKED LIKE THAT IN THE 1980S STOP BEING SO FLABBERGASTED THAT THEY MAYBE HAD DIFFERENT OPINIONS THAN YOU the shock at things like this got older after a while. Every single time the characters had the same reaction. We get the point.
Nevaeh feels disgust at Maribel for being all "Yes Dear" - y to her husband and wonders if she "even had a brain of her own." Which seems pretty unfair. Heaven forbid a woman show affection to her husband in public, apparently. Yes, as it turns out, the saccharine sweet relationship between Maribel and Arthur was fake, and their marriage was abusive, but they acted perfectly in public and nobody except Maribel's best friend knew that. Let alone some twelve year old kid reading newspaper articles forty years later. Nevaeh's reactions seems to be "woman is sweet to her husband and values his business = brainless idiot." Then again, we don't see much of Nevaeh's own parents. They have one interaction I can remember, besides the meeting at the end, and that was arguing.
And then the meeting at the end. Don't even get me started. I'm not going to run through the entire thing because I have WAY too many things to say about it, but Steve. Steve made no sense. He was a stock one-dimensional character whose only purpose in the story was to be sexist. That's it. No other qualities about him, neither positive or negative. That's not very good character building.
There's one part where Steve is saying something sexist and Nevaeh's father tells him to stop, and he does, and Nevaeh wonders why it took a man saying that to get Steve to stop. Except that neither she nor Rosemary had actually told Steve to stop, so in fact they don't know what response he would have had.
Steve's reaction to finding out Maribel's husband was abusive is basically "Oh, so she got into an argument with her husband and overreacted." Hi. No. Has this guy literally never heard of spousal abuse in his life? There's a limit to how stupid and prejudiced you can make a character, isn't there?
Nevaeh's immediate reaction to finding out Rosemary was called to the principal's office the day of her fight with Toby is that Rosemary was being punished but not Toby because she was a girl. But that reaction makes no sense. The entire fight consisted of a single note from each of the pair passed to the other. There's no way the school would know about it. And even if they did there's no way they would punish for it. At this point Nevaeh seemed kind of hypersensitive to any perceived slight against women.
There's also that part at the end where Nevaeh tries to convince her father to partner with Colin's mother instead of Steve. Totally warranted, Felicia needs the extra business, I approve...except that isn't it a bit unlikely that Nevaeh's dad has been working with Steve for at least twelve years and has been completely ignorant of Steve's attitude towards women until now? A much more likely scenario would be that he actually knew all along but just didn't care or turned a blind eye. Except, of course, that he couldn't be written that way because that would show complexity and nuance the way the real world is! And we can't have that in such a preachy book.
I was also never quite certain as to why Colin's mother and Nevaeh's father hated each other so much. Especially when it turned out his wife was her friend. Honestly for the first half of the book I was suspecting that he'd cheated on his wife with Felicia and that was the cause of their rivalry/Felicia being fired/quitting/why she never talked about Colin's father/et cetera.
There's this part in the author's note at the end where the practice of women not having been allowed to own credit cards without the permission of a male relative is called "horrifying." That isn't horrifying. I reserve "horrifying" for things like sexual assault. Women not being allowed credit cards on their own is demeaning and derogatory, but it isn't horrifying.
All in all I liked Haddix's older books much better - Running Out of Time, The Missing, Shadow Children - but it seems like she's lost her touch these past few years.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 4, 2023
Friendship, family and secrets.
October 20, 2023
I liked this book so much. It has everything a great middle-grade mystery should, secrets from the past, two detectives burgeoning on friendship, messy families and loads of secrets. This book also has a strong feminist theme and tons of throwbacks to the 70s.
I am reminded why I appreciate Haddix so much, I can feel myself falling off the cliff and reading everything she has written.
I am reminded why I appreciate Haddix so much, I can feel myself falling off the cliff and reading everything she has written.
July 16, 2023
This book was awesome It was just amazing it was so fun and mysterious and I loved finding out the mystery and how everything was connected
Spoilers coming
My favorite part of this story is when he says it is rude to call adult women girls that had me laughing and rolling I can imagine how he was standing and the way he said that.
I loved this book and you will love it to if you like mysteries history and jokes.
Spoilers coming
My favorite part of this story is when he says it is rude to call adult women girls that had me laughing and rolling I can imagine how he was standing and the way he said that.
I loved this book and you will love it to if you like mysteries history and jokes.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 27, 2023
This is now the 5th book I've read by @haddixbooks , so I think it's safe to say she's now a favorite author. This was incredible, & I loved it so much! When Colin finds a shoebox full of letters hidden in a stranger's attic, he knows he's supposed to throw them away. That's his summer job, getting rid of junk. But Colin wants to rescue the letters--& find out what really happened to best friends Rosemary & Toby way back in the 1970s. Meanwhile, across town, Nevaeh also finds a mysterious letter. But this 1 reads like a confession to a crime. & Nevaeh knows her father, the "Junk King," expects her to join the rest of the family in blaming a single suspect: his business rival, Colin's mom. But that's not what Nevaeh wants, either. Even as 1 set of letters bring Colin & Nevaeh together, the 1 Nevaeh found threatens to tear them apart. Is their new friendship as doomed as Rosemary & Toby's? This was so much fun. I loved the "Romeo & Juliet" of friendships that forms between our 2 MC. I love the chapters alternating POV between the 2 of them as well. They each have such an interesting story of themselves & their families, along with their connected family backstory. There are so many 70's references in here, & the author includes a note in the back that elaborates on them which I loved. These letters are like opening a time capsule for these kids. I love how 70s things became like their own personal language to each other, & all the wonderful things from the era they discovered & fell in love with. Loved the theme of women's rights, & everything related to the subject in here as well. Strong family & friendship themes also. Many relatable issues for kids too. I NEVER saw that ending coming! What twists! I loved it so much. Loved everything about the ending, & can't wait for the next book! Highly recommend! Beautiful cover by Yas Imamura too!💜
March 4, 2023
I have mixed feelings about this book, and in some ways, I really wish I didn’t. I absolutely loved Colin, especially the way he looked at the world, and I would like to be more like Neveah when I grow up. The two of them babysitting and scheming was really cute. ;) Okay, and the three brothers who help Colin’s mom are iconic, and I hope they show up in future books.
The mystery was super fun, and I’m a huge fan of stories centered around letters. It kept me intrigued all the way through, but unfortunately, the climax was more chaotic and negative than I was expecting. Don’t get me wrong, the reveal was AMAZING, and I added a few new characters to my favorites (I nearly cried at the descriptions of the party guests), but the misunderstandings, the angry men, and a lot of negative stuff said by a side character were a lot more than I was expecting.
I also enjoyed the emphasis on feminism and women's history, but it sometimes felt heavy-handed and shoehorned in, though I imagine a middle-grader wouldn't find it so. ;)
CW: implied domestic abuse, loss, secrets, arguing.
The mystery was super fun, and I’m a huge fan of stories centered around letters. It kept me intrigued all the way through, but unfortunately, the climax was more chaotic and negative than I was expecting. Don’t get me wrong, the reveal was AMAZING, and I added a few new characters to my favorites (I nearly cried at the descriptions of the party guests), but the misunderstandings, the angry men, and a lot of negative stuff said by a side character were a lot more than I was expecting.
I also enjoyed the emphasis on feminism and women's history, but it sometimes felt heavy-handed and shoehorned in, though I imagine a middle-grader wouldn't find it so. ;)
CW: implied domestic abuse, loss, secrets, arguing.
December 3, 2022
Everyone saying this book is a “page turner” or “Can’t Put it Down” - were we even reading the same book?
I am a elementary school librarian turned homeschool mom here. I am a fan of Haddix’s work, particularly “Running Out of Time” and the “Shadow Children” series.
However, this book felt interminably long. I am reading it aloud to my 10 and 11 year old sons and there is very little plot movement, and very little said in each chapter to hook the reader.
As my son said, “Why do they even care
About Rosemary and Toby?”
I agree - there is no mystery to really solve other than where these two letter-writers could be today as adults, and that’s not intriguing enough to keep a reader interested through repetitive pages describing Collin and Nevaeh’s thoughts.
I find myself skipping whole pages and sections while reading aloud, with my sons none the wiser.
I am a elementary school librarian turned homeschool mom here. I am a fan of Haddix’s work, particularly “Running Out of Time” and the “Shadow Children” series.
However, this book felt interminably long. I am reading it aloud to my 10 and 11 year old sons and there is very little plot movement, and very little said in each chapter to hook the reader.
As my son said, “Why do they even care
About Rosemary and Toby?”
I agree - there is no mystery to really solve other than where these two letter-writers could be today as adults, and that’s not intriguing enough to keep a reader interested through repetitive pages describing Collin and Nevaeh’s thoughts.
I find myself skipping whole pages and sections while reading aloud, with my sons none the wiser.
June 28, 2022
I had two hours left and I thought the mystery had been solved. Surely, it had. But to unravel it fully was so much more satisfying. I loved the layers. I never saw any of the layers coming. All of the foreshadowing you thought you were getting? Yeah, it wasn’t. Which I LOVED. I thought this was so clever! And it reminded me a little bit of Until Tomorrow, Mr. Marsworth, which is one of my ABSOLUTE favorites.
I’m DEFINITELY looking forward to the next one now!
I’m DEFINITELY looking forward to the next one now!
February 11, 2023
I ended up reading the entire book but it never became truly engaging. I felt like the first half of the book moved really slowly and then when the action finally picked up, it was rushed. Not only that, but so much of the story felt implausible for the 12-year old main characters. The conclusion of the story also felt a little sophisticated for the age of the reader this book is intended for. I wouldn’t recommend it.
November 12, 2022
E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus
Colin's Creedmont's mother Felicia runs an organizing business in the small town of Groveview, Ohio, and he is helping her during the summer because the camp he wants to attend it too expensive. When cleaning out one house, he finds a box of letters. Even though his mother is a minamalist, he feels oddly drawn to the letters and keeps them. Nevaeh Greevey's father runs the Junk King enterprise in the same town, which has been in the family in one form or another for years. He is more interested in selling other people's "trash" that he can see is "treasure". When he wins permission to clean out the fabled Mangold storage unit supposedly full of priceless antiques when Nevaeh first starts working with the business (her much older siblings already do), he is disappointed when there is empty except for a letter. He suspects that, somehow, Colin's mother is behind the disappearance, since she worked for him years ago and the two have a rivalry. When Colin reads some of the letters, one of which says there is another box in another house, he runs into Nevaeh, who knows Mrs. Torres in the house, gets permission to go into the attic, and helps Colin find the box. The two have to hide what they are doing from their families, and arrange to watch Mrs. Torres' twins once a week. They also meet at the library and start researching Toby and Rosemary, who were children in Groveview in the late 1970s. Their friendship ended poorly, and both families moved away. Colin and Nevaeh find that they share similar interests, and get along well, and they are drawn to this mystery for many reasons. They eventually locate Toby, who is a professor at Ohio State University and stops by Groveview to talk to them, but have trouble locating Rosemary. When the mystery behind the Mangold storage unit seems to be tied to Rosemary, the families have to unite to figure out what happened. Will Colin and Nevaeh be able to remain friends, or will they suffer the same fate as Toby and Rosemary?
Strengths: Wow. Let's make a note that this book made me tear up. We've got a great setting, where Colin and Nevaeh are able to bike around a small town, learn its history, and talk to neighbors while observing safety protocols for interacting with strangers. Very much appreciated that, especially when Nevaeh uses Colin's phone to text Toby. Colin and Nevaeh's family dynamics are both fascinating, and seeing them work in the family business was fantastic. They have very different families, but are kindred spirits, and both feel slightly at odds with the way their families operate. Toby and Rosemary's story was interesting when they were young, but this took a spectacular turn and just blew me away when the Mangold storage unit got tied in with the penpals. This is such a good exploration of the historic treatment of women, and is pitch perfect with modern times as well. An absolute tour de force from Haddix, and I can't wait to read more about Colin and Nevaeh's investigations.
Weaknesses: The cover isn't great. I would have loved to see a photograph or drawing of older homes on a shady Ohio small town street.
What I really think: I...I need to preorder a copy for myself from my local independent bookseller. This hit me the same way that John F. Carson's The Mystery of the Tarnished Trophy (1967) hit me when I read it in 1974, and I've never been able to get rid of the copy that was weeded from my father's elementary school library! The combination of my own personal childhood era, women's history, the Ohio setting, the estate sales (it seems like most of my friends have had to clean out their parents' houses recently, and two older residents of my street also passed away), and Colin and Nevaeh's charming, equal friendship made me love this one so much. Aside from my personal feelings, I think this will appeal to young readers who want to know what life was like in a different era, and I appreciated Haddix' glossary of terms and television shows.
Colin's Creedmont's mother Felicia runs an organizing business in the small town of Groveview, Ohio, and he is helping her during the summer because the camp he wants to attend it too expensive. When cleaning out one house, he finds a box of letters. Even though his mother is a minamalist, he feels oddly drawn to the letters and keeps them. Nevaeh Greevey's father runs the Junk King enterprise in the same town, which has been in the family in one form or another for years. He is more interested in selling other people's "trash" that he can see is "treasure". When he wins permission to clean out the fabled Mangold storage unit supposedly full of priceless antiques when Nevaeh first starts working with the business (her much older siblings already do), he is disappointed when there is empty except for a letter. He suspects that, somehow, Colin's mother is behind the disappearance, since she worked for him years ago and the two have a rivalry. When Colin reads some of the letters, one of which says there is another box in another house, he runs into Nevaeh, who knows Mrs. Torres in the house, gets permission to go into the attic, and helps Colin find the box. The two have to hide what they are doing from their families, and arrange to watch Mrs. Torres' twins once a week. They also meet at the library and start researching Toby and Rosemary, who were children in Groveview in the late 1970s. Their friendship ended poorly, and both families moved away. Colin and Nevaeh find that they share similar interests, and get along well, and they are drawn to this mystery for many reasons. They eventually locate Toby, who is a professor at Ohio State University and stops by Groveview to talk to them, but have trouble locating Rosemary. When the mystery behind the Mangold storage unit seems to be tied to Rosemary, the families have to unite to figure out what happened. Will Colin and Nevaeh be able to remain friends, or will they suffer the same fate as Toby and Rosemary?
Strengths: Wow. Let's make a note that this book made me tear up. We've got a great setting, where Colin and Nevaeh are able to bike around a small town, learn its history, and talk to neighbors while observing safety protocols for interacting with strangers. Very much appreciated that, especially when Nevaeh uses Colin's phone to text Toby. Colin and Nevaeh's family dynamics are both fascinating, and seeing them work in the family business was fantastic. They have very different families, but are kindred spirits, and both feel slightly at odds with the way their families operate. Toby and Rosemary's story was interesting when they were young, but this took a spectacular turn and just blew me away when the Mangold storage unit got tied in with the penpals. This is such a good exploration of the historic treatment of women, and is pitch perfect with modern times as well. An absolute tour de force from Haddix, and I can't wait to read more about Colin and Nevaeh's investigations.
Weaknesses: The cover isn't great. I would have loved to see a photograph or drawing of older homes on a shady Ohio small town street.
What I really think: I...I need to preorder a copy for myself from my local independent bookseller. This hit me the same way that John F. Carson's The Mystery of the Tarnished Trophy (1967) hit me when I read it in 1974, and I've never been able to get rid of the copy that was weeded from my father's elementary school library! The combination of my own personal childhood era, women's history, the Ohio setting, the estate sales (it seems like most of my friends have had to clean out their parents' houses recently, and two older residents of my street also passed away), and Colin and Nevaeh's charming, equal friendship made me love this one so much. Aside from my personal feelings, I think this will appeal to young readers who want to know what life was like in a different era, and I appreciated Haddix' glossary of terms and television shows.
April 6, 2024
Colin and Nevaeh, who do not know each other, are both spending the summer working for their family businesses. Colin is an only, and his single mother runs a business that helps people clean out their junk and get organized. Nevaeh has multiple siblings who all work in the family business--her dad is the "Junk King" and in the process of getting rid of peoples' junk for them, he keeps and resells what he can. On one cleanout, Colin finds a box of letters hidden beneath an attic floorboard, but rather than throw them out, he keeps them and reads them. They are written to Rosemary from Toby, in the mid 1970s, and they end abruptly with a note from Rosemary that says Toby will never see her again. When Colin tries to figure out which house was Toby's--and hopefully find his letters--that brings him in contact with Nevaeh. In the distant past, Colin's mom worked for Nevaeh's dad, but it didn't end well. They both know this--but Nevaeh has a sneaking liking for how Colin's mom has things so clean and organized, unlike her cluttered house. When she understands what Colin is looking for and why, she agrees to help him if they share in the mystery.
I loved this! I'm all about primary sources and mysteries and boxes found under floorboards in attics, and since I was pretty much exactly the same age as Rosemary and Toby when they wrote the letters, everything they wrote about (which the modern kids had to look up) made perfect sense to me. I thought the mystery was really well paced, and went in a few unexpected directions, touching a lot on women's rights. The characters were all distinct and interesting, and nothing felt contrived--if the kids found a clue somewhere, there was a legitimate reason they were able to find the clue. I liked the personal side of things as well, with both kids struggling in their families for different reasons, though not to a problem-novel point. I look forward to reading more books in the series!
I loved this! I'm all about primary sources and mysteries and boxes found under floorboards in attics, and since I was pretty much exactly the same age as Rosemary and Toby when they wrote the letters, everything they wrote about (which the modern kids had to look up) made perfect sense to me. I thought the mystery was really well paced, and went in a few unexpected directions, touching a lot on women's rights. The characters were all distinct and interesting, and nothing felt contrived--if the kids found a clue somewhere, there was a legitimate reason they were able to find the clue. I liked the personal side of things as well, with both kids struggling in their families for different reasons, though not to a problem-novel point. I look forward to reading more books in the series!
August 12, 2022
Middle grade contemporary mystery. In the small town of Groveview, Ohio, there is the Greevey Family business and the Creedmont family business. Nevaeh Greevey is the youngest of five, and this is her first summer working for here dad's business- the Junk King. All of the older siblings and her father clean out people's houses, sorting out the trash from the treasures. Colin Creedmont lives with his mother Felicia, who runs a business in what she calls possession curation. She lets people be freed from their stuff and encourages minimalism. When Colin is working with his mom, he finds a shoebox of letters from the 1970s. It mentions that the other half of the letters is hidden in the same spot in a house across town. And searching for that box is how Colin meets Neveah.
With a family full of kids, the Greeveys know a lot of people in town. So Neveah hears the address and immediately goes over to the house, where she has babysat before. Finding the second shoebox of letters gives the kids a mission-- looking for the now-grown letter writers Toby and Rosemary. They immerse themselves in the pop culture of the 1970s as things are referenced, wonder if the personalities shown in the letters were how the two acted in real life, and create their own world. But soon things take another turn, and the kids realize that maybe Toby and Rosemary are not as removed from their lives as they thought.
Wow. I enjoyed this book so much that I had to switch from the audio version to the ebook version so I could keep reading. I loved the platonic boy-girl friendship, the family dynamics of two very different families, and the collision of the past with today's technology. I'm so glad this is the first in a series and I definitely plan to keep reading.
**Advanced copy courtesy of Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
With a family full of kids, the Greeveys know a lot of people in town. So Neveah hears the address and immediately goes over to the house, where she has babysat before. Finding the second shoebox of letters gives the kids a mission-- looking for the now-grown letter writers Toby and Rosemary. They immerse themselves in the pop culture of the 1970s as things are referenced, wonder if the personalities shown in the letters were how the two acted in real life, and create their own world. But soon things take another turn, and the kids realize that maybe Toby and Rosemary are not as removed from their lives as they thought.
Wow. I enjoyed this book so much that I had to switch from the audio version to the ebook version so I could keep reading. I loved the platonic boy-girl friendship, the family dynamics of two very different families, and the collision of the past with today's technology. I'm so glad this is the first in a series and I definitely plan to keep reading.
**Advanced copy courtesy of Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
November 7, 2022
The Secret Letters was a delightful read from start to finish. Colin and Nevaeh's parents own two competing junk-clearing companies. Each has grown up "in the business" with mixed feelings about the job. In the process of clearing out a house, Colin finds a hidden shoebox which begins the treasure hunt of his life! But the "treasure" is not what you might expect! His search crosses paths with Nevaeh and together they become not only secret friends (their parents cannot stand each other) but also secret detectives.
Colin and Nevaeh uncover the epistolary history of two childhood friends. But the letters abruptly end when they apparently had a falling out. Now the youngsters piece together clues and gather information trying to locate these now-grown pen pals. They hope to find out what went wrong and help get them reunited. But if Nevaeh's Dad knew she was spending time with Colin, he would definitely put an end to their investigations.
The author did a fabulous job of sprinkling in details about the time period throughout the book as well as offering additional historical notes at the end of the book. Young readers will come away with a more complete understanding of the struggles for equality that women faced in years past. I felt the topic was handled in a way that children could understand.
Positive elements I particularly liked: strong family dynamics in both Colin's and Nevaeh's homes; positive attitude toward work; an examination of the expectations our family may have of us and how that can impact one's future choices.
I'm excited that this is the first in a series and can't wait to read the next one!
Disclaimer: I received a free copy of The Secret Letters from NetGalley for the purpose of review. No other compensation was received.
Colin and Nevaeh uncover the epistolary history of two childhood friends. But the letters abruptly end when they apparently had a falling out. Now the youngsters piece together clues and gather information trying to locate these now-grown pen pals. They hope to find out what went wrong and help get them reunited. But if Nevaeh's Dad knew she was spending time with Colin, he would definitely put an end to their investigations.
The author did a fabulous job of sprinkling in details about the time period throughout the book as well as offering additional historical notes at the end of the book. Young readers will come away with a more complete understanding of the struggles for equality that women faced in years past. I felt the topic was handled in a way that children could understand.
Positive elements I particularly liked: strong family dynamics in both Colin's and Nevaeh's homes; positive attitude toward work; an examination of the expectations our family may have of us and how that can impact one's future choices.
I'm excited that this is the first in a series and can't wait to read the next one!
Disclaimer: I received a free copy of The Secret Letters from NetGalley for the purpose of review. No other compensation was received.
April 21, 2023
Even though the characters visit one of my favorite places in the world, Yellow Springs Ohio, this first book in a projected mystery series falls short. Neveah and Colin are the children of a "junk king," and a "Possession Curator," (house organizer/simplifier), respectively. These two are rivals in the thinly disguised town of "Groveview," obviously based on Grove City, a suburb of Columbus. Both tweens become obsessed with two shoeboxes full of letters written by Groveview kids from the 70s, Rosemary and Toby. It tough to swallow that these two kids, who are both dreading working in the family businesses, are swept into the lives of these not-so-exciting pen pals. The letter mystery is, "Why did they stop being friends?" Not exactly a juicy case. The parallel adult mystery is, "Who stole the legendary antiques from the storage facility?" Of course, these cases become intertwined, and with a tremendous butt bow, the cases are solved, the ending is happy, and the kids are in demand to solve the next case in Groveview. The book is also a tribute to the pop culture and historical events of the 1970s - sometimes the injection of Laverne and Shirley, Skylab, Women's Lib, etc. feels like a logical part of the case, but sometimes it feels like the author schooling us about her childhood, complete with an author's note introducing/describing Happy Days, landlines, and Richard Nixon, to name just a few. Also mostly force-fed is the gender inequality message. True true, but not much nuance in the explanations of past and current injustice women experience. Maybe the next title in the series will have a more exciting, less preachy, mystery.
December 13, 2022
See my full review here.
This is the first entry in a delightful new series by the prolific Haddix, featuring Colin and Nevaeh, whose parents operate similar but competing junk clearing businesses. This summer, the two 12-year-olds join the family firms as expected. Colin finds a shoebox of letters written to a girl named Rosemary in the 1970s from her friend Toby. Secretly taking the box, Colin learns Toby is obsessed with television; Rosemary is determined to live up to her feminist potential. In a bid to find Toby’s address, Colin meets Nevaeh, who is distracted by her father's theories on what happened to a storage unit that should have been full of antiques. Intrigued by Colin’s mystery, Nevaeh convinces him to join forces. Along the way, they learn about 1970s cultural icons and history like Billie Jean King, Fonzie, pet rocks and the Equal Rights Amendment. How these two kids from very different families collaborate and find the answers is an enjoyable journey with a realistic plotline, flawed but loving parents who have their own secrets, and a gentle feminist message. A terrific choice for young readers who enjoy puzzling modern mysteries with spirited and resourceful characters. My thanks to the Grand Forks (B.C.) and District Public Library for including this mystery in its children’s fiction collection.
This is the first entry in a delightful new series by the prolific Haddix, featuring Colin and Nevaeh, whose parents operate similar but competing junk clearing businesses. This summer, the two 12-year-olds join the family firms as expected. Colin finds a shoebox of letters written to a girl named Rosemary in the 1970s from her friend Toby. Secretly taking the box, Colin learns Toby is obsessed with television; Rosemary is determined to live up to her feminist potential. In a bid to find Toby’s address, Colin meets Nevaeh, who is distracted by her father's theories on what happened to a storage unit that should have been full of antiques. Intrigued by Colin’s mystery, Nevaeh convinces him to join forces. Along the way, they learn about 1970s cultural icons and history like Billie Jean King, Fonzie, pet rocks and the Equal Rights Amendment. How these two kids from very different families collaborate and find the answers is an enjoyable journey with a realistic plotline, flawed but loving parents who have their own secrets, and a gentle feminist message. A terrific choice for young readers who enjoy puzzling modern mysteries with spirited and resourceful characters. My thanks to the Grand Forks (B.C.) and District Public Library for including this mystery in its children’s fiction collection.
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