Trouble in Troublesome Creek

by Nancy Kelly Allen

Readers of THE MUNCHED-UP GARDEN, the first volume in the green Troublesome Creek series, may recall the quiet boy of color, James. This time, he becomes the hero of Troublesome Creek when he discovers the legacy of a long-ago war that is killing the fish in the stream and poisoning the Troublesome Creek gang's swimming hole. This is an eco whodunit with a happy, kids-take-charge ending.

32 pages, Hardcover

First published March 16, 2010

About the author

Nancy Kelly Allen’s route to award-winning writing has more twists and turns than a winding mountain road. She worked as a social worker and elementary school teacher. When Nancy changed career paths once again and became a school librarian, the route led her straight to the world of picture books. Nancy spent her days introducing books to children and her nights writing books for children. Eventually, writing led her down the trail to publication. Nancy has seven picture books, one chapter book, and is working on more. Writing children’s books led her down another path: writing books for adults. Her first book for adults is told from the perspective of a child and spiced with humor.
Nancy grew up in Kentucky where storytelling is a way of life. Every evening after supper, her father entertained the family with humorous stories. Each time he told a story, he embellished it a little more. Nancy’s mother encouraged her young daughter to write stories, even before Nancy could read. Nancy pecked away on the keyboard of an old Royal typewriter, writing nothing but jumbled letters and numbers. Nancy proudly handed her work to her mother, who read it aloud as if Nancy had actually written a story. The early influence of her mother’s literary interpretations and her father’s humorous storytelling set Nancy on the road to creating worlds through books. Now that she’s all grown up, Nancy considers her love of writing a gift of the spirit from her parents.
Nancy has a master’s degree in Education from Morehead State University and a master’s in Library and Information Science from the University of Kentucky. She lives in Kentucky in the log cabin in which she grew up. Nancy shares her cabin with her husband Larry and a canine writer assistants, Jazi and Roxi.

Reviews

[Alice · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.75 stars This book was donated to our library as part of "water week" The story is good, but the writing is not great! I was disappointed to discover the author is a retired teacher and librarian...I guess I expect better work for someone with that sort of background. There are some punctuation problems and I found 'cept instead of except annoying. If it was used a dialogue...sure, fine... but it was used as the narration part. And the name of the swinging rope was ooh-ah rope which just didn't flow for me! But I like the water conservation part..other than that, it was just okay