The Secret Three by Mildred Myrick

The Secret Three by Mildred Myrick. Drawings by Arnold Lobel ~ OUT OF PRINT
An I CAN READ Book

Pages: 64 pages
Ages: 6+
Finished: Mar. 12, 2010
First Published: 1963
Publisher: Harper & Row
Genre: children, easy reader
Rating: 3.5/5

First sentence:

Mark came to stay with Billy at the beach.

Acquired: Bought and own a vintage copy. Quite proud of our copy as it is hardcover but not a library binding and besides rubbed and bumped corners is in Fine condition.

Reason for Reading: The ds read aloud to me for his reader.

Summary: The story of two boys who find a message in a bottle from another boy who must come from the Lighthouse island. So they send a message back with a secret code embedded and so the messages continue until eventually the three boys meet, set up a secret club, and end the summer with a camp out on the island.

Comments: An enjoyable story with plenty going on to appeal to boys: messages in bottles and exploring the beach, secret codes and secret clubs, exploring the lighthouse and camping. The 9yo enjoyed it, especially decoding the secret words in the messages, well enough but not to the degree he has enjoyed other books. While a nice story, the lack of a climax leaves the story without excitement. The illustrations by Arnold Lobel are quite out of character from his usual children's illustrations. The cover picture is indicative of the inside drawings except the palette is limited to yellow, blue and black with the yellow/blue occasionally mixing to make a faint green. It is a very scribbley type of drawing and ds said "It was a good book but I didn't like the pictures."

Still, a nice enough story with real boy characters doing things that boys like to do. The book has been out of print for many years but is readily available used online at low prices.