Doll Book of the Month Club: Missing Melinda

   The sort of second part of the Our Dolls, Ourselves post will have to wait a little longer. It's the first of the month, and time for the next entry in The Doll Book of the Month Club.
  This month's book is "Missing Melinda", by Jacqueline Jackson. It was first published in 1967. The illustrations in mine are by Irene Burns.

Mine is a somewhat grubby ex-library edition.

  This book has been sitting here waiting to be read for years. We bought it at the library sale, where the books are donated by the library and regular people, and sold to raise money for the library. I always meant to read it to Ivy, but never got around to it. We bought so many books at the book sale and from school order forms, as well as the book store. We couldn't read them all! So I finally got around to reading it myself a couple of weeks ago.
  At first I wasn't sure I was going to like this book. I didn't think much of the writing at the very beginning. It got better quickly, and I ended up enjoying it. Beware though! The very first few pages give away the endings of several doll based books, including "Miss Hickory",(which you can read my post on HERE.) and "The Dolls' House", by Rumer Godden,which I recently featured as The Doll Book of the Month. You can see that post HERE.

Edited for your protection.

  "Missing Melinda" involves a pair of twin girls who move into an old deceased relative's loaded house. They venture into the crowded attic the first day there, and find a very old and beautiful doll, who they name Melinda. 

Finding Melinda inspires them to write a book. "Missing Melinda" is actually the book they supposedly write about their adventure.

  The adventure really gets going when the girls take Melinda to the park, in a wagon. The girls decide to climb a tree, leaving Melinda below in the wagon, lest they break her. When they come back down they discover that Melinda has been stolen.

  As I said, the book is 'written' by the twins, who alternate chapters. They're a colourful couple of kids, who have developed the habit of quoting Shakespeare, and using his flowery speech, from their Shakespeare addicted father. (The girls are even named Cordelia and Ophelia.)
  The twins set out to find who stole Melinda, and get her back. Along the way they get help from the boy next door, Jimmy, who insists he doesn't want girl neighbours to play with,(but could they play with him, please?).
 

He helps the girls as they try to solve the mystery of Melinda's disappearance. Jimmy actually knows quite a lot about dolls himself, and introduces the girls to one of their suspects.

   They have a list of suspects to investigate. The suspect that Jimmy introduces them to is a lady who knows a lot about dolls. The author must have known quite a bit about dolls, because the character, Mrs. Otis, reels off loads of doll makers and names, as well as describing various dolls. She gives them a tour of her doll filled house and takes them to a doll hospital. Both trips are filled with descriptions of dolls, and doll mechanisms. There's so much to take in! You'll see many names you'll recognize if you know anything about dolls yourself. Mrs. Otis and the doll hospital 'doctor' even go into some history on dolls, and it's all quite interesting. So much so that I wonder if kids would enjoy this book as much as a grown doll collector! It's all enjoyable though, even if a child might feel somewhat  bogged down with 'boring' information at various times.
  That's not to say a child wouldn't enjoy the book. The twins are likeable. There's mystery and humour. The girls visit some interesting places and run into memorable characters.

The ending, especially, is exciting. It's a race to catch the culprit before Melinda disappears forever.

  The only age recommendation I could find said 7 to 10 year olds, but there was also a review by someone who said it was their favourite book in middle school. (I think middle schoolers read more mature things these days, which isn't to say some might not still enjoy the book.)
  I found that Jacqueline Jackson is a local lady! She was born in Washington, worked as a professor of English at the University of Illinois, but at the time "Missing Melinda" was written, she lived in Kent, Ohio, and taught Children's Literature at Kent State University. (Kent State was the site of the famous 1970 shooting, where the Ohio National Guard opened fire on students protesting the bombing of neutral Cambodia, killing four, and injuring nine, students. The incident was the inspiration for the song "Four Dead in Ohio" by Crosby,Stills,Nash,and Young.)
  Here's the inside of the "Missing Melinda" dust jacket.

 So her daughters reading interests, and actual requests, inspired "Missing Melinda". Other books by Jacqueline Jackson include "Julie's Secret Sloth", "The Paleface Redskins", "The Ghost Boat", and "The Taste of Spruce Gum".  According to Good Reads she considers "Stories From the Round Barn" and "More Stories From the Round Barn" to be her best works.

  Ms. Jackson is still writing! She writes a poem every week for the Illinois Times. She and her helper commented on this post, which you can see below, and I have been in contact through Messenger on the blog's Facebook page. Ms. Jackson has a webpage, for those who are interested. You can see it HERE. You can read an interview with her HERE.
  I enjoyed "Missing Melinda", and I recommend it for kids who like mysteries with a bit of humour, people who are interested in dolls, and kids who like a good, interesting read they can really get into. The book appears to be out of print, but a used copy can be found on Amazon or Ebay. Some of them can be quite expensive, so shop well!

Summer Reading Assisgnment #3: Sea View Secret by Elizabeth Kinsey

  I hope everyone is having a chance to get some reading in this summer. We haven't had much of a chance ourselves, but that doesn't mean we can't push others to do so! "Do as I say, not as I do!" My latest 'summer reading with your kids' suggestion happens to be one of Ivy's favourites, Sea View Secret' by Elizabeth Kinsey. Ivy has insisted that we read it every summer for the last few years. This year, even though she's 13 now, she still wants me to read it to her. I am glad to do so, because I know that these days are soon coming to a close.
  "Sea View Secret" was originally published in 1964.

 I'm sure it's out of print. I spent years trying to find a copy. This one is much harder to find than the other two books I have talked about so far. It was always one of my favourite books though, and has turned out to be one of Ivy's too. The story is set one sweltering hot summer, when two kids around 10 years old move to the suburbs with their parents and toddler twin siblings. They befriend the family in the only old house left in the neighborhood and discover a mystery surrounding some valuable rings that have been missing for decades. The rings, it turns out, could be just what's needed to save the old house from destruction by a greedy land developer, so of course they have to find them. My kids have pointed out that alot of my favourite books have to do in some way with saving someone's house. Hmm... I wonder what that means?
  The book is full of mystery, nothing scary though, some humour,and a warm story about friendship and family love. It's a nice old fashioned book, but I think kids will still enjoy it. The kids in the story all have respect for adults and take responsibility for doing chores and helping out, so maybe something like this is just what kids these days need to read! There's nothing inappropriate, and the search for the mysterious missing rings is something I think kids can really get caught up in.
  The only copies of this book I have ever seen are Scholastic paperbacks, but I'm sure it was printed in hardback at some point. As with the other books, the age recommendation depends on your child's attention span and interests. I would say you could possibly read it to them from age 6 to 10. As I said, Ivy still likes to have it read to her, but then, it's one of her special books, and this will probably be her last summer to have me read it to her.
  On another subject, the cake topper in my Beatles post was described as being made by Gay-Gem. While Gay-Gem did indeed make the exact same cake top figures, and the ones I found in my research were mostly by them, mine does in fact say Wilton on it. Just saying.                                         

Summer Reading Assignment #1, 11 June, 2013: Henry Reed's Jouney by Keith Robertson

Summer is here, and while it's great to be outside doing things in the fresh air,it's also a great time to enjoy a good summer book! (Of course, you can do that outside in the fresh air too!) Over the summer months I'm going to talk about great 'summer' books to read with your kids.These are books set during the summer, so you'll feel part of the story. I'm in my 50's, so these are mostly books I read as a kid that I read to my kids when they were little. Some of them may be out of print, but they can be found at libraries,second hand bookstores,(Let's not forget to keep real stores alive.), on Amazon, Ebay, or your favourite auction site.

   First up is a book from a whole series of 'summer' books. Henry Reed's Journey by Keith Robertson is one of the Henry Reed series that also includes Henry Reed, Inc.,Henry Reed's Babysitting Service,Henry Reed's Big Show,and Henry Reed's Think Tank. They're all great books, and you may want to start with the first one, but this is my favourite. 

Henry starts out the first book as a 13 year old, son of a diplomat, who has travelled the world. Because he has never spent time in the U.S. Henry's father thinks it would be a good idea for Henry to spend the summer with his aunt and uncle in Grover's Corner,New Jersey, where Henry's mother grew up. Grover's Corner is a very small 'hole in the road' town of only a few houses, but Henry still manages to have adventures, even if they are unintentional.(Henry's uncle often chuckles and shakes his head, noting how something always seems to happen when Henry is around.) Henry Reed's Journey finds Henry flying into California, having been invited to travel across country with a family he befriended in Grover's Corner the previous summer. Henry spends a lot of his time searching for fireworks to buy, but he and his friend Midge still find time to start a gold rush, become honorary Native Americans, win an art competition,take in a parakeet and some horned toads, and create a commotion of one kind or another nearly everywhere they go. Remember that these books were written between 1958 and 1986, so a few references may not be familiar to your kids---or even to you! (For instance, at one point Midge is sure she has spotted movie star Tab Hunter.) But usually it doesn't matter, and if it does,that's what the internet is for, right?! Also, some things are outdated or politically incorrect these days:Native Americans are referred to as Indians, and Henry is a chauvinist. But you can use these as points to discuss the cultural differences of the times. Besides, Henry's chauvinist ideas are supposed to sound ridiculous. (It's very obvious that Henry's friend Midge is quite a match for him,intellectually, creatively,and otherwise.) The books are funny and clever and easily enjoyed by both kids and parents. The target age range for the books is supposedly 9 to 11,but depending on your child's interest I think you could start them a bit younger, and of course, I still enjoy rereading Henry every now and then! And what better way to kill some time on a hot, sweaty, summer car trip than to read about one?