I substituted The Secret Of The Mansion by Julie Campbell for the next book on my list, which was to have been A Gift Of Magic by Lois Duncan. A Gift of Magic was reviewed by many people as "okay, not one of her better books" and also, it was not at the library. I would have had to order another mass-market paperback for $3.00 plus $3.99 shipping.
So I've cheated on my challenge twice--and don't feel guilty about it. The book I read was the first in a long series of Trixie Belden mysteries and deserved as well as any to be on the list. If I'd read it as a kid, I'd have searched out and gobbled down them all and it may well have launched me on a career to be a mystery writer. My life from then on would have been very, different, thank you, and I wouldn't be sitting in a dirty, decrepit house watching sunlight reflect off drooping orange balloons to make ghostly apparitions on the walls.
Oh, yes--the book. It's kid rather than teen, just like the last one, it's shallow, light, and friendly; and I loved it. It proves you don't have to have Centaurs to write a great kid's book. (Not that I've anything against centaurs. I'm just saying.)
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