The Magpie Riddle: A Goldfish Boy Mystery by Lisa Thompson

Melody and her mum live in a Chestnut Close. The houses form a semi circle and so naturally everyone knows everyone. Near the street there is a old graveyard and Melody likes to wander through with her dog Frankie. Melody has one friend in the street - a boy called Matthew. We met him in the first book. Jake also lives in Chestnut Close but he speaks very bluntly to Melody and he almost feels like a bully at times. He also seems to be taking Matthew away from Melody. Then Melody meets Hal. Hal is a boy with a strange story. He is living in an old abandoned house at the back of the graveyard. He tells Melody he works for a spy agency and that he is reporting on the activities of a jewelry thief. Some of his story seems quite impossible but Hal persuades Melody that he does work for MI8 and he enlists her help to decode mysterious riddles that are left in the graveyard.

Melody, herself, has her own life problems. Her father left the family some time ago in awful circumstances. Now mum is trying to sell their house. Melody misses Matthew too.

A neighbor decides everyone should help to clear up some weeds in the graveyard but Melody is worried the adults will find Hal. She needs to call on Matthew and also Jake to help her move Hal into an empty house in Chestnut Close. But Mr Charles has the only key and Mr Charles also seems to be holding onto a letter from Melody's dad. 

Blurb from author page: Melody Bird has discovered an old, abandoned house in the corner of the graveyard, and a mysterious boy called Hal who is hiding out there… Hal tells her that he’s a spy-in-training, using the house as a base for his undercover surveillance of a known local criminal. Her friends Matthew and Jake don’t believe that a teenager would be entrusted with this mission and turn the tables to spy on him, uncovering secrets and unravelling a mystery as they go.

In the US this book has a different cover and title:

Take a look at the Kirkus review

I confess I wrecked my own reading of this book by, early into the reading experience, jumping to the final pages to preview the ending. My reaction to this book is less positive than the first installment. There were a few too many 'issues' and the idea (spoiler alert) that a child could be totally hidden from the system seems a little too farfetched. If this was at all possible I needed Hal to be more confused about 'real life' and also I did worry that he was not getting enough food! My labels on this post will give you some idea of the 'issues' faced by the main characters.

When I spotted this book I recognised the series - The Goldfish Boy. Here is my previous post:

The Goldfish Boy

Kirkus Star review

Here is the third book in the series and I think Lisa Thompson has a plan for a fourth title:

Blurb: When a skeleton is found buried in an elderly neighbour’s garden, Matthew, Melody and Jake are determined to discover its identity and who was responsible for its death. At the same time, the long-lost son of the neighbour arrives, with his young son in tow. But are the pair really who they are claiming to be – or are they imposters? As the kids investigate, they uncover incredible secrets and a plot to stash some priceless jewels on the Close…

Here is the webpage for Lisa Thompson. I do think this series have very appealing covers. 

Out of the Wild Night by Blue Balliett

"These old houses were built to survive, and their materials actually last longer and adapt better than most modern materials. An old wooden house expands and shrinks, it understands how to be 

moist and then dry without damage, it breathes."

"As long as the settled landscape of an old house remains, we spirits, those of us whose lives were anchored in its walls and floors, who were born, gave birth, and died inside them, can stay. 

As can our dreams."

Beautiful old homes are being knocked down all over Nantucket. This has stirred up the ghosts. The developer is like a vulture waiting for older residents die or move out of the homes. He promises to keep all the heritage features but in truth he just knocks everything down and throws away all the beautiful timbers and fixtures. A group of young children, who are islanders, are dismayed to see all this destruction and one of the ghosts - Mary Chase, who has been dead over 100 years has woken up. She can see what is happening now in the 21st Century. She is frustrated, though, because no one on the island can hear her. The children can however see other ghosts of people and children from long ago. The children have always played at the graveyard and so they are familiar with the names of children from long ago. The island ghosts begin to take action by sabotaging the building works and frightening the workers and officials. But can these beautiful old homes be saved in time and will this help the ghosts to settle back into their graves?

Here are some real Nantucket homes:

It did take me nearly a week to read this book and it won't feature as my favourite by Blue Balliett but the premise and relationships between the children and several of the adults held my attention. Best of all the ending was a huge shock. By coincidence, while I was reading this book, I watched as a sweet little mid-century modern home was demolished just around the corner from my house so some parts of this story were extra poignant.

"Sorry house. I should have asked. I'm Phoebe Folger Antoine (Phee). I live inside the home in your picture, and my family always has. Can I take this and keep it safe? I promise I'll hang it right up.' The door blows back open, and a yellow-handled screwdriver rolls across the floor, stopping in front of the group. The kids stand quietly for a moment, looking at it. 'I think that's a yes ... and may be the house wants us to replace the old front door before we go."

Publisher blurb: Ghosts are alive on the island of Nantucket. You can hear them in the wind, and in the creaks of the old homes. They want to be remembered. And, even more, they want to protect what was once theirs. The ghosts seem to have chosen a few local kids to be their messengers -- and to help save the island. But in this mystery, the line between those who haunt and those who are haunted is a thin one -- and the past and the present must come to terms with one another in order to secure the future.

About 14,000 people live on the island of Nantucket. It is off the coast of Massachusetts. It is a very popular destination with tourists and the population grows to 40,000 in the Summer. In the early days the main industry was whaling. 

Blue Balliett says: I first came to Nantucket as a summer worker at age 18 and fell under the spell of this magical island. I married my husband Bill on Nantucket a few years later, and we’ve lived and worked here, off and on, for many decades. Two of our three kids were born here. I’ve heard many, many ‘real’ ghost stories… and finally, after writing six mysteries set in the Chicago area and published by Scholastic Press, got brave and wild enough to write Out of the Wild Night… It’s my love poem to this extraordinary, unique island and its year-round community, its oldest houses, and their ghosts.

Modern themes and old-fashioned values in a ghostly Nantucket wonder, with a twist. Kirkus Star review

Ms. Balliett kept me captivated, guessing…and second guessing, in this Middle-Grade, ghost-story mystery. Easily evident is her admiration and adoration of Nantucket and I enjoyed learning about the island and its people. Buried Under Books

When you finish this book, you will want to go back and reread chapter 3 (or listen to the audio sample below). You will also want to grab some wonders or donuts to celebrate solving this mystery. This book was published in 2018 and the paperback is still available.

Listen to an audio sample here. 

I have read and loved other books by Blue Balliett so when I spied this book (hardcover with a dust jacket) at a recent charity book sale for just $3 I grabbed it with both hands.

The Calder Game; Hold Fast

Companion book:

Magrit

Moon over Manifest by Clare Vanderpool

Manifest verb: to show something clearly, through signs or actions

Manifest adjective: easily noticed or obvious

It's taken me a few days to read this 2011 winner of the Newbery Medal and I am glad I didn't rush because this book does require some concentration as we shift between 1917-1918 and 1936 and also juggle a myriad of small town sightly eccentric characters. I finished this book around 2am last night and on page 320 I gasped out loud because Clare Vanderpool made me care so much about the people of this town and, well I can't tell you what happened on October 28th, 1918 only to say this is a very sad moment and a powerful turning point in the story. Another marker of a great story to me is when I finish my journey, in this case to Manifest, I then am so keen to think of another reader who will enjoy this book - that's one of the many things I do miss about working in a school library. 

Here are a few of the characters:

• Abilene Tucker, a brave 12-year-old girl.
• Shady Howard, pastor, bootlegger and owner of the home where Abilene lives in Manifest
• Gideon Tucker, father of Abilene.  He sends her to Manifest. [absent parent]
• Miss Sadie Redizon, a mysterious Hungarian fortune teller who only tells stories about the past.
• Jinx, a boy that comes to Manifest.
• Soletta (Lettie) Taylor, Abilene's friend who is helping find the Rattler and Ruthanne's cousin
• Benedek (Ned) Gillian, friend of Jinx

Minor characters

• Hattie Mae Harper, the town's newspaper reporter who helps Abilene research her family's past.
• Sister Redempta, the town's school teacher nun, also helps with other affairs.
• Mr. Underhill, an undertaker
• Velma T Harkrader, chemistry teacher
• Eudora Larkin, president of the Daughters of the American Revolution in Manifest

Publisher blurb: The movement of the train rocked me like a lullaby. I closed my eyes to the dusty countryside and imagined the sign I’d seen only in Gideon’s stories: Manifest—A Town with a rich past and a bright future. Abilene Tucker feels abandoned. Her father has put her on a train, sending her off to live with an old friend for the summer while he works a railroad job. Armed only with a few possessions and her list of universals, Abilene jumps off the train in Manifest, Kansas, aiming to learn about the boy her father once was. Having heard stories about Manifest, Abilene is disappointed to find that it’s just a dried-up, worn-out old town. But her disappointment quickly turns to excitement when she discovers a hidden cigar box full of mementos, including some old letters that mention a spy known as the Rattler. These mysterious letters send Abilene and her new friends, Lettie and Ruthanne, on an honest-to-goodness spy hunt, even though they are warned to “Leave Well Enough Alone.” Abilene throws all caution aside when she heads down the mysterious Path to Perdition to pay a debt to the reclusive Miss Sadie, a diviner who only tells stories from the past. It seems that Manifest’s history is full of colourful and shadowy characters—and long-held secrets. The more Abilene hears, the more determined she is to learn just what role her father played in that history. And as Manifest’s secrets are laid bare one by one, Abilene begins to weave her own story into the fabric of the town.

The mementos in the box are a fishing lure; a tiny doll from a nesting set; a silver dollar; a skeleton key and a cork. "To me they were like treasures from a museum, things a person could study to learn about another time and the people who lived back then." And that's exactly what happens. Abilene loses her father's lucky compass in the local graveyard. It turns up in the home of Miss Sadie hanging from the roof of her verandah. Abilene breaks a huge pot in the garden when she climbs up to retrieve her precious compass and so as payment she has to do chores and gardening for Miss Sadie. Over the coming weeks Miss Sadie tells Abilene stories of the town specifically events of 1917-1918 and each story mysteriously mentions one of the objects from that cigar box she found under the floorboards at Shady's place. I do enjoy stories that feel like making a jigsaw. It is not until you reach the end of the story that the whole picture is revealed - this is very satisfying. 

Listen to an audio sample from chapter one. Ms Yingling did not really like Moon over Manifest but she does give a good story summary as usual. 

I just can’t even begin to tell how enamoured I am of this book. It is one of those deceptively simple slow-burning stories: the kind that needs to be savoured little by little so that the reader can truly absorb its subtle themes and its hidden meanings. It features stories within stories and the power that those stories hold in preserving memory as well as changing the future of a place. The Book Smugglers

Kirkus star review.

Clare Vanderpool is an American children's book author living in Wichita, Kansas. Her first book, Moon Over Manifest, won the 2011 Newbery Medal, becoming the first debut author to achieve the feat in thirty years. I am now very keen to read her second book published in 2014

Here is a list of Newbery winners from 2001 onwards:

• A Year Down Yonder (2001)
• A Single Shard (2002)
• Crispin (2003)
• The Tale of Despereaux (2004)
• Kira-Kira (2005)
• Criss Cross (2006)
• The Higher Power of Lucky (2007)
• Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! (2008)
• The Graveyard Book (2009)
• When You Reach Me (2010)
• Moon Over Manifest (2011)
• Dead End in Norvelt (2012)
• The One and Only Ivan (2013)
• Flora & Ulysses (2014)
• The Crossover (2015)
• Last Stop on Market Street (2016)
• The Girl Who Drank the Moon (2017)
• Hello, Universe (2018)
• Merci Suárez Changes Gears (2019)
• New Kid (2020)
• When You Trap a Tiger (2021)
• The Last Cuentista (2022)
• Freewater (2023)

These might seem like strange choices but here are some companion reads:

Pony

The Parker Inheritance

One came home

Someplace to call Home

Walking with Miss Millie

Three times Lucky

The Violet Veil Mysteries: A Case of Grave Danger by Sophie Cleverly

Fans of feisty girl heroes; detective stories; unsolved mysteries; and clever dogs will certainly enjoy this first book in The Violet Veil Mysteries series.

Publisher blurb: Violet Veil wants nothing more than to prove her worth and become her father’s apprentice at Veil & Sons Undertakers. And one rain-soaked night she gets her chance when she meets a boy, Oliver, who is wandering around the graveyard. Only, the last time Violet saw Oliver, he was indoors and very much dead, waiting to be buried. Violet has just found her first case, and it doesn’t get bigger than this: can she, with the help of her dog, Bones, help Oliver solve his own ‘murder’?

Other things you need to know about Violet:

• She is a girl living in Victorian England
• Girls are not allowed to aspire to an education and she will never be allowed to work with her father in the family Funeral business. 
• Violet's father has been accused of murder. Four men have very recently been buried in the graveyard beside the family undertaker's shop. The four men were all found in a dangerous and poor part of the town but these men, Violet discovers later, are all very wealthy.
• If Violet cannot prove her father is innocent he will hang. The police dismiss her as merely a girl who should not interfere.
• Violet is not afraid to spend time among the graves even at night - the dead feel like her friends.
• Oliver, the boy who someone has also tried to murder, needs to regain his memory but time is short. Oliver and Violet need to form a team and follow all leads to solve this terrible crime.

I read A Case of Grave Danger by Sophie Cleverly (author of the Scarlet and Ivy series) very quickly because it is a story with a terrific pace. Violet does solve this crime about halfway through the story but the police will not act without evidence. Luckily her dog Bones has a good nose for clues and luckily Violet herself is a very brave and determined young girl.

Fans of The Graveyard book by Neil Gaiman will also enjoy A case of Grave Danger. 

The Victorian setting with the morbid fascination with death, and life in a mortuary, evokes a sense of place, and oozes mystery throughout. Ashleigh Meikle

Full of mystery, excitement, adventure and suspense, this fantastic beginning to the series, sees Violet evolve and assert her individuality. Kids' Book Review

You can read the first chapter here. Or you can listen here.

Companion reads:

The Detectives Guide to Ocean Travel

Violet and the Pearl of the Orient

The Mystery of the Clockwork Sparrow

The Truth about Verity Sparks

The Case of the Missing Moonstone

Black cats and Butlers

Magrit by Lee Battersby

Sometimes books come along to test boundaries 

Magpies Volume 31, issue 2, page 32.

When I read a book from our school library my mind often wanders to thoughts of which student might enjoy it. Magrit is almost impossible to categorise.  While I did enjoy Magrit it is such an odd book and at times feels quite harsh and dark.  Some reviewers suggest age 10 but I think this is really a book for a very senior primary student and certainly one who has read quite widely.

The setting for Magrit is a cemetery.  Magrit lives there with her 'friend' Mister Puppet.  Magrit herself created Mr Puppet.

"Magrit had pieced him together from elements she had found in every corner of the graveyard : a bone here, a stick there, a tin can in one corner and rotten twine from a garbage bag in another. Now he sat at the apex of the roof, with his long arms wrapped around the stone cross, and kept vigil."

Mr Puppet is the voice of doubt, the voice of reason perhaps the voice of authority.  He gives Magrit advice which is presented in a bold hand drawn font.

When a stork drops a tiny baby into the graveyard Mr Puppet orders Magrit to kill it but she does not.  Instead she nurtures and cares for the tiny infant.  She finds ways to feed, clothe and wash her new 'friend' and gives him the name Bugrat. Through care of this child Magrit discovers love and finds happiness. There is, however, one dark corner of the graveyard Magrit never visits.  Everything changes when Bugrat learns to walk and sets of exploring.  He wanders over to the forbidden place and finds the skeleton of a young girl and Magrit is distraught.

"It was a small skeleton, obviously a child, curled up on its side as if sleeping, with its legs drawn up towards its chest and arms folded as if hugging a non-existent teddy ...  Magrit realised that the whole world had fallen silent ... The murmur and hum that always emanated from the surrounding buildings, so prevalent that she never really noticed, was painful in its absence ."

You can read more of the plot here.

Watch this short video to hear the author Lee Battersby from Western Australia talk about Magrit.  I am not sure that I would read this book with a class but here are a set of teacher notes from Walker Books which might give you some further insights into this complex and yet compelling book.

Magrit is a unique book but it does have some links with The Graveyard book, The Unfinished Angel and perhaps Skellig.

You can read some reviews here by clicking these quotes:

Themes include resilience, responsibility and independence, wrapped up in a suspenseful and fantastical mystery. 

Magrit has plenty of soul, sadness, despair, and hope. It’s a delightfully dark fairy tale, full of Battersby’s whimsy and charm.

Magrit is a wonderfully crafted story that is magical, unusual, strange and captivating.  I haven’t read anything quite like it before.  

The graveyard book by Neil Gaiman

Many people have said to me how much they loved The Graveyard Book although perhaps loved is not quite the best word. This is simply a marvelous and compelling story. It says in the back that Neil Gaiman spent 20 years thinking about and writing this book and yet the highly skilled writing seems so effortless. Gaiman is such a descriptive writer and if you have ever visited a graveyard you will certainly be able to really see this one through the writing and your imagination.

Bod (Nobody Owens) lives in the graveyard with a colourful cast of characters from the past. This cemetery is no longer in use and so the ‘inhabitants’ are all from a bygone era. Bod is in real danger. His life has been seriously threatened and so the dead souls agree to offer their protection and they grant Bod the Freedom of the Graveyard. Luckily for Bod there is one nondead soul who dwells in the graveyard – Silas. It is Silas who will go into the world to get food and later clothes for Bod and it is Silas who will offer important advice and friendship to Bod as he grows to the teenage years.


Bod could have a surprisingly pleasant upbringing in the graveyard with all these souls to care for him but all through there is the underlying threat of danger from the one who wanted to murder him when he was just a tiny child. This man Jack literally stalks the pages of this gripping book constantly waiting for the right moment to strike.

With amazing illustrations by Chris Riddell this is a book to savor and enjoy, it is a book to read and re-read, it is a book I would not hesitate to recommend to a senior primary student as one of my top books of 2009. No wonder it was the winner of the Newbery Award.