by Laura Lee Hope (1904)
revised and abridged in 1989 by
Nancy S. Axelrad
Illustrations by Pepe Gonzalez.
The Cast of Characters
The Bobbsey Twins
More kids
The Family
Lakeport Residents
An elderly lady, Mrs. Marden, has moved from her house next to the Bobbsey Twins’ school, into the Rolling Acres Nursing Home. She had two family heirlooms, a cameo brooch and some valuable old coins, which she had hidden away, and now she can’t remember where she put them. Volunteer worker Mary Bobbsey learns of this, and tells Mrs. Marden that her children, who love solving mysteries, will look for her treasures inside the house. There’s a deadline, the house is soon going to be destroyed.
The Bobbsey Twins – Bert and Nan (ages we know not, but probably ten) and Freddie and Flossie (age six), and two of their friends, spend the next week searching the old Marden house for the heirlooms, without success. They are hampered in their task by Danny Rugg, the school bully, who tells them the house is haunted, and occasionally plays tricks on them, and by another, shadowy figure, who somehow is able to gain access to the house even though all the doors and windows are locked. They also spend time on other activities – going camping (and getting caught in a storm), learning how to make and fly kites, and doing volunteer work for their school in order to earn money for a new gymnasium and equipment.
This first Bobbsey Twins story is rather a disappointment, and suitable only for the youngest readers. As role models for readers - they have good manners and get along with each other well, they are excellent. They are not saints, Freddie is not above wandering away and getting lost in a department store, for example. The boys play with trucks and toy soldiers and go camping, the girls play with dolls and enjoy cooking and dressing up. Nevertheless the children have no real personalities, and the mystery is not involving.
The twins do not live up to their mother’s billing of being good detectives. The shadowy figure is caught by the police, and the children solve the mystery at the end of the book only by accident, by ‘deux ex felinus.’ The discovery of the heirlooms in a secret room is in itself a disappointment. Mrs. Marden had hidden the heirlooms in the room because it was her ‘favorite hiding place;’ therefore that would be the one place that she would not forget about!
However, young children will learn about making kites, about camping, about cameos, and about collecting old coins, which might spark their interest in collecting such things themselves.
Bert Bobbsey – Nan’s twin. About ten years old.
Nan Bobbsey – Bert’s twin sister. About ten years old.
Flossie Bobbsey – 6 years old
Freddie Bobbsey – Flossie’s twin
Snoop – their cat, the best detective of them all
Charlie Mason – Bert’s best friend
Nellie Parks – Nan’s best friend
Danny Rugg – the school bully
Mary Bobbsey – the mother, does volunteer work at the Rolling Acres Retirement Home.
Richard Bobbsey – owns a lumberyard
Dinah Johnson – housekeeper
Sam Johnson - Dinah’s husband, foreman at Mr. Bobbsey’s lumber yard
Mrs. Marden – elderly lady, has a mystery
Mr. Tetlow – Principal of the Bobbsey’s school
Officer Murphy - neighborhead police officer
Ms. Vandermeer – the teacher of the elder Bobbsey twins
Jack Ringley - the custodian at the Bobbsey twins' school.
This review copyright
May 24, 2000.
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