Le Cafe Singe Bleu Serving generous portions of history and mystery from our monthly menu Volume 1, Issue 2, February 2003

The Bobbsey Twins of Lakeport Laura Lee Hope first published 1904 Revised and abridged in 1989 by Nancy Axelrad Should you read this book: Only if you can't find copies of The Happy Hollisters books at www.abe.com

Review by Dot Emm The Cast of Characters The Bobbsey Twins 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 More kids Charlie Mason � Bert�s best friend Nellie Parks � Nan�s best friend Danny Rugg � the school bully The Family Mary Bobbsey � the mother, does volunteer work at the Rolling Acres Retirement Home. Richard Bobbsey � owns a lumberyard Dinah Johnson � African American housekeeper Sam Johnson - Dinah�s husband, foreman at Mr. Bobbsey�s lumber yard Lakeport Residents 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. 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 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; a stereotype which is annoying. If Nancy Axelrad is revising and abridging the originals, why not update women's roles as well? 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,� as it were. 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.

Thank you so much

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