Trixie Belden

I loved this book and I love these two heroines! Many similarities to Trixie and Honey. They even find a diamond ring in a tumbledown cottage. There are horses and a lake and woods and trails...The modern twist in this story is the role that race plays. Bee is African American and her father bought the plantation where their ancestors had been owned as slaves. And the family that owned them was Abby’s. So they have the same last name since slaves took the last names of the families that freed them. So they agree that they are kind of family. By the end they are definitely family.

Abby decides to clear her father’s name. He’s a lawyer that was tried by public opinion and lays in a coma from a blow to the head. He doesn’t wake up in this one, but I’m sure he will. Abby and Bee solve the mystery and help an old neighbor get back property that was legally hers just like Trixie and Honey would do.

My only complaint was that all the ends were tied up in summary pages at the end. Still, I loved it and I can’t wait to read the next one. ( )

The last year has been rougher than alligator hide for me and my dad. You see, he's in the hospital in a coma since his accident a year back, wherein he was framed for a terrible crime he didn't commit, and our home, Reward Plantation, had to be sold to pay off his debt to society. But things just got a bit more interesting. Turns out the new family that moved into Reward Plantation has a daughter named Bee, who is the same age as I am. And she's just as curious about all the No Trespassing signs and holes being dug out by Felony Bay, in the corner of what used to be my home. ( )

Life once was very good for young Abby Force. She and her father lived in a beautiful old house that had belonged to the family for generations, back to before the War Between the States. She had the whole of Reward Plantation to roam and horses and a private school in nearby Charlotte. She loved them all.

But everything changed a year ago. Abby’s father, once a respected attorney, lies in a coma, accused of stealing from an elderly client. The client is herself the victim of a stroke and cannot speak well. Their house has been sold and Abby is forced to live with her aunt and uncle. Uncle Charlie is nothing like Abby’s father, his brother. He drinks, punishes Abby, puts her down and pretty much treats her like Cinderella.

On the last day of school, after a miserable year without her friends, Abby has had enough. When the bully goes after her and a smaller, younger boy, Abby fights back. She’s had enough of Uncle Charlie, too, and is determined to find out why her father was found at the bottom of a ladder in his study with his client’s jewelry.

Abby has felt alone, but reinforcements have arrived. The new owner of Reward Plantation also is a Force, but from the former slave side of the family. He’s with one of his companies in India, but his daughter, Bee, who is Abby’s age, and Bee’s grandmother have arrived. After the discovery that part of the plantation on Felony Bay itself has been sold, and holes are being dug on the beach, Abby and Bee go into action.

They go through public records, the law, neighbors’ memories and spying on suspicious activities before putting all the pieces together. Both their investigating and episodes of danger are believable and entertaining. They also are informative in a non-lecturing way as to the limits and strengths of various types of law. They weave in historical and contemporary issues, as well as treasure.

Abby and Bee are smart, intrepid young teens who face their fears, overcome family tragedies and have fun. Even the secondary characters have more than one-dimensional stories. The bully, for instance, is the hit by his father, a deputy who is awfully friendly with Uncle Charlie. Bee’s grandmother and the people Abby seeks out at her father’s law firm play their roles without taking over from the girls.

Highly recommended for grades 5-8 ( )