I have been slacking on book reviews. There’ll be three today…
The Valley of Secrets by Charmian Hussey
Released: January 2005
Mystery, adventure, science fiction, history, travel! This book has it all and more! It’s the story of an orphan, Stephen Lansbury, who finds out he’s been left his previously unknown late great uncle’s estate in Cornwall, UK. So, he goes there! But strange things are afoot, like a phantom gardener, swinging green eyes, South American foliage and something that goes WOOMP WOOMP WOOMP. The mystery slowly unravels, thanks to his great uncle’s journals, and I found it to be an original, fun and interesting story.
HOWEVER.
This is an independent reader but I know that as an 8-12 year old I would not have been able to get through this book. It’s 370 pages and very, very heavy on descriptions. The author literally spends TWO WHOLE PAGES describing a bathroom. A BATHROOM. Since the estate is quite large, we spend most of the book (MOST OF THE BOOK) following Stephen around as he explores EVERY INCH of the property, and our ah-ha moments don’t come until he settles down for the day to read the journals. Also, Stephen is quite preachy about saving the rainforests. He’s a little treehugger-in-training and loves to jam it down our throats. I realize that this book is intended for kids, though, so maybe I should leave him alone.
Last complaint: Stephen can only do things happily. Even when he’s just had the bejesus scared out of him by one of the many strange things that happen to him before he figures the whole thing out. Like, he realizes someone has just been in the house when he was away. He thinks “That’s weird” and then does something happily. NO. I am sending the author a dictionary and a thesaurus. Maybe she intended to paint Stephen as optimistic and unflappable, but he just comes off as dense.
I’m interested to see what else the author comes up with, though, because I think she’s a great story thinker upper.
