The Lennon Sisters: The Secret of Holiday Island

    I had first heard of Janet Lennon through her book Janet Lennon at Camp Calamity. I didn't know who she was but the book explains she's a singer. That's all I knew at the time so I was very surprised to see a book with four Lennon girls and to find Janet to be the youngest. Before giving this book a re-reading I looked up Janet Lennon online and was even more surprised to find that, at the time of this writing, the Lennon Sisters are still performing. That's going to make it very fun reading about these girls who are actual people and still together as "the Lennon Sisters".

    I've read this book once before and I only remember two things about it; some combination of a cave along the waterfront, Janet, a strange boy, and them running over the lawn at night while stopping the bad guys.

    Mr. Lennon has received a telegram from a real estate agent offering him a rent-free summer at a ranch on Holiday Island. The ranch belongs to David Gardner but he has not lived in it since the passing of his wife and four-year-old son in a boat wreck over a decade ago. If the Lennon's like the place he will sell it to them at a low price. The only condition is they must keep the caretaker Ben Taggart on. 

    

    They take the offer and Mr. Lennon heads out to the island with Diane, Peggy, Kathy, and Janet.

Once there they find the big, beautiful house still boarded up and dusty, apparently Mr. Taggart did not bother to get the place ready. The girls clean it up and all agree it seems like a mighty fine place to spend the summer (why did I just say "mighty fine"? The Lennon wholesomeness must be rubbing off on me). 

    That night Janet runs into Peggy's room during a thunderstorm insisting that she heard voices outside her second floor window. Peggy tells her she was imagining it but when she goes to Janet's room to shut the windows for the night she too hears it. The next day she discusses it with her father who reasons the voices were probably coming from Taggart's two way radio. However we soon learn that the radio is broken and Taggart is awfully worried about it. He is expecting a message from Don Luis about a ship that is looking to pick up some illegal cargo in a few days. He's already stressed about the Lennons being there but even more stressed now that he doesn't know when the ship will be arriving. 

    The Lennon's decide they will remain for the summer so Mr. Lennon heads back home to pick up the rest of the family (there was 11 Lennon kids, don'tcha know). Taggart takes him to the airport and while in town he reports to Chris Lugo who he is working for. Lugo is evil and cruel and Taggart fears him. Lugo talks about how he is suppose to be watching his cousin's son, Juan, while the father is in Mexico but after he beat him Juan ran away. Lugo, worried Juan knows what they're up to, made a false police report saying Juan stole from his cash register and he plans on beating him more when he gets him back.

    Taggart hopes that he can scare the girls into remaining inside at night so they don't see his criminal dealings but the girls prove hard to scare. He fakes a loose mountain lion but the girls quickly learn they've been deceived and ignore it. Next he tries to scare them by giving one of the girls a "close call". 

    

    While Janet is fishing off the edge of the pier he suggests she go to the end of a large path of boulders out to sea. She gets trapped when the tide comes in and is soon washed out into the water. Taggart has removed a board from the rowboat so it can't be used for rescue so Diane has to dive in to try and save Janet. By the time she reaches where Janet was she's no longer there and after more searching the girls come to the conclusion that Janet has drown.

    Of course Janet didn't actually drown, she was just swept further down the shore and, as she grows weak, is rescued by Juan who has been hiding out in the area. He tows Janet into a seafront cave to recover, introduces her to his talking parrot who is the answer to the voices outside Janet window, and shows her a secret underground passage to get out of the cave and back home. He also tells Janet she can not reveal who saved her and to just say someone named John Smith saved her. She goes home and the girls are relieved to see her. Diane feels something is strange about this John Smith but they're too grateful to care much. Upon hearing the story Taggart immediately knows John Smith is actually Juan and decides to find him and turn him over to Lugo.

    The next day Janet and Peggy go up a hill and overlook the cliff onto a cove at the same time that Don Luis shows up with the ship. The ship is disguised as a motion picture outfit shooting on location. Janet wants to go down to the beach to watch but Taggart scares the girls off by causing a wild bull stampede. 

    As the girls head back to the house Kathy joins them and then all three come across Juan. Kathy and Juan seem smitten with each other and the girls suggest he spend the night in the nearby storage cabin until their father arrives the next day and can help him. When Juan goes to check out the cabin he finds Taggart and Don Louis inside examine boxes of advanced weaponry, Lugo soon joins them. Juan overhears enough to learn the men are selling weapons to an undisclosed countries revolutionaries. He tells Janet this info when she brings him food that night but Diane has already been telling the girls Juan has probably been making up stories and this convinces Janet. He tells Janet he will prove it by retrieving a gun from the cabin. When Janet goes back to the house after he leaves she confronts Taggart in front of the other girls. Taggart says the guns are props for the movie being shot but quickly heads to the cabin and catches Juan and tie him up inside.

    The girls think it over and decide to call the police but find the phone lines have been cut. Diane goes outside to examine the wires but Taggart tries to run her down in his car and she barely makes it inside when he backs up to try again. 

    Soon a tipsy man comes knocking on the house door and warns the girls they'll be safe as long as they stay inside until morning but if they get caught outside some of the other men might harm them. They decide they have to go to the cabin to grab evidence so they can tell the police the next morning. 

    Peggy and Kathy create a diversion at an upstairs window while Dianne and Janet sneak out of the house. Once they get to the cabin they see the men moving the boxes of weapons and are able to sneak in and free Juan. They all run to Taggart's car but find he's taken the keys with him so the just release the air from a tire. 

    Not much later they are able to steal Lugo's car while he is distracted by Juan's bird. The men fire at them but Diane drives the car at a crazy speed towards town. They run out of gas several miles away and begin to walk when Jim West, the co-pilot from their flight to the island, drives by. It's now early morning and he's on his way to work. 

    After hearing the trios story he takes them to the coast guard where they tell the story again. Afterwards they go to town and are about to start walking home when Peggy and Kathy pull up in Taggart's car, still with a flat tire. The five stay there until the rest of the family soon shows up on the boat. The coast guard also shows up with the criminals in tow.

    On the way back to the house Dianne tells Mr. Lennon about Juan's rescue of Janet and Mr. Lennon decides he would like to pay for Juan to go to school and college as a thank you. Mr. Lennon needs to run it by Juan's father, Bernardo, first but Juan does not know how to reach his father in Mexico. He suggests Padre Antonio at the church might since he is friends with Bernardo. Mr. Lennon goes there and is told that the padre had received a letter from Bernardo yesterday saying he is not Juan's real father and that he has married a Mexican women with children and does not plan on returning to claim Juan. 

    Mr. Lennon asks padre Antonio to come by the house the following day to tell Juan this. Upon hearing this Mrs. Lennon wants to adopt Juan into their large family and this seems like a fine solution until some startling facts surface the next day.

    David Gardner has arrived on the island to get things signed over for the Lennon's and while there he witness Juan access a hidden compartment on his desk and pull out a toy that belonged to Gardner's deceased son. Juan knows the name of the toy and from there it becomes clear that Juan Lopez is actually Johnny Gardner, the son formally thought drowned in the boating accident. The Lennons soon depart so the father and son can restart their lives together.

- Mr. Lennon isn't very smart to leave his 4 famous daughters alone with a strange man.

- Juan's bird kind of disappears from the story which I don't really like.

- Ages aren't really mentioned in this book which kind of sucks. I'm not sure if Janet was suppose to be 7? 13? somewhere in between? Same with the other girls.

- Bernardo abandoning Juan is not seen as bad since he's not his "real" father but he's raised him since he was 4 so that'd be pretty traumatic. Also why did he not find Juan's family? His father would have been hopeful and looking I'm sure.

    Overall this book was okay. It had less excitement than I remembered but there was still some. Some parts do feel boring and dragged out, I'm not sure a child would get through it too easily, it just feels very long. But all in all it's not bad and I think it must have been fun for the family to have a book like this written which includes not just the sisters but the whole family.

Janet Lennon and the Angels

    This is the second Janet Lennon book I've read and I remember being hesitant to get it because the title sounded so strange. I've read it once and I remember really liking some parts of it but getting bored quite a bit too.

    Janet has been invited by her Aunt Bee to spend the summer on an old family ranch. Aunt Bee is actually a distant cousin of Mrs. Lennon and she doesn't have any close family. She's been visiting the Lennons for a week and has taken a liking to Janet, something which Janet finds irritating as Aunt Bee seems to always be at her heels. 

    Bee has recently inherited her uncles twenty acre farm in Texas which was her childhood home, and she asks Janet to go with her there for the summer. Janet doesn't like the idea of spending 3 months with her 50 year old aunt at her heels but with no good excuse to say no she accepts. Aunt Bee buys a car and the two soon set out on the long drive from California to Texas. 

    Janet worries about the two of them, a young girl and older woman, being alone but aunt Bee soon proves how tough she is when at a dinner a bum tries pushing her to give him a ride. She nonchalantly threatens him with her steak knife in a way that sends him retreating in fear.

    When they arrive at the ranch the place is terribly run down to the point that Janet gets tears of disappointment. When the two make an exam of the place they walk into the bedroom to see a man jump out of bed, kick out a window, and jump out and run for it. Bee tries making light of the situation but both are shaken. Was the man a simple transient or was Bee's mention of a local penitentiary indicative of something?

    They pull the furniture, which is broken and filthy, into the yard and burn it, then board up the broken window and head to town to buy furniture, groceries, and cleaning supplies. When they arrive home Janet is pretty sure the board across the broken window looks different but decided against telling Bee as she can't be completely sure. 

    As the two are cleaning Janet notices a door in the kitchen. Aunt Bee tells her it's to the basement and she opens it to hear scurrying below. Bee says it's rats and Janet, feeling uneasy, stuffs a chair under the doorknob just for a sense of security. However she wakes up that night to the sound of footsteps below the floor and someone trying to open the basement door from the inside. Janet is terrified and regrets having put the chair under the knob. She doesn't want to wake Aunt Bee as she worried her tough Aunt will face the stranger head on. So she creeps out of bed, moves the chair and opens the door to the back yard then rushes back to her room and locks her door. She soon hears the stranger leave and looks out the window to see a small man in a suit and hat hurrying away.

    The next morning she tells Aunt Bee who is disappointed with Janet's actions. Bee says she would have preferred to get the sheriff out there to grab the stranger instead of letting him free. The two head down into the basement and see bricks removed from one wall. Bee acts nonchalant over it but Janet thinks something might have been hidden in the basement and Aunt Bee is keeping it secret.

    Aunt Bee purchases more thing for the home including windows with locks and a revolver. After more cleaning she takes a nap and Janet uses the time to explore the surrounding area. Seeing a path leading into the wild she follows it and comes to a ranch owned by the Angel family. Seeing kids her own age Janet stops to introduce herself and ends up causing their hogs to stampede, break a fence, and escape. Janet helps round them up, making friends with the Angels in the process.

    Aguilermo and Aurelia are 15 year old twins who speak semi-fluent English, as does their little sister, Maria. Mr. and Mrs. Angel only speak Spanish and although all conversation between them and Janet has to be translated through the twins, they still get along wonderfully.

    When some of the Angel's goats jump the fence and go onto the neighboring property, which belongs to a judge, Janet has to go rescue them as the landowner has forbidden the Angels from going onto the land. Janet runs into a ranch hand chasing the goats and he explains he's been directed to shoot any goat or hog that wanders on his land from the Angels. Janet is appalled by this. 

    The twins then explain that their father had bought the hogs before he could afford to buy a fence and then later bought goats before an appropriate fence for the hogs had been bought. So the animals wandered around and caused damage to the judges land. After repeated times he took them to court and they were fined to pay for the damages. The Angels find this unfair because the judge has more land then them and they think he should share it. The judge has also denied Mr. Angle's application for citizenship.

    Janet marches into the Judges office the next day and demands to know why he is bullying the Angles. The judge explains that he had been patient at first about the wandering animals and had talked to Mr. Angel, who he thinks is a good man, about it yet nothing was ever done to fix the problem and the animals were using up all his grazing land that the judge needed for his own cattle. 

    He explains that after the third time he had given the Angels 6 months to get a fence erected before taking them to court. The Judge then explains that Mr. Angel's citizenship was denied because he still had an unresolved legal case open because he had not yet finished putting up a fence and because he had made no effort to know any English or US law which had resulted in the legal problems over the fence.

    Now that Janet understands the situation she tells the twins that their father will be granted citizenship if he finishes his fence and learns a little bit of English but Aguilermo is still hesitant, feeling that his father should be allowed to ignore laws that they were allowed to ignore in Mexico which prompts Janet to ask why did they come to America if they want things the same as in Mexico.

    Janet, the twins, and Maria explore an abandoned schoolhouse which gives them an idea; Janet will teach the twins everything Mr. Angel will need to know for his citizenship interview so they can teach it to their father and in return they will teach Janet more advanced Spanish. This is agreed upon by everyone, including Mr. Angel, and they start adding their lessons into their days of carefree playing.

    One day while rolling down hills inside a truck tire Janet is bounced off course and crashes into a makeshift shack made of scavenged items. Before she can extract herself from the tire the male occupant of the shack runs away. Amid the shambles Janet see two apricot cans exactly like the two that had been stolen from aunt Bee's groceries the night before. Because of the previous experiences with a prowler Janet feels shaken and worried but as Aguilermo points out "he's more afraid of you then you are of him".

    They keep up with their lessons, always in the old schoolhouse which becomes their home base as it's located in-between the friend's houses. As a thank you to Janet Mr. Angel gives her a bulldog pup from a litter they had bred to sell. His name is Toughie and he is overflowing with energy which keeps him active day and night. In an effort to spend his energy Janet takes him for long walks and usually ends up in the schoolhouse where she practices her Spanish while Toughie runs around chasing rabbits. 

    On their recent trip there Toughie gets a hold of the schools bell pull and sets off one long ring from the large bell, a signal among Janet and her friends to come to the school house immediately. Soon Aguilermo shows up out of breathe and Janet has to explain it was Toughie who accidentally summoned him. They hang the rope pull over the coatroom door then each head to their own homes.

    On the way Janet hears a distant siren and when she comes into view of the house she sees Aunt Bee waving to her frantically. Once there Bee explains that it's the penitentiary siren and it indicates trouble. She has them get inside, even Toughie who she had previously banished outside permanently, and has all the doors and windows locked. On the radio they hear that there has been an escape and three armed and dangerous men are on the loose.

    In the middle of that night Toughie gets restless and makes a fuss wanting out so Janet lets him outside where he lays down against the screen door. While trying to fall back asleep Janet hears him start to emit a low and menacing growl and becomes fearful. She looks out the window but sees nothing in the moonless night. Not until he stops is she able to fall back asleep.

    She stays inside for the next three days until an announcement comes that two of the prisoners were captured and the third was spotted 100 miles away. Free to go back outside Janet takes Toughie for a walk and goes to the old schoolhouse. Inside she notices the rope has been dislodged from the coatroom door but doesn't care to place it back up at the moment. As she's standing at the blackboard working on her Spanish she senses someone in the room. Thinking it's Aguilermo trying to scare her she jumps around yelling "Boo!" just to come face to face with a disheveled man in a prison uniform. 

    He begins asking her questions; who is she, why is she there, is anyone else meeting her there. She announces she must leave but is stopped and soon another man appears up the ladder from the school's basements; the man who she had seen jump out the house window, run away from the house after leaving the basement, and run away from the shack after she crashed into it.

    The men start discussing the situation; Jamie is an escaped convict and Pop is his father who has helped him break out of jail. Pop was staying in Aunt Bees empty house looking for a large amount of money it is rumored her uncle had hid in it. He had to leave when the girls showed up and without any money he hasn't been able to get clothes for Jamie so they can make an escape. 

    They've decided Bee must know where the money is and Jamie, who is in charge, orders Pop to go to the house, grab Bee, and force the money from her. Pop insists he has to bring Janet with him to show Bee he means business but it's understood by all three that he wants Janet to come because if she is left alone with Jamie he will, without a doubt, kill her. 

    Jamie agrees that she should go along but instructs Pop to either bring them back to the schoolhouse or kill them once he has the money. Once outside Pop becomes more evil, keeping a gun in Janet's back and marching her back to the house. Aunt Bee is lounging outside and is quickly ordered in. They go in the house and in calmness and with total composure Bee asks what he wants and informs him she hasn't found any hidden money. She offers him $50 cash from her purse to leave them alone but he forces them in the basement to continue looking behind the bricks. 

    Bee makes an attempt to wrestle the gun away from him but it narrowly shoots her in the face. Once all the bricks have been removed and no money is found Pop begins up the stairs with the gun still on them and Janet believes their time has come. He instead instructs them back up and asks Bee where the money is which is when she reveals it's in a bank in New York as no one would be dumb enough to leave it in an abandoned house. 

    For a moment Pop weakens saying he doesn't want to kill anyone and he just wanted his son out of prison. Seeing Bees gun on the kitchen shelf and the car keys hanging on the wall give him strength and he declares Jamie will have to do his own killing thus marching the girls back to the schoolhouse. 

    Once there Pop is sent to go purchase clothes for Jamie with Bees $50 then after nightfall they'll kill the women. While they sit waiting for Pop's arrival Toughie comes bursting in and immediately jumps at the rope causing the bell to give out one long ring; the help signal. 

    After being informed someone would now be coming Jamie drags Bee into the bell tower and has Janet stand at the blackboard and shoo away Aguilermo, who is approaching. Janet tells him nothing is wrong and to leave her alone while writing "No hable Vd. espanol! hombre, pistola, en salon, Trae Vd. policia.". Aguilermo acts snubbed and leaves. 

    Waiting for the police or Pop, whoever gets there first, Janet is horrified to see little Maria walk in. Soon police sirens are heard and scores of policemen show up telling Jamie to "let the Lennon girl go". He tells the police to do as he says or he'll kill Janet and instructs them to have a police car on and ready for him to make a hasty escape in. He then plans to exit the schoolhouse with Maria in front of him and Janet behind but Maria won't cooperate. 

    When he forcibly picks her up she bites his ear which causes him to throw her to the floor and just as he's about to beat her with the grip of his gun Janet throws herself at his back knocking him over and causing his gun to go flying right to the feet of Aguilermo who has snuck in through the basement window. 

    Aguilermo grabs the gun but Jamie is quick to pull Bee's revolver from his pocket and aim it at Janet. Aguilermo is forced to drop the gun under threat of Janet being shot but just as he does that Bee jumps down from the bell tower right onto Jamie and the second gun goes flying from his hand. Janet grabs it and runs outside to call the police in.

    Once Jamie is taken away its reveled that upon Aguilermo leaving the schoolhouse Aunt Bee had slipped her legs through the bell tower railing to signal to him that she was up there. He ran home and, with his father, went to the police station. At the store across the street aunt Bee's car was parked and knowing she's in the bell tower things didn't add up.

    That night Janet asks her aunt how she is always so calm in dangerous situations to which Bee informs her she's been a policewoman for the last 20 years. Janet simply never thought to question her assumption that her aunt was a secretary. The book ends with Mr. Angel receiving citizenship and all of them having a fiesta.

- One part of this book that I had remembered is when Janet takes a bath in a wooden tub in the kitchen. It's filled with pails of cold water and heated with a tea kettle. I thought this was so fun and old fashion. Same with the way they store foods that need refrigeration in the well.

- An effort is made to not have the Angels be Mexican stereotypes but unfortunately they still are. It's explicitly stated that the stereotype of the "lazy Mexican" are false and also noted that the Angels are not crop workers or illegal immigrants. However their struggles with the English language and minimal education is solely because they're Mexican and not explained as them being new to the country or something. Janet is, in fact, impressed when she see Mr. Angel do basic math or read a Mexican newspaper.

- The twins tells Janet some Mexican folklore that they were told from their parents. This is used to show that the Angels are super smart, the same way that reading a newspaper and doing basic math is used to show the Angels are very smart. Honestly this is kind of offensive. Would Janet considered an American super smart because they can read and do math? I doubt it. 

- I think the setting of this is really fun. The trio spends their days playing in the wilds and old school house. It seems isolated and like their own little world.

- I loved the revel of Aunt Bee being a policewoman. She is so clam and tough throughout the book. It fits perfectly.

- I really don't like that the last time we see Toughie he is being kicked by Jamie before running out of the school house. Was he ok? Did Janet take him home to California after the summer? I wanna know!

    Overall it was ok. The problem I have with this book is that at first it' all about the prowler and seems suspenseful and a mystery but then it completely changes to being about the Angels and Mr. Angel's refusal to learn English. Then it switches back to mystery and suspense just to try and switch back to Mr. Angel for the last few pages. I really didn't like that because it was like two different stories and it switched whenever I already got invested in one.

Janet Lennon at Camp Calamity

    This is one of the Whitman books I've had since I was 15 so I've read it a number of times. The last time I read it was quite a few years ago but I recall finding it a little disappointing. I couldn't help comparing it to Donna Parker Mystery at Arawak which it did not stand up next to.

    This book is written by Barlow Meyers* who was mainly an author of westerns. She wrote all three books in the Janet Lennon series and one of the Annette books. Her writing style was vastly different from other typical Whitman authors, such as Doris Schroeder who wrote a large number of books for Whitman. Meyers' books always feature more dangerous villains and involve death by murder as a completely possible outcome for the heroine.

    *I was always under the assumption that Barlow Meyers was a man but I've seen them be referred to as a woman by others and, of course, Barlow Meyers could be a pseudonym. To be honest I am simply not sure if it was a man or woman.

    Fourteen year old Janet Lennon has gotten a last minute invitation to be a counselor at Camp Winhaven. She has to arrive at the isolated mountain camp that night. On the drive there she is passed by a blonde woman driving at a frantic speed and later a man driving even faster. A police officer is chasing the man who ends up crashing down an embankment but emerges unharmed. 

    When Janet arrives at the camp she meets the blonde woman, Mrs. Denton, and is later told by the camp director, Miss Malloy, that the Dentons are going through a divorce and custody battle of their daughter, Marcy. Marcy is being hidden away at the camp as Mrs. Denton fears her husband will kidnap the child.

    Janet awakens in Cabin Eight the next morning and introduces herself to the girls, who had all been asleep when she arrived the night before. Jo Ellen, a defiant trouble maker, immediately demands to know why Janet is "pretending to be the television star Janet Lennon". Jo Ellen challenges Janets authority by trying to leave for breakfast early and later by refusing to maker her bed. Janet does not let either of these slide; she makes Jo Ellen stay in the cabin, missing her fun camp activities, until she finally agrees to make her bed an hour later.

    Miss Malloy approves of Janet's actions when they're related to her later in a meeting. At this time she also tells Janet that Marcy is listed in the files under an alias and that no visitors are to be allowed to see her except her mother.

    Janet and her girls go for a hike later and stop to watch a construction crew who is working on the only mountain road into camp. One of the workers, whom the girls name Bluebeard, seems to stare at them angrily. Once at their hiking destination the girls play hide and seek during which two girls go missing. One girl, Karen, is found among some squirrels and birds who she has attracted with her skillful animal calls. The other girl, Jo Ellen, is not found so the girls head back to camp to gather a search party. However they quickly find her lounging on her bed laughing at Janet.

    Later in the day Janet is ask to do office duty while Mrs. Malloy goes into town. During this time Marcy's father comes in asking to see her. Janet feigns confusion and says no Marcy is at the camp. Mr. Denton goes through the files and is leaving after not finding her name listed when he spots her sweater, a hand knitted custom sweater Mrs. Denton had made Marcy. He leaves without saying anything.

    Later that night the camp has a sing along and Janet is asked to perform. This puts an end to Jo Ellen's claims that Janet is "pretending" to be the famous singer Janet Lennon.

    Janet wants to help the girls overcome their problems by the end of camp so she decides to teach the overgrown and clumsy Mary Ruth gracefulness by learning to swim, assigns the repressed and nervous Susan as kickball goalie to teach her self confidence, and has the small town Karen teach the other girls bird calls to...make her fit in more with the rich girls, I guess? That one isn't quite clear.

    Strange things also start happening in Janet's cabin such as a mysterious someone attempting to stealthily open the locked door late at night and the cabin key disappearing.

    One evening Janet returns from the counselors meeting to find all the girls asleep, except Marcy. Marcy's bed is empty and her blanket is missing. Janet looks around for her but upon not finding her reports it to Miss Malloy. The camp staff all being looking and when she doesn't turn up they begin to fear she's been kidnapped. They try to call the police but find the telephone lines not working. When they try to drive to the police station they find the mountain road blocked by the unfinished work of the construction crew. 

    Janet and Martha, another counselor, stop to tie the cut telephone wires together and as they're finishing Janet notices a car parked in the brush. She makes a quick search and decides to pull all the wires out from under the hood in case it's the kidnappers getaway car.

    They head back to camp and the police soon arrive as well as Mrs. Denton and later Mr. Denton. A huge search takes place over the next day but little is found due to the vast surrounding wilderness. On the second day Janet suggests that Mr. Bideloe, the elderly janitor who favors Marcy, lead a search party as he has bragged before about spending his youth on the mountain and knowing it "like the back of his hand". Unfortunately nothing turns up. 

    Janet awakes in the middle of the night feeling famished as she's been too worried to eat her meals. She decides to go grab something from the snack shelf in the kitchen and once inside the dark room she hears a person stirring. She is attack and goes unconscious. 

    When she awakes a few minutes later she finds two things in her hand which she had seemingly grabbed during her attack; a piece of Mr. Bideloe's shirt and a candy wrapper from some candy he had grabbed that morning.

    Janet feels she can not go to the sheriff with her discovery because the kidnapper is currently trapped on the mountain with Marcy and she feels any indication that the law is closing in would result in Marcy's death.

    She awakes early the next morning and remarks to Mr. Bideloe that she will be sneaking off to look for Marcy in a cave she had discovered while playing hide-and-seek with the girls. On her way out of camp she runs into Karen and instructs her to watch to see if anyone follows her out of camp and then report it to the sheriff immediately.

    Once she gets to the cave she hears running down the trail towards her and, knowing someone is in the cave keeping watch over Marcy, she starts screaming like crazy. The sheriff had previously told her in an off comment that a screaming women is a criminals worst nightmare because it will bring any man in the vicinity running. So Janet screams and screams even after a man jumps out of the cave to silence her. 

    Soon more running feet are heard on the trail and all of Janet campers appear. They jump on top of the man who appeared from the cave and sit on him until the sheriff and his men arrive behind the girls. Bideloe, Bluebeard, and another man are all arrested and Marcy is rescued.

    The final pages include Mr. Denton providing scholarships to the camp, Susan winning the kickball game, Mary Ruth placing in a swimming competition, and Janet making a promise to return the next year.

- Janet doesn't think anything of how the janitor goes on about how pretty the little girls are and points out which ones are prettier than the others. Man, this was creepy. 

- I was surprised to see how much it's mentioned that the kidnappers could have already killed Marcy. That's a pretty dark thing for a children's book.

- I think it's important it mentions that "a screaming woman is a criminals biggest problem". I remember my father teaching me this as a child and I think its a great piece of helpful information young children could have learned.

- I like the idea of Marcy's sweater. When I read this book before I had pictured it with every single row a different color but now I think it probably had larger stripes. I've been planning for several years to knit a sweater based off it.

    This book is alright and there's definitely something that feels different about it. I originally planned on getting rid of it after this reading but now I'm not sure.