Best Kept Secret - Hardcover

Rodda, Emily

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0207158096 ISBN 13: 9780207158094

Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers, 1989

Synopsis

Beckoning music, gleaming horses, the lure of the carousel. Cecilia says merry-go-rounds are for little kids, but Jo feels there's something mysterious and not at all childish about the carousel that has appeared overnight in Marley Street. There's something odd about the beckoning music, something strange about the gleaming horses. And why are certain people able to gain entrance to the carousel while others - try as they will - have to give up and turn away? Jo feels she must try to get in. She must buy a ticket - but will she be leading herself and Cecilia into danger? Ages 10+

About this title

From School Library Journal

Grade 2-4-- Take a bit of The Time Machine , sprinkle in some Tuck Everlasting and a dash of the movie Big and the result is this fantasy approach to accepting that life is always changing. Joanna doesn't want to leave Marley Street, even if their house is too small. But the proprietors of the carousel that appears magically one morning have other ideas for Joanna and a handful of her townsfolk. Climbing hesitantly on their strangely alive mounts, each rider takes a rollicky spin, winding up seven years in the future. All find the promise of something wonderful, except Joanna, who, much against the posted rules, brings seven-year-old Davy back from the future. After a mechanical breakdown, discord among riders, and a shaky trip to return Davy to his cozy house on Singer Street, the carousel deposits its passengers back in real time with but a fuzzy memory of their fantastic journey. Joanna can't explain why, but suddenly she knows it's okay for the family to move to the new house on Singer Street. The 17 short chapters spin by as quickly as the carousel due to Rodda's skill in drawing readers into the story early and keeping events building at a fast clip. The characters are uniformly warm, if quirky, and even the old town crab and Joanna's stick-in-the-mud friend are treated with understanding. Young's black-and-white drawings, with their rampant carousel horses and time travelers in glowing auras, capture the light spirit of the story. An amusing, optimistic chapter book fantasy to read alone or aloud. --Joanne Aswell, Long Valley Middle School, NJ
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• Publication date: 1989
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0207158096
• ISBN 13: 9780207158094
• Binding: Hardcover