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WHAT ALL THAT BOY WON'T THINK OF NEXT!, Elizabeth McCarley Ryan, hardcover with unclipped dust jacket (original price handwritten on flap), probable first edition, signed by author, 1971. BOOK CONDITION: near fine. The text block is in fine condition, with no tears, dogears, or marks. No bookplate or signature of a prior owner. Signed by author on first free endpaper. Not a library book or remainder. The green cloth boards are in good condition. The dust jacket is in fairly good condition (crinkling along the edges, some small holes and rips along the folds, age-toning in interior, age-toning along spine, circular spot on front cover where a price tag was taken off). 8 ½ x 6, 106 pages, 12 ounces XX [From the dust jacket flaps] New folks moving in just down the road. Twelve-year-old Angelina Higgins, Angie for short, is all curiosity. Her mother and father are hoping the Van-Clevelands will be good neighbors. Very soon things begin to happen, friendly things that Angie's parents do to make the newcomers welcome, outrageous things, undoubtedly thought up by that boy Zac. Zac is Mrs. Van's kid brother. You don't know that he put two younger boys up to shoving a squawking, scratching hen into the back of baby Jenks' full-gathered rompers; you're not sure that jamming a lard bucket down over Jenks' head wasn't his idea. It's all very funny and very mysterious. Then some very strange happenings occur that are not funny at all. Every decent-size watermelon in Mr. Higgins' patch was broken wide open just when the family was planning a fine party for some visitors; an old hermit, too crippled to crawl out through the window, was found nailed fast in his shack, from the outside. Who was the culprit? It all comes to light when the old hermit is arrested for shooting someone he heard prowling near his shack after dark. You'll be very interested in the testimony Mr. Higgins gives at the trial. He has done some very fine detective work which puts the blame exactly where it belongs, and justice is done. Along with this mystery story there are many interesting experiences shared by the two families. And, of course, there is a love story, too, when Linnie, Mr. Van's overworked Cinderella daughter, meets her prince and elopes with him to be married. What more could you ask in a book to be read just for fun? Mystery and romance, good times at a picnic, heartbreak when a crippled horse has to be shot, and everything turning out all right in the end. XX Elizabeth Ryan, whose leisure time has been devoted, for the most part, to painting, has now reconstructed recollections of her Mississippi childhood and added a bit of fiction, she says, for spice and flavor. She is a member of the Austin Municipal Art Guild; she enjoys doing landscapes, still lifes and flowers and has won some honors for her work. COMMENTS FROM THE CRITICS: As thickly intriguing and suspenseful as a jug of Southern molasses, a moving account of what it's like to be young and observing the process of growing up (Austin American Statesman). Gives readers a feel for the times. And the fiction added for spice and flavor only increases one's reading pleasure, for it is a homogenous blend which Mrs. Ryan is able to effect (Greenwood (Miss.) Commonwealth).
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