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| 2009 edition |
“With their father away, who will solve the mystery?
In the darkness of a November night, Kate O'Connell awakens to the murmur of voices coming from below her room in the Windy Hill farmhouse. Sneaking down the stairs, she learns that Papa Nordstrom must take a job at a lumber camp to earn money for spring planting and be gone for two or three months during the worst part of the winter. Just when they had come together as a family, Papa must go.
In his absence, all the children are given greater responsibilities for the farm. Them simply have to make it through the winter without him. And then Kate thinks of all the things that could happen on a northwoods farm in Wisconsin. What if something goes wrong?
Series: Book #2 in the “Adventures of the Northwoods” series. Review of Book #1, Here!
*Note: Kate’s younger brother holds up two fingers being his head to make horns (directed at her lying).
Negative Content- Minor cussing including: a ‘sissy’, three forms of ‘stupid’, and ten forms of ‘dumb’; Nightmares; Kate eavesdrops on a conversation her parents are having; Kate and her step-brother argue, tease, and call the other names (such as dumb, brainless, stupid, and tattletale; She also yells that she hates him when he won’t stop teasing her about her dream; she gets upset that he won’t explain things to her as well); Kate and a boy at her school (who picked on her in Book #1) tease and threaten pranks to the other (Kate feels ashamed after a comment she said made him embarrassed); One of the boys (Stretch) says that the teacher doesn’t know “what she’s talkin’ about” (about warning them about a frozen lake) and also says the playground is for babies (and while Kate believes the teacher, she does to go the lake with him); *Spoiler* Kate falls through the ice of the lake and her trying to be rescued out of the icy water lasts a handful of pages (she is afraid that she’ll drown, semi-detailed); Kate keeps it a secret that she was on the lake with Stretch despite being very upset with him about leaving her *End of Spoiler*; Kate decides not to tell her mom about the prior spoiler & her brothers are against that idea (the younger one saying that it’s lying and Kate responds that it’s not lying, she just won’t tell her; Kate asks if they are going to tattle on her and hurts the young one’s feelings by being angry and threatening “you tell on me, and when you do something wrong, I’ll tell on you!”; She realizes that he hurt their bond by saying that); Kate does lie to her mother (thinking that she’s “not really” lying) & plans for her to not find out what happened which she calls “protect her” (her younger brother is shocked by her lying and her other brother says that she’s just protecting her own skin; *Spoiler* At one point, Kate knows that he younger brother is right, but still tells herself that she’s sparing her mother trouble by not telling her and doing the right thing; About half-way through, she tells her mother about falling through the ice and lying to her (not because of her own guilt but because of being emotional after her siblings pranked her), her mother is more upset about the lying and while forgiving her, also punishes her to stay in her room for two hours every day after school; Kate sneaks out by climbing a tree after a debating about doing it or not; When her little sister catches her and wants to go with her, Kate makes her promise not to tell; Later the little sister nearly gets hurt mimicking what Kate does and it shakes Kate up enough where she goes and asks her mother’s forgiveness *End of Spoiler*); Kate witnesses a boy stealing candy from a store (she starts to make excuses for him and doesn’t say anything; Her brother says a lot of the boys steal candy but he doesn’t anymore after his father tanned him for doing it); Kate’s brother and friend physically fight (over Kate not wanting her brother to tease her and when he doesn’t stop, the friends jumps him; Kate cheers for the friend to beat up her brother and when her mom sees them, they get punished with chores); One of Kate’s brothers drives a horse and buggy too fast and recklessly (despite her asking him many times to slow down) and problems happen; *Spoiler* When she sees Stretch as the possible thief, Kate doesn’t want to tell anyone because she’s defended him before and doesn’t want him to “get even” with her if she tells, so she pretends that she didn’t see him; Kate does tell her brother after his prompting and she thinks “Anders might tease. But so what? God loves me the way I am.”; The thief confesses that he was hungry and then started to sell things to buy what he wanted after his father left with all their money *End of Spoiler*; Mentions of Kate’s father death from a construction accident, her mother struggling afterwards with money, & their sadness; Mentions of almost drowning; Mentions of injuries & pain (barely-above-not-detailed); Mentions of stealing, stolen items, & thieves; Mentions of lies, lying, liars, tattletales, stretching the truth, & hiding the truth from a parent; Mentions of pranks, teasing, & bullies; Mentions of nightmares; Mentions of hunting & buttering animals for meat; A couple mentions of a father drinking & drinking more every year; A couple mentions of the disappearing stranger (Book #1); A couple mentions of eavesdropping; A mention of the death of someone’s mother; A mention of someone cheating another; A mention of jealousy;
*Note: Like in the first book, there are some name calling between Kate and her older step-brother (including as dumb, brainless, stupid, and tattletale; She also yells that she hates him when he won’t stop teasing her about her dream) and boys vs girls rivalry; Kate enjoys playing the organ, but isn’t happy when told there will be hard work to get better at it; Kate feels sorry every now and then for not using her new family’s last name, but wants to remember her Irish father; Kate hates mice & is incredibly upset about finding a dead one (barely-above-not-detailed); A couple mentions of Kate having to “earn the respect” of one of her new step-brothers (and recalls her new step-father saying she’ll have to earn her way with the brother).
Sexual Content- A boy student (Stretch) winks at Kate & she finds herself staring at him because she thinks that he likes her (one of her brothers gets very upset about this and tells her to like someone else because that boy is trouble); Kate thinks boys are staring at her & therefore like her; Kate calls a boy handsome; Mentions of liking someone & boys staring at Kate (or so she thinks); A mention of a boy student “making eyes” at a teacher;
*Note: Kate’s brother tells her that it’s not ladylike to whistle (which makes her determined to learn to listen).
-Katherine “Kate” O’Connell, age 12
P.O.V. switches between them
Set in 1906
144 pages
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Pre Teens-
New Teens-
Early High School Teens-
Older High School Teens-
My personal Rating-
This book enters in a bit of crushes for our main character, Kate, so depending on the views of a pre-teen’s family about reading books with hints of liking someone/crushes, this second book might possibly be a miss for them. Personally, I thought Kate was quite a stinker in this book (which I thought we were clear from after the first book!) so she definitely still has lessons to learn. I don’t think this series will be a new favorite of mine by any means, but I know it’s nostalgic for many.
See y’all on Friday with a new review!
*BFCG may (Read the review to see) recommend this book by this author. It does not mean I recommend all the books by this author.
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