About this book:
“Something fishy is going on in Crooked Creek Woods. Does it have anything to do with the weird lights coming from Ruthie’s neighbor’s yard? Or are the kids’ imaginations running away with them? After all, Jack and Ellison have been hard at work writing a mystery. The Tree Street Kids decide to investigate. Not only do they discover what’s been hidden for centuries in the woods, they also learn about placing their trust in the adults who love and care for them . . . but not before placing themselves in peril.”
Series: Book #4 in the “Tree Street Kids” series. Review of Book #1 Here, Book #2 Here, and Book #3 Here!
Spiritual Content- A Scripture is quoted and thought over; A couple prayers; A couple talks about God & Jesus; 'H's are capital when referring to God & Jesus; Jack realizes he’s good at “praying in a pinch” but needs to “remember to pray more often the rest of the time”; Mentions of God & Jesus; A few mentions of praying; A couple mentions of a church’s trunk or treat event (on Halloween); A mention of a church’s VBS program (Book #2); A couple mentions of a Christian school; A mention of a youth pastor;
*Note: Midge buys a trilobite at a festival & while the fact note about them does not mention evolution, it says that “these creatures lived in shallow seas long ago but are now extinct” (mentions of trilobites after this as well): To avoid taking about a beloved pet fish’s death, it’s said about the fish going to the “big fish bowl in the sky” (twice); A boy calls his mother “Mothership” as her code name over walk-talkies (twice); A (teasing) mention of UFOs.
Negative Content- Minor cussing including: a ‘duh’, a ‘dumb’, a ‘holy moly’, and two sassy ‘whatever’s are also exclaimed; A mention of a bully saying words that Jack thinks would get him grounded until 1996 if he said them; The bully also calls Jack and the others “goofuses”, but Jack’s mom hears this and clears her throat “at the mean word”, so Buzz mumbles a sorry; Jack is chased by a man in a clown mask when he is trying to solve a mystery (he notes that being chased by clowns is every kid’s bad dream and when his parents find out about him being in the woods at night, they give him a look that says he is grounded until 2022); Jack is taunted and chased by the neighborhood bully and his goons; Jack feels sorry for a second when he sees one the bully’s goons’ father elbows him hard; Mentions of a bomb shelter from a war; Mentions of thieves, stolen items, & a possible kidnapping (of a pet fish); Mentions of the possibility of people poaching artifacts and selling them illegally; Mentions of injuries & blood/bleeding; Mentions of bullies (which Jack calls the neighborhood bully his arch nemesis and thinks that he deserves that title even though “Buzz [the bully] never seemed to get in trouble for all the mean things he did to the kids in the neighborhood”; Later, he wishes that Buzz was guilty so he would have to pay for being a bully, but *Spoilers* Jack realizes that while Buzz may be his enemy, he is also his neighbor and helps clear his name from being involved in the poaching that is happening in the forest as Buzz wasn’t involved in it; The adults say that Buzz needs better friends and are disapproving of another father who got his son involved in something illegal *End of Spoilers*); Mentions of a bubble pipe & smoking (with a note that actual smoking is really bad for your lungs); Mentions of the possibility of a cat eating a pet fish; A few mentions of a possibly corrupted forest ranger; A few mentions of Jack being chased by the bully and his goons in Book #3; A couple mentions of when Jack and Midge got lost in the woods (Book #2); A couple mentions of lies & lying; A couple mentions of jealousy; A mention of how to kill a bear; A mention of a boy feeding frogs to his pet snake (Book #2);
*Note: Jack’s parents want him to call them on his way home from a friend’s house at night, but he forgets and ends up following someone the opposite direction and has to run back home (but knows he’ll get a “good talking-to” from his mom about the missing call and being late; He gets grounded from video games for a week because of not coming straight home; Later, he feels guilt over not telling his parents the full story about that night); Jack doesn’t want to include his sister as a character in the story he and Ellison are writing, but she comes up with her own character (the crazy villain) anyway (he comes up with an “anti-little sister force shield” in the book that is fumes from a gym bag and an old cheese sandwich); Mentions of a Native American tribe being forced to leave their home by the government in the 1830s (which Jack asks his dad about and if it’s because they were enemies and is told that “Sometimes we’re enemies because we don’t live out Jesus’ second greatest commandment, ‘Love your neighbors as yourself.’ And He said we’re supposed to love our enemy.”); Mentions of books, authors, & fictional characters (‘The Boxcar Children’, ‘The Lord of the Rings’, Agatha Christie mysteries featuring Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple, ‘Encyclopedia Brown’, ‘Sherlock Holmes’, ‘Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day’, & ‘Journey to the Center of the Earth’; Also quotes from C.S. Lewis, Agatha Christie characters, & ‘Anne of Green Gables’ are said); Mentions of brand names & items (Popsicle, Tootsie Roll, Lunchable, Snickers, M&Ms, Pixy Stix, Sourhead candy, & Bit-O-Honey) Mentions of Halloween (and also passing skeletons and fairies); A couple mentions of other fictional characters (Power Rangers & G.I. Joe); A couple mentions of Sea World; A couple mentions of a car brand.
Sexual Content- N/A.
-Jack Finch, age 10
1st person P.O.V. of Jack
Set in 1995
180 pages
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Pre Teens-
New Teens-
Early High School Teens-
Older High School Teens-
My personal Rating-
One thing I really appreciated about this mystery was that even if Jack and his friends are able to solve the mystery by the end, there are still consequences to their actions and groundings from their parents for doing something like sneaking into the forest at night which they know their parents probably wouldn’t allow. Rather than some middle-grade books that have the result out-way the actions (even if they are actions that parents wouldn’t usually allow) and there’s no mentions of punishments or such, this book shows that even though a mystery is solved (which is a good thing!) it’s not good to keep secrets from your parents.
This wasn’t my personal favorite in the series, but it was overall enjoyable.
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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