The Mystery of the Old Purse

The Mystery of the Old Purse by Richard Read is a short novel, mostly about two fourth-grade kids: Calista Snipe and her good friend, Skyler McCray. They go to school together, and one day, when a big storm is approaching, they decide to take a short cut to their homes to try to miss the storm. They do not escape the storm, and along the way, they encounter a mystery – they find an old purse. There’s nothing in the purse to tell them whose purse it is, but finding the purse leads them into more mysteries.

Calista and Skyler are likable characters, and seem to me to be pretty typical kids, except for the fact they go into Creepy Hollow with Calista’s older sister and friend, who are teenagers. You can understand what the characters are doing, and why they do the things that they do. They usually make pretty good decisions, but make a few bad ones as well, so they are not perfect. Mr. Read admits the first chapter does not exactly relate to the rest of the story, but that he uses it to introduce the characters. I liked the first chapter, but it was kind of boring, and it would have been nicer if it related to the rest of the book. The story should have had more suspense, but it was good.

There are several illustrations in this book. Some of the pictures are hand-drawn, some of them are from the computer, and some are photographs. Some of the pictures are kind of weird, like of the back of a rabbit or of Freddy Krueger. The story would have been okay without any of the pictures, because then the reader would get to use their imagination more. Overall, this book would be an okay read for kids 8 to 12.