The Postcard

April 1, 2008
Gr 5-8-Retirement mecca St. Petersburg provides the perfect backdrop for Abbot's mystery. Jason, 13, flies down to Florida to help his dad settle his grandmother's estate. Worried about his parents' marriage and disgusted with the heat and totally bored, he is intrigued when he finds an old postcard of his grandmother's. A hotel on it is the same one that appears in a mystery in an old magazine that he also finds in her house. The stories star someone called Marnie, a name that the funeral director calls Jason's grandmother, Agnes. Jason suspects that it wasn't a slip of the tongue after all, and that the tales really feature his grandmother. A mysterious phone call leads the teen and his new friend Dia to follow a trail of vintage postcards through local landmarks. Abbott's gift for creating complicated, realistic young characters is evident in Jason, but he is joined by stock characters from the pages of an old gumshoe mystery. The contrast between Jason's real adolescent angst and the clichéd mystery woven throughout makes each element seem richer. The surprise ending to the mystery and the not-so-surprising ending to Jason's real-life drama are quite satisfying. While less-sophisticated readers might be confused by the scene switches caused by the story-within-a-story format, many will enjoy this novel."Nicki Clausen-Grace, Carillon Elementary School, Oviedo, FL"

Copyright 2008 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 1, 2008
Abbott, author of Firegirl (2007)and theDroon series, sets no easy task for himselfwith thisbook, which contains a mystery within a mystery. Thirteen-year-old Jason isheading toSt. Petersburgto help clean out the house of a deceased grandmother whom hes never met. As soon as he arrives, mystery meets him.Who are those odd people atthe funeral? And what about thestrange phonecall that leads him toa tinted postcard of a Florida landmark about to be demolished?ThepostcardpointsJason to several old manuscripts that tell the story of his grandparents romance. Or do they? Abbott plays with style as he alternatesbetween the contemporary mystery of finding the manuscripts with the manuscripts themselves, written in a hard-boiled detective style. The result is sometimes too convoluted, but the book is so enticing that readers willgo along even when the going is rough. Jason (paired nicely with a neighbor girl as sidekick) is a hero worth rooting for. Kudos, too, to the books designer, whose use of old postcards heightens the appeal.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)

July 1, 2008
Before his grandmother's funeral, Jason finds a postcard whose clues lead him to chapters of a pulp mystery stashed at local Florida landmarks. The mystery's similarities to his grandmother's life make Jason believe he's tracking his unknown grandfather. Too many of the book's outlandish characters are unbelievable, leaving the madcap story only barely cohesive, but the action thrives at a breakneck pace.

(Copyright 2008 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)