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The Merry Muldoons and the Brighteyes Affair
The Merry Muldoons and the Brighteyes Affair Author:Brooks McNamara Grade 5-8-- In the spring of 1893, young Sam, his sister Vera, and their hard-drinking father are a lackluster vaudeville act in a dime museum on the Bowery. When a murderous thug nicknamed ``Brighteyes'' forces Pa to help retrieve stolen diamonds, life goes awry for the threesome and Vera ends up with the glittering trove. She convinces... more » Pa that they can set up their own theater with the goods, and the family exits Manhattan to escape Brighteyes. An adventurous chase ensues over rural New York State. There are captures, escapes, and plot twists galore. Bad guys turn into good guys and vice versa. In less skilled hands, this could have turned into comic-book farce, but McNamara's characterizations and strong voice make the improbable seem quite reasonable and certainly entertaining. Although there is no touch of the supernatural, this book is somewhat reminiscent of Richard Peck's The Ghost Belonged to Me (Viking, 1975), with its viewpoint expressed through an intelligent, conservative, yet typical boy led unwillingly into danger by an assertive girl. Like Peck, McNamara splashes in historical detail and humor in an unobtrusive way, making it easy for reluctant readers to enter the time period. Light adventure at its best!« less