The Callahan Cousins #2: Home Sweet Home (No. 2) [Hardcover]

Elizabeth Doyle Carey (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 7, 2005 | Grade Level: 3 and up | Series: Callahan Cousins

The Callahan cousins are back for the second installment of their vacation on Gull Island. Grandmother Gee has given the girls permission to fix up their very own quarters separate from the main house, and Neeve stumbles upon a troubling family secret.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 4-6–Continuing the summer saga of four 12-year-old cousins running loose and free on Gull Island, this installment finds the girls redecorating a house on their grandma's property. Neeve generates some drama when she accidentally finds a photo of her dad marrying a woman who is not her mom. She and Kate don't always agree on the decorating plans, but all four girls do agree on an aversion to Sloan, an island resident. As they fend off run-ins with her, Neeve surreptitiously investigates her dad's secret life. Meanwhile, the cousins paint and create, using Gee's seemingly bottomless pockets to remodel the Dorm. Billed as appealing to fans of Nancy Drew, Hillary McKay, and American Girl, this sequel to Summer Begins (Little, Brown, 2005) falls flat when read alone. The characters are one-dimensional, and readers are supposed to know who they are and what island life is about. Plot elements such as rich and spoiled Sloan wanting to drive and the girls' solving a romantic mystery serve to make this a clichéd tale. Fans of the first book will read it, but others would benefit more from Jeanne Birdsall's The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy (Knopf, 2005).–Debbie Whitbeck, West Ottawa Public Schools, Holland, MI
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About the Author

Elizabeth Doyle Carey is a freelance book editor and writer who has worked as a bookseller at Harvard Bookstore, an Editorial Director at imprints of Addison-Wesley and Golden Books, and as a Senior Editor at Workman Publishing. She is the author of Planet Ant, The Toobers & Zots Home Companion, and Toobers & Zots: The Road Show, all published by Planet Dexter/The Penguin Group.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers (September 7, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316736929
• ISBN-13: 978-0316736923
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.8 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,041,607 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I bought it right away, finished it in a day, turned around to read it again, September 12, 2005

A Kid's Review

This review is from: The Callahan Cousins #2: Home Sweet Home (No. 2) (Hardcover)

The Callahan Cousins is a wounderful, new, edge-of-your-seat novel great for girls 9-12. The book is about four cousins the same age (12), who come to stay alone together with there Grandmother at an island over the summer. During which, they have TONS of adventures!
This is the second book of the series, and I really enjoyed it. I prefer the first book's plot, and I reccomend reading that first. Even so, I bought this book as soon as I could get my hands on it, read it the day I bought it (move over Nancy Drew - it's another edge-of-your-seat saga), then turned around and reread it. It's all-around fabulous!
The Callahan Cousins is a wounderful series for late elementary-schooled girls, possibly reaching up to middle. (I am a middle school girl myself.) It has no mature content, and it's fun to go along with the girls on their many cliff-hanging adventures! Also, girls will like the fact that it's realistic fiction, but has some points where you've got to believe it's untrue. Also, their Grandmother isn't overly involved in their stay, so it seems like the girls have the wonderful freedom they're set to have - under a protectful eye but not bombarded.
The Callahan Cousins will be a surefire hit with girls!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Callahan Cousins, January 2, 2006

A Kid's Review

This review is from: The Callahan Cousins #2: Home Sweet Home (No. 2) (Hardcover)

The sequel to `The Callahan Cousins, Summer Begins', is `The Callahan Cousins, Home Sweet Home". This book is just as good as the first one.
It is full of adventure, mystery, and some sadness.
The book is about the three Callahan cousins, Hilary, Kate, Neeve, and Phoebe and a few of their adventures on Gull Island; on of which their Grandma Gee, ownes twelve acres of land on.
One of the cousins, Neeve, finds some disturbing information about her family on the island during their stay. All through the book she is trying to find more information.
The four cousins also have a task put in front of them from Gee, decorating a sort of second home down the hill from the house, that they call, `the Dorm'.
The girls are very excited and Phoebe, the most inteligent of the four, emidiatly starts taking notes and writes down the supplies they need.
Recently the cousins made a weird kind of friendship with their enemy, Sloan Bicket. Now, Sloan has invited them to a party. When the cousins see her at the sailing clinic the next day, Sloan is acting as bossy and mean as ever.
Later in the book, Hilary, Kate, Phobe, and Neeve, find out why Sloan always acts so two-faced.
All of the Callahan cousins solve their problems by the end of the book.
I liked this book because it seemed so realistic, a very adventurous read. This book is definatly up there in the top ten.
-Sophia age, 11

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful book!, December 29, 2005

By 

Armchair Interviews (Minneapolis, MN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Callahan Cousins #2: Home Sweet Home (No. 2) (Hardcover)

The Callahan Cousins: Home Sweet Home is the sequel to The Callahan Cousins: Summer Begins. In this adventure the four Callahan cousins: Neeve, Kate, Hillary and Phoebe--are spending the summer at their grandmother's estate on Gull Island where their grandmother Gee has given them free rein to refurbish and move into the Dorm (guesthouse).

While The Callahan Cousins: Summer Begins is Hillary's tale, this book is told from the Neeve's perspective.

Neeve and Kate have differing opinions about the redecorating of the Dorm. Both girls want control of the Dorm's decor. When the four cousins begin to search the main house's attic for items that can be used in their new digs, Neeve discovers a wedding photo of her father and a woman who is not her mother. Neeve is shocked and hides the photo from her cousins.

The cousins are invited to mean-spirited Sloan's house (she lives on Gull Island year round) for a sleepover. The cousins accept the invitation with the thought that they would seek revenge on Sloan because she insulted two of the cousins. Gee learns of their plans and firmly instructs that they are not to seek their revenge.

While at the sleepover, Neeve discovers some photographs that further shock her and she is forced to trade the cosmetics she's collected all over the world for them. Neeve's cousins know something is bothering Neeve but she won't confide her worries. She believes her father was married to another woman, and after overhearing an adult conversation, wonders if he might have been responsible for his first wife's death? And does he have other children that she is not aware of?

Family secrets are eventually explained, relationships are sorted out and the books end is satisfying for all.

Armchair Interviews says: The Callahan Cousins: Home Sweet Home is a delightful story of family, friendship and sticking together and trusting your loved ones. In an era where Young Adult novels tend toward the dark and gritty, this novel is a breath of fresh air. It's a fast, fun and interesting read. And it has a strong moral compass. And who doesn't want their children to read books with a positive message!