Customer Reviews

Bitsy & the Mystery at Amelia Island (Silver Dagger Mysteries)

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Author Vonda Skinner Skelton doesn't just know how to relate to kids-she remembers what it's like to be one! Bitsy & the Mystery at Amelia Island is a delightful story for pre-teens that will carry them through from start to finish, while subtly instilling the positive message that life is about more than money or looks. As Bitsy visits her friends on Amelia Island, she learns about looking beneath a person's gruff exterior and finding a wounded heart longing for companionship. Even as the entrepreneurial twelve-year-old tomboy fails in a business venture and comes out on the losing end of a fist fight with the town bully, Bitsy's adventures lead to an entirely new understanding of what it means to "enjoy being a girl." Despite talking birds, retired police dogs, and goose-bump raising tales of ghosts and witches, Bitsy, with the help of her friends, manages to unravel a mystery and, in the process, discovers some life-changing secrets about herself.

Bitsy and the Mystery at Amelia Island is a delightful book, with a compelling plot and well-drawn characters. I enjoyed reading it as much as my two daughters did. We love Bitsy, as she's the perfect mix of imperfection, gutsiness, and goodness. Something about her just makes you root for her--every misguided step of the way.

Very enjoyable. Highly recommended.

Bitsy Burroughs needs money. Her struggling parents are unable to come up with the hundred dollars required for her camp fees, so the spunky twelve-year-old enters herself in a talent contest and, as a backup plan, starts her own business. (Bitsy's Bangles are monogram necklaces with a "double-your-money-back" guarantee.) Finances are never secure in Bitsy's world, but she's optimistic as she takes a week to visit her friends Garrett and Ellie on Amelia Island, Florida.

The song Bitsy has chosen to perform in the talent show, "I Enjoy Being A Girl," couldn't be further from her own personality, but she's determined to mold her image to fit, making an effort to change her hair color and even consider the possibility of (shudder) actually wearing makeup!

The feisty Bitsy has recently resolved to "live in peace with everyone" until she encounters Ernie, the neighborhood bully. For Bitsy, being a "sissy" is never an option, and she's prepared to back that up with her fists. Unfortunately for her new "girly-girl" image, Ernie is more than a match for her, and she emerges from the fight a bloody, black-eyed mess.

To further complicate the situation, rumors of ghosts are thwarting the adults' efforts to establish a resource center for handicapped youngsters next door, and of course Bitsy and her friends feel they must help investigate.

Author Skelton never condescends to her young audience. She especially shines in the action and crisis scenes, where it's touch and go for Bitsy or her friends. (Watch for an early nail-biter that involves being buried in the sand.)

In this second Bitsy mystery, Vonda Skelton has again given young readers a thoroughly three-dimensional character to cheer for--and occasionally laugh at--in a warm family atmosphere. As young womanhood looms on the horizon, Bitsy is making an effort to control her hair trigger temper, but she's not going to give up being a tomboy without a fight!

Gertrude Warner's "Boxcar Children" series set a standard for children's literature -- virtuous, hard-working poor kids who triumphed over adversity through courage and hard work. The "Bitsy" mystery series is a worhty successor to "The Boxcar Children".

In this one, Bitsy is vacationing with a friend at Amelia Island, and she's up to her neck in grief. She has to survive a small business disaster, bust a ghost, catch a thief, unhaunt a house AND raise money to turn it into a community center, save her friend from the neighborhood bully (AND match him punch for punch AND reform him), escape from a witch, raise enough money to go to camp, win the talent show -- with a few more adventures along the way.

Librarians need to mark down Vonda Skelton as a "Must Have"; parents and grandparents can confidently make her the Christmas book selection to the young mystery lovers in their lives (boy and girl -- Bitsy is tough!).

Kudos to Vonda Skelton. Her second book in the Bitsy series is even better than the first! Young readers will clamor to get their hands on a copy and won't be able to put it down as they join Bitsy on a wonderful adventure. An enjoyable series for young readers.

I think Vonda has done a wonderful job with Bitsy, a fiesty 13-year-old girl, who can stick with the best of the best. Bitsy isn't afraid of anything. Bitsy shares here adventure with her friends who had moved to Amelia Island and get into a bit of trouble on the way. She and her friends befriend the bully and his twin sister and the group of five come to believe a ghost is haunting the home of a man who just recently died. Bitsy and her friends have a wonderful adventure. Very good story. I recommend reading this story if you like fun adventures and mysteries.

Well done, Ms. Vonda.

Elizabeth & Hailie
Honea Path, SC