Customer Reviews

Mystery of the Dark Tower: a Bessie Mystery (American Girl History Mysteries)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book was actually much better than I expected, but not nearly as good as the other books in the series. The mystery wasn't terribly exciting, and was kinda of predictable. The strengths of the book were the historical details and the characterization, not the so-called "suspense." Bessie is a twelve-year-old African-American girl living on a farm in the rural south in 1928. Her mother, who is ill, has remained locked in her bedroom for the past few weeks. One dark night, without an explanation, Bessie's father orders her and her little brother to get dressed and he whisks them away to their aunt in New York City, at which point he dissapears. The rest of the book is occupied with Bessie trying to discover what has happened to her mother and father, and wasn't terribly interesting. Still, it's worth reading if you want to read the entire series.

This book is a very good book for girls ages 10-13 who want to learn about history and have some fun reading a mystery, too. The characters are very real and there are lots of good details pertaining tothe time period. Bessie must test her courage when she is taken on a frightening journey full of twists and turns. Read the book to find out what happens to Bessie and her family in "The Mystery of the Dark Tower."

This book keeps you on end and you don't know what is going to happen next! There are a lot of twisting bends in this book. I thought the dad was cheating all the way but you will have to find out what happens! This was a great book and I think it deserves six stars!!1

My daughter and I have completed another "history mystery". This one takes place in 1928. It begins with Ed Coulter taking his daughter, Bessie, and his son, Eddie, away from their North Carolina farm in the middle of the night, but leaving his wife behind. Bessie and Eddie soon find themselves living in their aunt's house in Harlem. Their father is hardly ever around and nobody will explain to them what's going on. Bessie is afraid that her family is breaking up, especially after an attractive, well-dressed woman picks her father up in a car one afternoon.

My daughter rates this one about average for this series and I can see why. The mystery isn't the most compelling. There is little sense of danger and no pirates, secret tunnels, or dark forests with unseen characters lurking just out of sight. On the other hand, my daughter didn't see through it, so it maintained her interest right to the end.

Personally, I found this one more humorous than any of the others. There are several funny situations, like when Bessie finds herself forced to eat oatmeal from a dish she had secretly had a big, slimy slug in earlier and had put away without washing. The situation surrounding Flo, the neighborhood hoodoo woman is also amusing.

Like the others in this series, this story is good for kids. It includes real historical information and characters, and it has positive messages and role models. Originally, I gave the whole series 5-star ratings. In my opinion, however, the Harry Potter books are the heavyweights in this genre, and though I still recommend the "history mysteries", they aren't as good as Harry. So, in the interest of consistency, I've changed my "history mystery" rating to four stars. This one, while not the best of the group in our opinion, certainly isn't inferior to the rest, either. I recommend the entire series to girls in the nine to twelve age group.

This book is much better than it looks like. I thought that this whole book would be completely easy to figure out, but it was actually a lot better. This is the first history mystery I read and in it there is a young girl who is african american and one day in the middle of the night her brother, her father and the girl, Bessie herself all have to go to New York City. Soon Bessie's father begins to go places late at night and come back late in the afternoon. One day Bessie sees her father hugging a lady and she becomes suspicious. What has happened to her mother? And who is the lady her father is with? Where is her father going that he has to stay for such a long time? This is all part of this book, and no it isn't the best book you can ever read, but it's better than it looks!

This book is great for children, especially African American children who want to learn Black history. While it is fiction it gives a good idea of what really happened in the past to blacks and their struggle for equality. It also has a real history facts in the back of the book. It also came sooner than I expected, so kudos to the company.

There were many plot twists which lead you to draw the wrong conclusions. One of the better books in the series.