Customer Reviews

Under Copp's Hill (American Girl History Mysteries)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
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This book is spirited, only the "ghosts" here have real legs, and they walk right into today's world, as our own foremothers. The writer is talented enough to make the emotions real, without sugar-coating or preaching. Her sense of place is as good as her sense of people. The immigrant girls clash with the expectations of their own families about them, and find themselves in conflict with the granite-like solidity, self-assurance, and at times denseness of high-principled Yankee settlement workers (who cannot quite trust them). There is a mysterious theft which brings out the economic differences cruelly. Based on an historic settlement house in Boston's North End, where teenaged immigrants from Italy and Russia produced pottery that has now great collector value (Paul Revere Pottery's Saturday Evening Girls, in the Arts and Crafts style), eventual triumph is hidden in portents of disaster. In this story, understanding between the girls themselves foreshadows the eventual detente between different ethnic factions in later years, and celebrates the capacity of a great city, Boston, to nurture generations of new Americans. Those of us whose families partake of some (or in my case all) of the ethnic streams mentioned, can take an especially delicious satisfaction in sensing how but for some amazing grace, it wouldn't have turned out so well. I know Boston well enough to know how good this story is. It makes me want to read the others to connect with the history of other places. If this is where American Girl stories are going, it's a fine trend.

That's the key question in this "history mystery". The setting is Boston's North End in 1908. Innocenza "Innie" Moretti, an eleven-year-old girl, lives in a tenement with her Uncle Giovanni's family and her grandmother. Her parents were killed in a fire when she was only two. She loves the club for girls from immigrant families at the new settlement house in her neighborhood. Here she can listen to stories, borrow books, and make new friends. But when things begin disappearing from the settlement house, and other things turn up in odd places, suspicion fastens on Innie. Helped by her new friend, a Jewish girl from Russia named Matela, Innie must find out what is going on. Is there a thief, or is the house haunted?

Readers of "Under Copp's Hill" experience late night vigils in an old cemetery and explore a dank old tunnel. The plot is not complicated, but there is plenty of tension for pre-teens as Innie tries to solve the mystery before she is kicked out of the club. Beyond that, the story also has something to say about the difficulties faced by immigrants in America in the early 1900's, and about how people of different ethnic and religious backgrounds could put their old-world differences behind them. All in all, this is another fine entry in the "history mystery" series. My daughter now ranks "Under Copp's Hill" as her second favorite of the nine we've read so far, behind only "The Smuggler's Treasure". I recommend the entire series to young readers and their parents.

Every since her Italian immigrant parents died in a fire when she was just two, Innie Moretti has lived with her grandmother in a tenament in Boston's North End. The year is 1908, and Innie is now twelve. When a settlement house for girls opens in her neighborhood, Innie is eager to attend, and join the library club. However, soon things start to dissapear from the house. Because she is thought of as a troublemaker due to several incidents that were not really her fault, Innie immediatley falls under suspicion for the thefts. If she doesn't prove that she is innocent, Innie will no longer be able to attend the library club, and reading is one of the few joys in her dreary, tedious, and difficult life. So she determines to solve the mystery and catch the real thief. While not the best from the series, this was still an excellant book that I reccomend to girls who enjoy historical fiction.

It's 1908 and Innie joins her sister's book club. She has fun going there every week with her friend and her sister but when she breaks some pottery there she gets in trouble. Then things in the book club get lost and she gets blamed for everything that is missing. How will she prove that she didn't do it?

A great book for all ages is definatly a way to describe under copps hill. It's a perfect mystery with tension suspense and releif. Once you open this book you'll never be able to put it down with it's secret sord , a promise that could ruin a life ,and a dangerous accusation. These are the main problems in tis wonderful and enchanting story.

Innie Morretti is from an Italian immigrant family in Boston in 1908. As Innie and her cousins grow up surrounded by Italians from the old country they strive to become Americanized. The historical fiction novel pecks apart the struggle these children faced.

The settlement houses played an important role in immigrants' lives by teaching them skills and sharing the American culture. The settlement house these girls attended had a library club.

When money and things go missing a thief is suspected. Innie is thought to be the guilty party, because of her reputation as a troublemaker. The mystery has no wild surprises or a red herring, but the story is well written. Ayers ascribes each character with a personality and the reader knows what to expect from them. The descriptions of the tenement houses and settlement house show readers what the era was like.

Reading the book for enjoyment the reader will not be disappointed. If in search of a better understanding of the time and area the reader can gain much understanding. For these reasons I recommend this book.

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Under Copp's Hill was an interesting book because it was like a mystery. It was an interesting mystery because the three kids had to find out who the thief was that was stealing things from a certain building. I like mysteries. Why I read this book and like it. If you like mysteries then you will like this book too! Read on to read what the book is about!
This book is about a girl named Innie. Innie over hears Mrs. Brown saying that someone has stole her silver kettle. And the worst thing is that she thinks it might be Innie! Now Innie has to find out who the real thief is before Mrs. Brown does something bad to Innie! If you think what you have read was interesting get this book!