The Vanishing Shadow (Judy Bolton Mysteries) [Paperback]

Margaret Sutton (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 8 and up | Grade Level: 3 and up | Series: Judy Bolton Mysteries

In the first book of this mystery series, Judy Bolton is resigned to spending several boring weeks at her grandparents' farm near Dry Brook Hollow. Her summer suddenly becomes interesting when she overhears some men talking about the Roulsville dam. Although, Judy does not understand the conversation, the men fear that she does and threaten her. Judy also becomes reacquainted with her childhood friend, Peter Dobbs, who gives her a cat that she names Blackberry, and meets the wealthy siblings, Arthur and Lois Farringdon-Pett. As the days pass, Judy learns that the Roulsville dam is cracked and may break during the next rain. The moment of truth arrives when a torrential downpour threatens the dam and Judy must rely on her seemingly cowardly brother Horace to warn the people of Roulsville of the danger. All Judy can do is hope that the dam holds long enough for Horace to warn the townspeople in time.

Editorial Reviews

Review

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Charles Dresner [phone] [e-mail] Applewood Books to Publish Entire Judy Bolton Mystery Series through American Web Books Website Bedford, MA (October 12, 2002) -- Girl sleuth Judy Bolton is coming back! Applewood Books President Phil Zuckerman announced today he has reached an agreement with the estate of Margaret Sutton to bring all 38 of the Judy Bolton Mystery Books back into print in facsimiles of the original editions through AmericanWebBooks.com. Sutton, who died last year at the age of 98, is the author of all the books, making it one of the very few children's book series written by a single author. "Applewood Books is delighted to be able to make these fabulous books available to a whole new generation of young readers," Zuckerman said, "as well as to their parents and grandparents who grew up with them. Collectors will be especially excited to see them with the original cover art and interior design." The Judy Bolton mysteries were launched with The Vanishing Shadow in 1932 by publisher Grosset and Dunlap and went on to become one of the most successful series ever in children's book publishing, selling 5,000,000 copies. The last book, The Secret of the Sand Castle, was released in 1967. Judy Bolton books have been highly praised for their realism, fine writing and careful plotting not usually found in children's series fiction. Sutton used actual contemporary events as the basis for her stories and allowed her characters to grow and wrestle with the social issues of the day. The settings are based on places where Sutton and her family lived in Pennsylvania's Potter County. Coudersport, where she grew up, became Farringdon, the setting for many of the books; Austin, PA, the scene of a great flood in 1911, became Roulsville in The Vanishing Shadow. These Judy Bolton books will only be available for purchase at AmericanWebBooks.com, a division of Applewood Books, Inc. AmericanWebBooks.com is a new way of keeping America's historic literary tradition alive by making it possible for people to bring back into print favorite books from childhood or other historic works just as they remember them. Visitors to AmericanWebBooks.com can suggest books for publication or become "partner publishers" with the company. --more-- Applewood Books (www.awb.com), publishers of facsimile editions of original Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew and Tom Swift books, specializes in books from America's living past. Founded in 1976 by Phil Zuckerman, Applewood publishes 25 to 30 new books a year and has over 500 books in its backlist. Imprints include Books of American Wisdom and Quote/Unquote. ### For more information, contact: Phil Zuckerman, President Applewood Books 128 The Great Road Bedford, MA 01730 [phone] [e-mail] -OR- Charles Dresner, Director of Sales & Marketing Applewood Books 128 The Great Road Bedford, MA 01730 [phone] [e-mail] -- Chuck Dresner "Applewood Books" (10/12/2002)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Charles Dresner [phone] [e-mail] Applewood Books to Publish Entire Judy Bolton Mystery Series through American Web Books Website Bedford, MA (October 12, 2002) -- Girl sleuth Judy Bolton is coming back! Applewood Books President Phil Zuckerman announced today he has reached an agreement with the estate of Margaret Sutton to bring all 38 of the Judy Bolton Mystery Books back into print in facsimiles of the original editions through AmericanWebBooks.com. Sutton, who died last year at the age of 98, is the author of all the books, making it one of the very few children's book series written by a single author. "Applewood Books is delighted to be able to make these fabulous books available to a whole new generation of young readers," Zuckerman said, "as well as to their parents and grandparents who grew up with them. Collectors will be especially excited to see them with the original cover art and interior design." The Judy Bolton mysteries were launched with The Vanishing Shadow in 1932 by publisher Grosset and Dunlap and went on to become one of the most successful series ever in children's book publishing, selling 5,000,000 copies. The last book, The Secret of the Sand Castle, was released in 1967. Judy Bolton books have been highly praised for their realism, fine writing and careful plotting not usually found in children's series fiction. Sutton used actual contemporary events as the basis for her stories and allowed her characters to grow and wrestle with the social issues of the day. The settings are based on places where Sutton and her family lived in Pennsylvania's Potter County. Coudersport, where she grew up, became Farringdon, the setting for many of the books; Austin, PA, the scene of a great flood in 1911, became Roulsville in The Vanishing Shadow. These Judy Bolton books will only be available for purchase at AmericanWebBooks.com, a division of Applewood Books, Inc. AmericanWebBooks.com is a new way of keeping America's historic literary tradition alive by making it possible for people to bring back into print favorite books from childhood or other historic works just as they remember them. Visitors to AmericanWebBooks.com can suggest books for publication or become "partner publishers" with the company. --more-- Applewood Books (www.awb.com), publishers of facsimile editions of original Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew and Tom Swift books, specializes in books from America's living past. Founded in 1976 by Phil Zuckerman, Applewood publishes 25 to 30 new books a year and has over 500 books in its backlist. Imprints include Books of American Wisdom and Quote/Unquote. ### For more information, contact: Phil Zuckerman, President Applewood Books 128 The Great Road Bedford, MA 01730 [phone] [e-mail] -OR- Charles Dresner, Director of Sales & Marketing Applewood Books 128 The Great Road Bedford, MA 01730 [phone] [e-mail]

--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

About the Author

Margaret Sutton was born Rachel Irene Beebe in Odin, Pennsylvania in 1903. She was the daughter of Victor Beebe, a well-known historian, and Estella Andrews Beebe. Being a spirited nonconformist, she dropped out of high school, but in 1920, graduated from the Rochester Business Institute. After graduation, she worked for several years as a secretary and in printing. During that time, she met William Sutton at a church dance in New York City. After a courtship exchanging poems and playing chess, they were married in 1924, and she began writing stories for her husband's daughter, Dorothy. Her first Judy Bolton Mystery was published in 1932 under the pen name Margaret Sutton. Ms. Sutton wove many real events and places into the Judy Bolton stories through the 35-year history of the series. She also wrote numerous stories for children and young adults. She was also active in social causes, joining the historic March on Washington in 1964. In 1965, her husband of more than 40 years died. In 1975, after traveling extensively, she married a long-time family friend, Everett Hunting. They moved to Berkeley, California and made their home there until 1993 when they moved back to Pennsylvania. Mr. Hunting died shortly after they moved. In 2001, at the age of 98, Margaret Sutton died in Lock Haven, Pennsylvania, not far from her native Potter County.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 8 and up
  
• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Applewood Books; Reprint edition (July 31, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1429090219
• ISBN-13: 978-1429090216
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (49 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #191,543 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A likeable, real-girl heroine with spirit and bravado, March 18, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (NH) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Vanishing Shadow (Hardcover)

Judy Bolton was my heroine in the 1960s. Unlike Nancy Drew, she comes from a believable background, and grows up with each story. The Vanishing Shadow combines personal values of honesty, trust and integrity with a gripping story line which has action and mystery, but no gory scenes or gratuitous violence.Although this story was written over 30 years ago, it has aged well. Suitable for pre-teens.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Sweet, old-fashioned and surprisingly fast paced, August 14, 2008

By 

Susan Sloate "Author, FORWARD TO CAMELOT" (Mount Pleasant, SC) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Vanishing Shadow (Judy Bolton Mysteries) (Paperback)

(What's this?)

The Judy Bolton series was famous in its heyday, and now, surprisingly, it's back in print, with the feisty, clever teenage heroine taking on truly bad guys -- and beating them -- while enjoying the parties, dances and social events of her own peer group.

Judy is spending a summer vacation with her grandparents in their small Pennsylvania town when she stumbles on a frightening mystery involving the new dam that's just been built in town. Before you can blink, she's been kidnapped by the baddies and held alone, overnight, in a strange and awful place. Oddly, Judy is released when she promises not to tell anyone what she knows (a strange thing for anyone to ask and even stranger for her to promise). But she also knows that something terrible may happen, and being Judy, she takes action to prevent it.

What she does leads to the bursting of the dam itself and the astonishing transformation of her older brother Horace into a local hero, when he rides through town helter-skelter, shouting a warning to the townspeople and saving almost all of them from the onrushing waters.

While this story does start slow, it picks up pace quite soon, and the vanished world of the 1930's (or possibly earlier) is well depicted in language that moves the reader quickly through Judy's various plights.

While not quite as exciting as Nancy Drew or Connie Blair, Judy has her own charm -- and it's easy to see a series like this drawing a lot of fans, many of them older and perhaps nostalgic for the time when they read her as children.

Judy may not be my favorite heroine, but I sure am glad I read her first adventure.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Nostalgic, August 29, 2008

By 

Breeni Books "www.breenibooks.com" (Rockwell, NC) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Vanishing Shadow (Judy Bolton Mysteries) (Paperback)

(What's this?)

Fans of The Boxcar Children, The Hardy Boys, and Nancy Drew will enjoy Margaret Sutton's Judy Bolton mysteries. In The Vanishing Shadow, fifteen-year-old Judy is spending a lazy summer with her grandparents, itching for some excitement. When she overhears a private conversation with a sinister overtone, she immediately becomes a witness to a crime. The trick is to figure out what that crime is!

The same day, Judy receives a letter with tickets to a spelling bee and party from an anonymous sender. What is even more mysterious is the paper with the strange cross drawn on it that accompanies the tickets. Who invited her to the spelling bee? Now she has two mysteries to solve!

Written in a time period when a person's promise was a binding contract (even amongst criminals) and old timers still feared those newfangled automobiles, Judy's adventure reminds readers of life at a slower pace. Everyone knew everyone in town and children could walk about safely on their own.

There are a few period terms that may confuse younger readers, so be prepared with explanations if this is your child's first introduction to historical literature. Adult readers will also enjoy this nostalgic mystery, so don't hesitate to dive right in and read it for yourself before handing it off to the kids. Judy Bolton is a welcome retreat from today's technology-driven society.