Room One: A Mystery or Two

Ted Hammond loves a good mystery, and in the spring of his fifth-grade year, he's working on a big one. How can his school in the little town of Plattsford stay open next year if there are going to be only five students? Out here on the Great Plains in western Nebraska, everyone understands that if you lose the school, you lose the town.

But the mystery that has Ted's full attention at the moment is about that face, the face he sees in the upper window of the Andersons' house as he rides past on his paper route. The Andersons moved away two years ago, and their old farmhouse is empty, boarded up tight. At least it's supposed to be.

A shrinking school in a dying town. A face in the window of an empty house. At first these facts don't seem to be related. But Ted Hammond learns that in a very small town, there's no such thing as an isolated event. And the solution of one mystery is often the beginning of another.

Binding Type: Hardcover
Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers
Published: 07/01/2006
ISBN: 9780689866869
Pages: 176
Weight: 0.60lbs
Size: 8.40h x 5.70w x 0.80d
Award: Golden Sower Award - Honor Book
Award: Young Hoosier Book Award - Nominee
Award: Young Reader's Choice Award - Nominee
Award: Pennsylvania Young Reader's Choice Award - Nominee
Award: Edgar Allan Poe Awards - Winner
Award: Agatha Awards - Nominee
Award: North Carolina Children's Book Award - Nominee
Award: Volunteer State Book Awards - Nominee
Award: Louisiana Young Readers' Choice Award - Nominee
Award: Charlie May Simon Children's Book Award - Nominee
Award: South Carolina Childrens, Junior and Young Adult Book Award - Nominee

Review Citations: Booklist 05/01/2006 pg. 47
Kirkus Review - Children 06/01/2006 pg. 570
Publishers Weekly 06/12/2006 pg. 53
School Library Journal 07/01/2006 pg. 98
Bulletin of Ctr for Child Bks 09/01/2006 pg. 9 - Recommended
Hornbook Guide to Children 01/01/2007 pg. 66 - Recommended, Satisfactory

Accelerated Reader Quiz #/Name: 106750 / Room One: A Mystery or Two
Reading Level: 5.1 / Interest Level: Middle Grade / Point Value: 4