Welcome to the debut of The Romance Readers Connection, Kids Corner. Here we'll discuss Independent Reader and Young Adult Books of all types. From the classic children stories to the glam and paranormal, we'll cover them all and we invite you and your parents to post and discuss any titles you feel we have overlooked.
Each month we'll spotlight one particular book and we'll urge you to read it and post your comments. For the month of October it's THE BOOTLEGGER'S SECRET by Michael Springer.
It is summer 1941 and Mark Penn and Swede Larson, two eleven year
year olds that live in Minnesota are hanging out by the river where
they've built their treehouse. It's a hot summer day and a swim is a
necessity. Slowly submerging from the river is a 1931 Pierce-Arrow.
The hood ornament is just breaking the surface and Swede dives down
and inside the car and comes up with a gold cigarette case
containing Turkish filter-tips and a photograph of a very
beautiful woman. This sets off a fire storm of investigations.
The corpse of the owner of the Pierce-Arrow is later recovered and
it turns out he was a "bootlegger" and a member of Al Capone's
Chicago gang. He and his car have been missing for eight years and
that marevelous cigarette case that is so attractive to the two
boys contains a secret compartment with data the local police and
treasury agents would love to have. Unfortunately so would the
Chicago gangsters. When the case disappears Mark and Swede are
caught in a trap between the Treasury men and the gangsters.
Mark and Swede are in for a very exciting and scary summer. Where
previously they had their summer baseball jobs (Mark is a team
batboy and Swede a ball shagger) and the Ringling Brothers,
Barnum & Bailey Circus to look forward to, they now have a
mystery to solve. . . . . hopefully without getting harmed themselves.
THE BOOTLEGGER'S SECRET is published as a tradesize paperback and is issued by Outskirts Press. None of the chain or independent bookstores had a copy of this book but the online stores carry copies. It is a fun fast-paced story that holds real insight into life in the United States the summer before World War II.
