A Wild Bunch Adventure:
The Mystery of The Golden Skate
Tony Savageau
Publish America

Interesting read ... Recommended ... 5 stars

School is out for the summer and Joey, Billy and Rose Wild are ready for summer vacation. What they are not ready for is spending the morning down at Bernie's Clearners while Mom Wild does the family laundry. The boys are sure there are headless people living up on the second floor, and besides the building is old and smells funny. While waiting for the clothes to wash Joey reads in a discarded newspaper that the Lovell Building housing Bernies is going to be torn down. A small noise coming from up over their heads leads the kids to their adventure. When Mrs Roth and her three kids, Hannah, Bettina and Eddie arrive the adventure really begins to heat up, after all six heads are better than three aren't they? Arrival of the Calamity Demotion Services truck sends the kids into high gear.

Writer Savageau presents a delightful work based both on local Mansfield, Massachusetts history and current events. This chapter book targets the 7 - 12 crowd. JoAnne Raditz' line drawings work perfectly to illustrate the edition. A Wild Bunch Adventure: The Mystery of The Golden Skate is a faultless blend of adventure, history and kids' ability to combine their natural curiosity and zest for living.

The youngsters, who are the feature characters of the book, are aptly portrayed by talented writer Savageau in this early reading adventure tale. It is obvious Savageau knows kids and knows them well. Settings are well described, dialog fits kids' thoughts and talking style, action, excitement and conflict all flow through the narrative to a natural conclusion.

While the target audience is 7 - 12, younger children will enjoy hearing the book read aloud to them. Vocabulary is a tad difficult for younger readers, however with a little parental or teacher guidance kids in grades 3-5 should experience no major difficulties.

This is a book I would use as a read-to in my own Kindergarten-First grade. Excellent work for the home library and school setting as well. A Wild Bunch Adventure: The Mystery of The Golden Skate lends itself to 'read-to' me for the younger set, read with help for 7-8, and read alone, read-to younger siblings for the 8-12s.

I'm happy to note the next in the series: The Wild Bunch: Mud House Mystery is coming soon.