School Library Journal Review

Gr 3-5-In Shadows, Molly continues to do her patriotic duty by collecting scrap paper and costume jewelry and visiting the local veterans' hospital with the Junior Red Cross, but she and others around her are growing weary of the war. Her father has returned uninjured but he isn't his old, cheerful self; her favorite JRC leader mysteriously quits; and someone is interfering with Molly's collections for the paper drive. Multiple red herrings interspersed throughout the story keep readers guessing until the somewhat tame denouement, and the "Looking Back" section fills in some details on life during the end of World War II. In Loon, Samantha and her adopted sister visit their Grandmary's summer house. Samantha loves Piney Point and can't wait to show Nellie around. Shortly after her arrival, she is dismayed to learn that her grandmother is considering selling the property after experiencing numerous maintenance problems with mysterious origins. Suspicious fires, sabotaged canoes, and other dangers give this mystery more drama and urgency than others in the series, but readers not already familiar with Samantha will have difficulty placing the setting and time period based on the book's details. The "Looking Back" section helps to clarify some details about the attempts in the 1900s to develop this land in the Adirondacks.-Natasha Forrester, Multnomah County Library, Portland, OR (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.