The Callahan Cousins #2: Home Sweet Home (No. 2)
Grade 4-6–Continuing the summer saga of four 12-year-old cousins running loose and free on Gull Island, this installment finds the girls redecorating a house on their grandma's property. Neeve generates some drama when she accidentally finds a photo of her dad marrying a woman who is not her mom. She and Kate don't always agree on the decorating plans, but all four girls do agree on an aversion to Sloan, an island resident. As they fend off run-ins with her, Neeve surreptitiously investigates her dad's secret life. Meanwhile, the cousins paint and create, using Gee's seemingly bottomless pockets to remodel the Dorm. Billed as appealing to fans of Nancy Drew, Hillary McKay, and American Girl, this sequel toSummer Begins(Little, Brown, 2005) falls flat when read alone. The characters are one-dimensional, and readers are supposed to know who they are and what island life is about. Plot elements such as rich and spoiled Sloan wanting to drive and the girls' solving a romantic mystery serve to make this a clichéd tale. Fans of the first book will read it, but others would benefit more from Jeanne Birdsall'sThe Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy(Knopf, 2005).–Debbie Whitbeck, West Ottawa Public Schools, Holland, MICopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.