Dear Classmates,

 

Recently, I finished reading Closed for the Season a 192 page novel by Mary Downing Hahn. Closed for the Season is a page-turning, spine-tingling mystery novel. Mary Downing Hahn has written many great, intense mystery books before so, I thought this would be a great choice for me. I chose to read this book mainly because I love mystery. But, what really caught my eye was when I read the blurb on the back. It sounded really intense and I was ready for a creepy (but good) mystery. Also, one of my best friends Senem recommended this book to me last year or so, and I finally decided to go for it. And, I’m glad did because it was an amazing novel.

 

A lot of interesting things happened in this clever mystery novel. First of all, I was shocked when I found out that not many people liked Arthur Jenkins when he was pretty much Logan’s only friend. So, Logan sneaks out to see Arthur without his mother knowing(his mother thinks that Arthur is a bad influence on Logan).Something else that surprised me was that Danny has a soft side to him because he is technically a “bad boy”. So, one minute he has a fist up in the air and the next minute he is offering to help everyone. This book is basically full of summaries that change over time in the book. The main character, Logan, has many different personality changes. First, he’s happy to start over in a new town. Then, he finds out Mrs. Donaldson was murdered in his new house so he is officially creeped out. Now, him and Arthur are good friends trying to solve a murder mystery that for over a year hasn’t been solved by the police. As you can see, Logan is a very mysterious and eager teenage kid.

 

Usually, mysteries consist of detectives solving all these crimes. But, this book was very diverse from that. This book consisted of two almost-if-not teenage boys that were trying to solve a crime that the police couldn’t even solve. It was that part that made me think… If the police/detectives couldn’t even solve this case how could two boys solve it after a year went by and no killer was at large. At some parts, this book was a page-turner because it was so creepy, but in a good way. I have to say the creepiest part was when Arthur and Logan went to get Violet at Walmart after her shift ended and she wasn’t even there. It was then that they concluded her husband Silas who was on probation from jail had got to her first and was after the money that Mrs. Donaldson was killed for having. Out of ten, I would give this book a 9 just because it wasn’t as realistic as other mysteries I have read before. I think that anyone that needs to read a short mystery book or for anyone that loves mystery/detective books would enjoy this book. A passage that caught my attention was “Your right, maybe we should just stay home and watch movies.”(pg 109) That passage caught my attention because Arthur and Logan had to go back to the Magic Forest before it got knocked down and the owner was right there and didn’t want them there. So, Arthur lied and said they were going to stay home, Logan believed him and was like “We aren’t going! Yay!” And, Arthur said, “Oh no, we are still going.” This shows how eager they are to find out who murdered Mrs. Donaldson and it also shows that they aren’t giving up easily or at all.

 

Sincerely,

Mia Prizio