A Haunted House and a Mystery

The Secret Files of Fairday Morrow by Jessica Haight

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Moving to a different house in a new town and leaving behind dear friends is rough on anyone. It’s especially tough for children, who also have to start a new school where they don’t know anyone.

In THE SECRET FILES OF FAIRDAY MORROW, a novel for middle grade readers, by Jessica Haight and Stephanie Robinson, Fairday Morrow faces such a situation. She’s not very happy about moving, either. The house, known as Begonia House, is old and decrepit. Even though her parents are going to renovate the place, she just wants to go home. It doesn’t take long, however, for Fairday (I love her name) to discover a room on the third floor of the house, and in that room there are mysteries to solve. Enter Lizzie, her friend from her former town who comes to visit for the weekend, and Marcus, a new boy she meets at school, and the DMS (Detective Mystery Squad) goes to work to solve the weird things happening at Begonia House.

I laughed. I held my breath. I followed the DMS crew through every room of the house and every experience they had. The authors give each character a distinct personality. The description of the house is perfect and who doesn’t love a haunted house? Well, maybe the ghosts or whatever’s doing the haunting don’t care for it so much.

Take the lively characters, the spooky setting, and the suspense waiting to see if the DMS succeeds in their quest to solve the riddles of Begonia House, and you have a winner. I can picture young sleuths now, after reading this novel, doing some investigating of their own. The black-and-white illustrations by Roman Muradov add just the right touch to the story.

Every school library and classroom , as well as public libraries, should have a copy of this book, and your own library too, of course. Highly recommended.
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