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Carole Marsh Mysteries: Real Kids, Real Places #12
The Mystery on the Underground Railroad (Real Kids! Real Places!
One secret quilt, two magic johnnycakes, three wishes for good luck, tons of trouble and seconds to escape! The Underground Railroad is not a real train, you know? It's a fascinating period of history and mystery filled with legend and lore. Come along for the ride of a lifetime through this incredible tale of a time when heroes could be found in the most unlikely places. From the Deep South all the way to the North, things aren't what they seem. Secrets are essential. Keep a sharp eye! Help the next one along. Be brave! Courage is the ticket to freedom. Can you "Read" a quilt? Come along with me, and I'll tell you all about it.
LOOK what's in this mystery - people, places, history, and more!
The Underground Railroad - Definition - Origins • Vocabulary (conductors, passengers, stations, etc.) • Use of constellations • Location of stations • Details of how, why, and when conductors moved passengers • Use of quilts and symbols • Harriet Tubman • Friendship Road • Statistics • Conditions along the journey north • William Still, a conductor, escaped slave, author • Thomas Garrett and his work as a conductor • Definition of abolitionists • Beginnings of slavery • Typical life of slaves • Slave auctions • Plantation life • Emancipation Proclamation • Quakers as abolitionists • Resting trees • USS Constellation • History of the Liberty Bell • Thomas Garrett and his work as a conductor • Definition of abolitionists • Beginnings of slavery • Typical life of slaves • Slave auctions • Plantation life • Emancipation Proclamation • Quakers as abolitionists • Resting trees • USS Constellation • His Independence Hall, Philadelphia, PA.
Like all of Carole Marsh Mysteries, this mystery incorporates history, geography, culture and cliffhanger chapters that will keep kids begging for more! This mystery includes SAT words, educational facts, fun and humor, built-in book club and activities.
Below is the Reading Levels Guide for this
Grade 3-6
Accelerated Reader Reading 5.1
Accelerated Reader 3
Accelerated Reader Quiz 74566
Lexile 770
Fountas & Pinnell Guided Reading Q
Developmental Assessment 40
Get your FREE Resources!
1. Download the Carole Marsh Mysteries Real Kids! Real Places! Correlations to Common Core/State Standards .
2. Download the Where Have You Been map .
3. Utilize the Real Kids! Real Places! Common Core State Standards Teacher Resource for classroom discussion questions and activities for ELA grades 2-6. This can be used for all 50 mysteries .
4. Download additional activities including Fact or Fiction, Fascinating Facts, Book Club Discussions and Book Club Activities .
5. Want a sneak peak? Read the first three chapters .
LOOK what's in this mystery - people, places, history, and more!
The Underground Railroad - Definition - Origins • Vocabulary (conductors, passengers, stations, etc.) • Use of constellations • Location of stations • Details of how, why, and when conductors moved passengers • Use of quilts and symbols • Harriet Tubman • Friendship Road • Statistics • Conditions along the journey north • William Still, a conductor, escaped slave, author • Thomas Garrett and his work as a conductor • Definition of abolitionists • Beginnings of slavery • Typical life of slaves • Slave auctions • Plantation life • Emancipation Proclamation • Quakers as abolitionists • Resting trees • USS Constellation • History of the Liberty Bell • Thomas Garrett and his work as a conductor • Definition of abolitionists • Beginnings of slavery • Typical life of slaves • Slave auctions • Plantation life • Emancipation Proclamation • Quakers as abolitionists • Resting trees • USS Constellation • His Independence Hall, Philadelphia, PA.
Like all of Carole Marsh Mysteries, this mystery incorporates history, geography, culture and cliffhanger chapters that will keep kids begging for more! This mystery includes SAT words, educational facts, fun and humor, built-in book club and activities.
Below is the Reading Levels Guide for this
Grade 3-6
Accelerated Reader Reading 5.1
Accelerated Reader 3
Accelerated Reader Quiz 74566
Lexile 770
Fountas & Pinnell Guided Reading Q
Developmental Assessment 40
Get your FREE Resources!
1. Download the Carole Marsh Mysteries Real Kids! Real Places! Correlations to Common Core/State Standards .
2. Download the Where Have You Been map .
3. Utilize the Real Kids! Real Places! Common Core State Standards Teacher Resource for classroom discussion questions and activities for ELA grades 2-6. This can be used for all 50 mysteries .
4. Download additional activities including Fact or Fiction, Fascinating Facts, Book Club Discussions and Book Club Activities .
5. Want a sneak peak? Read the first three chapters .
- GenresMystery
145 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2011
4 people are currently reading
56 people want to read
About the author
Carole Marsh
6,599 books56 followersCarole Marsh is a children's author and the founder of Gallopade International, a children’s book publishing company headquartered in Peachtree City, GA. Marsh writes mystery fiction in addition to works of non-fiction for children. Initially she self-published under the imprint Gallopade Publishing Group, which she founded in 1979; today Gallopade International is a major small publisher based in Peachtree City, Georgia.
In 2007 Marsh received the Georgia Author of the Year award for her contributions to children's literature and to the state of Georgia over the past twenty-seven years.
In 2007 Marsh received the Georgia Author of the Year award for her contributions to children's literature and to the state of Georgia over the past twenty-seven years.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
November 6, 2021
It was a bit much to have her write that if she and her husband had lived in that time they would have been abolitionists. That’s a really easy thing to say now.
She did a good job of explaining the truth of slavery without going into graphic detail. She gave the kids the basic idea to show that slavery is bad. I also liked the details of the conductors on the railroad and how they took passengers—also called packages, freight, and dry goods—to the stations.
It was so cool that a book was written detailing stories from the Underground Railroad. But the best stories weren’t included and are in the unpublished journal.
Secret codes and messages were often hidden in the words of songs that the slaves sang while they worked.
Many conductors tried to move their passengers at least 20 miles each night. Some nights they traveled less than 5. Saturday was the night for most escaped because slave owners couldn’t put “escaped slave” notices in the paper until Monday.
Christina was about to put on her VR headset and Duce told her she’d want to put the goggles on before the gloves or else the wires will get tangled. She didn’t appreciate him acting like a know it all and almost told him off. Are you serious? He’s helping you with an item you’ve never used and you want to bite his head off? Why?
Quilts were used in the South to let runaway slaves know if a house was safe or not. They were hung on clotheslines or porch banisters. If a quilt had a black cloth, a color block, a symbol of a drinking gourd, or the North Star, slaves knew it was a safe house to go to for help.
Then there was foreshadowing when she wrote that Christina had no way to know that the old journal and quilt would involve them all in a dangerous mystery. I hate foreshadowing.
In the virtual reality journal, she was able to feel the dirt road and the cold and the scratchy dress. She felt afraid and hungry. She took Grant’s hand and felt someone grab her. Virtual reality headsets make you hear and see things, not feel. That was utterly ridiculous.
While they were going through this scene, someone stole the quilt and journal. Professor Will and Priscilla disappeared. Christina was grilling Atty and Duce, asking them all kinds of unrealistic questions for a kid, like has he been acting strangely lately and if he had financial problems and if the journal is insured for a lot of $. Ugh, these ridiculous detective kids.
Of course there was a clue right here at the scene. Their grandpa’s glasses were left there with a note wrapped around them and Christina’s interrogation skills confirmed that he can go nowhere without his glasses so didn’t leave of his own free will. A sticky note was later discovered on Atty’s shoe with another note. A note. On her shoe. Because that happens.
They took a bus to travel to the location they needed to go to, and the waitress offered them sundaes and drinks. They got the bill but a man told them not to worry about it because it looked like they were sent there by his friend. 4 kids show up in a diner and you wave the bill because it seems like they were sent there? Okayyy.
Grant’s grandma had given him a whistle to use to call her for help—love those magical whistles—so he used it when the kids got a clue that mentioned going North. And somehow figured out the north direction...Yep. Ridiculous.
It was utterly ridiculous that Christina sat her plate down on the table at the reenactment site and it pressed a lever that opened a cellar and revealed the kidnapped Professor. And even more ridiculous that he told the kids he was counting on them to find the stolen artifacts. Yeah. Right.
Then the professor sends his 2 grandkids and the two main kids in a cab to Philadelphia. 4 kids off with a stranger! The man didn’t speak and wrote that he had laryngitis, then he peeled out of there like a madman. Obviously that was a giveaway that something was wrong despite the kids not catching on at all.
Christina finally out it togrhfr Rebekah she saw him in town and realized she’d seen him 3 times now. He looked like Ichabod Crain. Funny how she never mentioned this until now.
When there was big news, bells were rung to call people to the town square.
It was funny how Christina mentioned to a park ranger that a kid could put gum inside the Liberty Bell, and he thought Grant had put gum in there, and they used it as an opportunity to check the bell for a clue.
I could not follow what happened. Clues led them to the room where the declaration was signed—where they were told to go—but Ichabod showed up and demanded the items back. The kids attacked him and reporters called cut and said they got it all on film. Mimi showed up with the others and said the kids are on a special assignment. She said she came because Grant whistled. Yep, gotta love magical whistles.
The explanation was as ridiculous as everything that led up to it. Professor had caught Ichabod cheating in one of his classes so Ichabod wanted to get famous and restore himself by rescuing the stolen treasures. (Who even knew they were stolen?? Only the kids knew after their tour*) He created the clues to keep the kids out of his way. (They wouldn’t have found you without the clues you made to lead them directly to you!) Makes a whole lot of sense!
It was kind of funny how Grant just wanted cake and someone mentioned a bakery underground but the kids wanted no part of underground or railroads—just cake.
The one word I would use to describe this is ridiculous. I kept using it over and over in my review because I found everything to be ridiculous. It was not pleasant reading this, I speed-read just to get done. There were so many typos and errors and for some reason the backs of some pages had no text and the back was blank and totally wasted and the text picked up on the other page. Totally weird to flip a page expecting to pick up on the back but have to jump over to the next page to pick up.
She did a good job of explaining the truth of slavery without going into graphic detail. She gave the kids the basic idea to show that slavery is bad. I also liked the details of the conductors on the railroad and how they took passengers—also called packages, freight, and dry goods—to the stations.
It was so cool that a book was written detailing stories from the Underground Railroad. But the best stories weren’t included and are in the unpublished journal.
Secret codes and messages were often hidden in the words of songs that the slaves sang while they worked.
Many conductors tried to move their passengers at least 20 miles each night. Some nights they traveled less than 5. Saturday was the night for most escaped because slave owners couldn’t put “escaped slave” notices in the paper until Monday.
Christina was about to put on her VR headset and Duce told her she’d want to put the goggles on before the gloves or else the wires will get tangled. She didn’t appreciate him acting like a know it all and almost told him off. Are you serious? He’s helping you with an item you’ve never used and you want to bite his head off? Why?
Quilts were used in the South to let runaway slaves know if a house was safe or not. They were hung on clotheslines or porch banisters. If a quilt had a black cloth, a color block, a symbol of a drinking gourd, or the North Star, slaves knew it was a safe house to go to for help.
Then there was foreshadowing when she wrote that Christina had no way to know that the old journal and quilt would involve them all in a dangerous mystery. I hate foreshadowing.
In the virtual reality journal, she was able to feel the dirt road and the cold and the scratchy dress. She felt afraid and hungry. She took Grant’s hand and felt someone grab her. Virtual reality headsets make you hear and see things, not feel. That was utterly ridiculous.
While they were going through this scene, someone stole the quilt and journal. Professor Will and Priscilla disappeared. Christina was grilling Atty and Duce, asking them all kinds of unrealistic questions for a kid, like has he been acting strangely lately and if he had financial problems and if the journal is insured for a lot of $. Ugh, these ridiculous detective kids.
Of course there was a clue right here at the scene. Their grandpa’s glasses were left there with a note wrapped around them and Christina’s interrogation skills confirmed that he can go nowhere without his glasses so didn’t leave of his own free will. A sticky note was later discovered on Atty’s shoe with another note. A note. On her shoe. Because that happens.
They took a bus to travel to the location they needed to go to, and the waitress offered them sundaes and drinks. They got the bill but a man told them not to worry about it because it looked like they were sent there by his friend. 4 kids show up in a diner and you wave the bill because it seems like they were sent there? Okayyy.
Grant’s grandma had given him a whistle to use to call her for help—love those magical whistles—so he used it when the kids got a clue that mentioned going North. And somehow figured out the north direction...Yep. Ridiculous.
It was utterly ridiculous that Christina sat her plate down on the table at the reenactment site and it pressed a lever that opened a cellar and revealed the kidnapped Professor. And even more ridiculous that he told the kids he was counting on them to find the stolen artifacts. Yeah. Right.
Then the professor sends his 2 grandkids and the two main kids in a cab to Philadelphia. 4 kids off with a stranger! The man didn’t speak and wrote that he had laryngitis, then he peeled out of there like a madman. Obviously that was a giveaway that something was wrong despite the kids not catching on at all.
Christina finally out it togrhfr Rebekah she saw him in town and realized she’d seen him 3 times now. He looked like Ichabod Crain. Funny how she never mentioned this until now.
When there was big news, bells were rung to call people to the town square.
It was funny how Christina mentioned to a park ranger that a kid could put gum inside the Liberty Bell, and he thought Grant had put gum in there, and they used it as an opportunity to check the bell for a clue.
I could not follow what happened. Clues led them to the room where the declaration was signed—where they were told to go—but Ichabod showed up and demanded the items back. The kids attacked him and reporters called cut and said they got it all on film. Mimi showed up with the others and said the kids are on a special assignment. She said she came because Grant whistled. Yep, gotta love magical whistles.
The explanation was as ridiculous as everything that led up to it. Professor had caught Ichabod cheating in one of his classes so Ichabod wanted to get famous and restore himself by rescuing the stolen treasures. (Who even knew they were stolen?? Only the kids knew after their tour*) He created the clues to keep the kids out of his way. (They wouldn’t have found you without the clues you made to lead them directly to you!) Makes a whole lot of sense!
It was kind of funny how Grant just wanted cake and someone mentioned a bakery underground but the kids wanted no part of underground or railroads—just cake.
The one word I would use to describe this is ridiculous. I kept using it over and over in my review because I found everything to be ridiculous. It was not pleasant reading this, I speed-read just to get done. There were so many typos and errors and for some reason the backs of some pages had no text and the back was blank and totally wasted and the text picked up on the other page. Totally weird to flip a page expecting to pick up on the back but have to jump over to the next page to pick up.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 6, 2026
The Mystery on the Underground Railroad (Real Kids! Real Places!) by Carole Marsh is an engaging mystery that blends adventure with meaningful historical learning for young readers. As part of the Real Kids! Real Places! series, the book introduces children to an important chapter in American history while keeping them entertained with suspenseful storytelling and fascinating discoveries.
One of the book’s greatest strengths is how it seamlessly combines mystery with educational elements. Through clues, secrets, and exciting twists, readers are introduced to the history of the Underground Railroad and the courageous individuals who played vital roles in helping enslaved people escape to freedom. Historical figures such as Harriet Tubman and William Still appear within the broader historical context, helping young readers connect storytelling with real historical events.
Beyond the mystery itself, the book offers rich educational value through vocabulary, historical facts, and interactive learning opportunities. By weaving geography, culture, and history into an exciting narrative, Carole Marsh creates a reading experience that both informs and inspires curiosity. The cliffhanger chapters and adventurous tone make it especially appealing for middle-grade readers, encouraging them to explore history while enjoying a thrilling mystery.
Overall, The Mystery on the Underground Railroad is an entertaining and educational story that invites young readers to discover courage, friendship, and the importance of history through an engaging mystery adventure.
One of the book’s greatest strengths is how it seamlessly combines mystery with educational elements. Through clues, secrets, and exciting twists, readers are introduced to the history of the Underground Railroad and the courageous individuals who played vital roles in helping enslaved people escape to freedom. Historical figures such as Harriet Tubman and William Still appear within the broader historical context, helping young readers connect storytelling with real historical events.
Beyond the mystery itself, the book offers rich educational value through vocabulary, historical facts, and interactive learning opportunities. By weaving geography, culture, and history into an exciting narrative, Carole Marsh creates a reading experience that both informs and inspires curiosity. The cliffhanger chapters and adventurous tone make it especially appealing for middle-grade readers, encouraging them to explore history while enjoying a thrilling mystery.
Overall, The Mystery on the Underground Railroad is an entertaining and educational story that invites young readers to discover courage, friendship, and the importance of history through an engaging mystery adventure.
March 18, 2023
These books give a brief explanation of important historical locations and events. The mysteries are slightly less intriguing than Nancy Drew. This one involves a famous journal and quilt related to the Underground Railroad, and a special event on ( naturally) the Fourth of July.
September 18, 2019
awesome fun adventurous book!!!
August 2, 2010
Bisher ist es ziemlich gut. Dieses Buch ist gut geschrieben und hilft, eine lustige Geschichte in der Schule geworden .
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews