The Mystery at the Boston Marathon

Carole Marsh Mysteries: Real Kids, Real Places #2

by Carole Marsh

Take your mark and race after four kids ages 7-14 as they try to track down the mysterious whereabouts of their school-teacher cousin who has disappeared from the famous Boston Marathon-right in the middle of the racel More than a race, a mystery! More than a mystery, there's Boston and Marathon history! More than frights and scares -- it's funny!

Genres: Fiction

150 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2003

About the author

Carole 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.

Reviews

[Emily]

I began reading this book with the intention of putting it in my bookshelf at school for my students. I love the historical mystery genre and wanted that represented in the shelf. But this book will not be an addition on my shelf. Not only did it reference hanging/lynching three times, but it also referred to people of color as “the blacks”, nonchalantly mentioned (and almost making light of) how white people would bet on the early Boston marathons with their slaves, and ended the mystery with the children and a teacher being held at gunpoint. The ending of this mystery turned out to include a “deranged parent” (quote from booth) kidnapping a teacher because she made his son repeat a grade. Not only would this traumatize the children this book is intended for, but it paints repeating a level in school and not performing academically well as being a horrible unachievement. If a student who had repeated a grade read this book, wouldn’t they feel a sense of failure in themselves? As adults, especially adults who work with or write for children, we should be pushing students for growth while ensuring that shameful and discouraging language is not used when growth is small. Okay end of review. I do not like this book.

[Stef Rozitis]

Info-dump eventualy turns into a story of sorts but is not fantastic. Covert racism and sexism under the cover of being "value free". The author admits to being a CEO of a company that produces "educational" materials which is certainly what this book comes across as- someone with no teaching experience trying to make money by producing stuff that is purportedly "educational". Those companies have done a lot of harm to education turning it into a set of pre-determined products for money (which is not really how the human brain learns).

But anyway that's actually my ranty tangent...in the main this book was just unengaging and full of unexamined presumptions.

[Ingrid]

I thought that this might be a great series for kids that is full of historical information. There is a great deal of historical information about Boston, the Freedom Trail, and the Boston Marathon included in the book. Christina and Grant have to come to Boston from Georgia to visit family and see their cousin, Priscilla run in the Boston Marathon. Priscilla is kidnapped while running the race and Christina, Grant and their Boston cousins CF and Derian spend the day trying to find Priscilla. I really disliked the ending to this book. Priscilla (a teacher) is being held by a man with a gun who is upset with her for holding back his son in school. It turns out that he is deranged and is upset that he has lost custody of his son. There is enough violence in the world without it showing up in a book for children. I am sure that the author could have come up with an ending that did not involve guns and deranged man.