The Mystery of the Missing Suitcase

Spotlight Club Mysteries

by Florence Parry Heide, Sylvia Worth Van Clief

Dexter has more problems than a missing suitcase. As he solves this mystery, more than one problem turns up!

128 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 1972

About the author

"What do I like about writing for children? Everything," says Florence Parry Heide, the award-winning author of more than sixty children’s books, including the classic THE SHRINKING OF TREEHORN, illustrated by Edward Gorey. "I like the connection with children," the author says. "I like the connection with all kinds of book people. And I like the connection with my childhood self, which is the most of me. It is the most welcome and familiar of worlds. There miracles abound--indeed it is magical that something I might think of can be put into words, stories, ideas, and that those words end up in the heads of readers I will never meet."

Florence Parry Heide wrote SOME THINGS ARE SCARY, a humorous look at childhood bugaboos, more than thirty years ago. "I had finished another book and was in the mood to write something else," she says. "I decided to get some kindling from the garage, reached into the kindling box and--good grief!--grabbed something soft and mushy. I fled back to the house, scared to death." A brave return visit to the kindling box revealed the object of terror to be nothing more than a discarded wet sponge, but the thought remained: some things are scary. As she recalls, "What scared me as a child was that I’d never learn how to be a real grownup--and the fact is, I never did find out how it goes."


One thing Florence Parry Heide does have a good handle on is the concept of friendship, in all its humorous manifestations. THAT’S WHAT FRIENDS ARE FOR, a tongue-in-cheek tale cowritten with Sylvia Van Clief in 1967, pokes at the tendency of well-meaning friends to offer advice instead of help, and presents a valuable lesson about what true friendship means. "One of my many (true) sayings is ‘A new friend is around the corner of every single day,’ " the author declares. "Also true: Friendships last. And last."


Born and raised in Pennsylvania, Florence Parry Heide worked in advertising and public relations in New York City before returning to Pittsburgh during World War II. After the war, she and her husband moved to Wisconsin, where they raised five children, two of whom have cowritten critically acclaimed books with their mother. Florence Parry Heide now lives in Wisconsin.

Reviews

[Cynthia]

I picked this book up at the Thrift store only because it was published by " Pilot Books" . The Boxcar Children is the only other book I have seen published by them. I am sure there are plenty more, I just haven't seen the distinctive hardbound red back cover except on The Boxcar Children that I love. Well, this one was such a joy to read! A perfectly plausible and exciting juvenile fiction mystery. It is so good I am keeping it for myself rather than taking it to the school library where I am a volunteer librarian. I will definitely have to get another copy of this somewhere for the school.

[Elle]

I was able to pick up a nice copy of this book at a book sale, and I am pleased with it. This was a good mystery story for children. The story starts when Dexter, the main character, is on a bus. He talks to a lady there who tells him that she thinks she is being followed by a man who wants to steal her money. When Dexter arrives back at his house, he realizes that he has the wrong suitcase. Soon he discovers that it belongs to the man who was following the lady, and his friends agree with him when he says that he believes the man to be a bank robber. I enjoyed how the three children, Jay, Dexter, and Cindy, were polite to all of the adults in the story, which is different from many books today. These children also involved Dexter's parents in their idea. They told them about the mystery instead of keeping it a secret from them. While seemingly written for a younger audience, teens and adults will also enjoy this quick, sweet book.

Review by: http://lachatblanc.wordpress.com/