Both Whistling In the Dark and Land of a Hundred Wonders by Lesley Kagen are good books. The book covers are rich with intrigue. I enjoyed remembering the books later. I look at the front covers and the stories flash back to me. While I feel Lesley Kagen is a talented writer, I found the books a bit to wordy, and I had to pay my dues to get through them. You know, dragging out ideas a bit to long. Still I may give these two books a second read sometime. ( )

Before he dies (not of natural causes), Sally O'Malley's father makes her make him some promises; and she's a girl who doesn't break promies. Not even when her mother ends up in the hospital, she and her little sister are left in the care of their drunken step-father and absentee older sister, or when there's a murderer on the loose.

And that murderer is after the girls. At least that's what Sally has decided in her over active ten-year-old imagination. That's right, the main character is a ten-year-old....in 1959. With an overactive imagination....and the murderer of two neighborhood girls out there.

It all adds up to a very intriguing story told from the point of view of a lovable main character. Though darker than I had thought it was going to be (the 'murderer' bit was mentioned on the back of the book but....) it was a great book....The fact that it was darker than I expected could be because I originally saw the cover on TeensReadToo and originally thought it was going to be a YA book, though.

My only real problem with it was the bad language used by the characters, the girls specifically. The author herself was 10 in 1959 and everything else is written to fit the time period (enough that there were a few references I wasn't sure I completely got) but the children in the book swore a lot ('hell', 'f***', 'damn', probably others) and it through me off because it didn't seem to fit....and didn't seem entirely necessary. (I know there were serious things happening in the book, but the cursing didn't seem to happen at those times...or be because of that). Maybe I'm putting too much onto this, but it bothered me. ( )

Reviewed by Carrie Spellman for TeensReadToo.com

It's 1959, and in ten short years Sally O'Malley has had a very busy life, both real and imagined. Two years ago her daddy died in a car accident and left Sally, her mother, her little sister, Troo, and her older half-sister, Nell. Shortly after her daddy died, Sally and family moved into the city of Milwaukee from their farm. It wasn't long before her mother met Hall and he became her third husband. Now her mother is sick and has to go to the hospital, and nobody knows how long she'll be gone. Nell is too busy with her boyfriend to pay much attention to her younger sisters. Hall is taking his solace in alcohol and other women. Which leaves Sally to take care of Troo. Since she promised Daddy she would look after her, that's exactly what she intends to do.

It's pretty hard to watch, take care of, and try to raise a little girl when you're still one yourself. Especially when you're on the loose for a whole summer and you don't know where your next bath, much less next meal, is going to come from. Add in the rumors of a serial killer who's after children... Between their real problems and Sally's overactive imagination, this summer will be anything but dull. Making it through the summer is only the beginning.

This a book with so many different levels. It's the story of a girl who is forced to take the first step away from childhood. It's the story of a damaged family. It's the story of women who don't know their own strength. It's a story of the underlying terror of a murderer, and at the same time a story of freedom. It's a story of a simpler time. Underneath all of that, it is the story of a city.

The characters in this novel are strong and well-written. The plot is interesting, and takes more than a few surprising twists and turns. The story is actually extremely plausible for the time frame, back when people didn't lock their doors and neighborhoods took care of their own.

The part that touched me the most though was the amazing ability with which Ms. Kagen has managed to evoke the feeling of the time and place. I grew up in Milwaukee (I swear I had no idea), granted it was a few decades later, but the feeling was almost exactly the same. I don't know how else to explain it, but reading this book felt like going home.

A multi-layered book that more than delivers on all levels. For me, it was worth it the first time, and will continue to be so again and again. ( )

For me this was a reminder of my childhood...not the part about murder & abuse, but the freedom of children in the summer and what would probably be called neglect by parents now--but was then the norm. The whole book was a trip down memory lane; although, I never had an imagination as active as Sally's. Great read for adults. I doubt if too many students will find it interesting (unless it becomes required reading for a class). ( )

I loved this book!! It was a very easy and fun to read. It is written from Sally's point of view, a young child in the late 1950's. I would read more from Lesley Kagen. ( )