"Susan laughed. 'Movies aren't about real life, Thumb. They exaggerate life.'
'I know. But movie bad guys are sort of good because without them we'd all be bored. I guess I'm wondering if real life can be more exciting when there are bad guys around. I mean, without bad guys, Harry Potter books would be just stories about school.'"
Thumb and his friend Susan want to see if their tiny fishing village also sports the bad guys they see each week at the movies. They decide that they will do the detective work needed to flush them out and rid the village of their kind. To that end they become suspicious of an old grizzled fisherman named Kirk McKenna. He is always sneaking around town and they decide that he will be their subject of discovery. They follow him up a nearby mountain trail and finally find a locked hidden shack behind a waterfall. Imagine their surprise when they realize why Kirk climbs the mountain!
Inadvertently they make another surprising discovery…an old cannonball and a pewter ring. Why are they there? How did they get there? Who owns them? Did explorers visit their beach in earlier times?
There are many discoveries to be made…not the least of which is that honest, hardworking people can become suspect when imaginations run wild and free. As readers we discover real, yet quirky, characters, funny conversation, and two mysteries solved.
There are two previous Thumb books. Check at the library or your local bookstore for Thumb in the Box and Thumb on a Diamond (Groundwood). Then, look for other books by Ken Roberts. You will never be disappointed!
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