THE TREASURES OF WEATHERBY
by Zilpha Keatley Snyder
Aladdin Paperbacks
Hardcover: 141691398X
Paperback: 9781416913993
Ages 8-12
240 pages

• Read an Excerpt

Harleigh J. Weatherby IV is the only child living at the Weatherby mansion. Cared for by his well-meaning uncle and an aunt who seems to care more for rules than children, Harleigh lives isolated from other young people. At 12, he is the size of most six-year-olds. His growth is stunted by a heart condition for which he has undergone repeated operations.

One day while wandering the grounds of the mansion and planning revenge on his relatives, Harleigh meets Allegra. Dressed in rags and eager to see the inside of the mansion, Allegra claims to have flown over the spiked, iron fence surrounding the grounds. The two become friends and together search for the treasure hidden in the old house.

THE TREASURES OF WEATHERBY is not the first book to be written about treasure and family secrets hidden about a big, creepy, old house. Like cruel relatives and orphans, old houses are stock characters frequently appearing in books for children. What distinguishes this work from others in the genre is Zilpha Keatley Snyder's careful balance of social justice and the supernatural.

In her previous books (such as the classic THE EGYPT GAME) Snyder has dealt with problems like urban poverty and oppressed minority groups. WEATHERBY tackles the subject of ill-gotten gains when Harleigh's search for the treasure uncovers the unethical means by which his family amassed their original fortune. These discoveries, along with the friendships he forms with Allegra and Weatherby's other inhabitants, help him to grow more compassionate. His role as Weatherby's sole heir stops being a tool through which he can control people and starts being the means to making life better for himself and others.

WEATHERBY is spooky in the most delicious and satisfying way. It is creepy without being macabre, and most of its mysteries are solved by the book's conclusion, leaving readers free to enjoy chills without invoking terrors.

In her foreword to the book, the three-time Newbery Honor author comments that big, mysterious houses have often played a role in her fiction. She promises that WEATHERBY will be her last "big house" book. I hope not. Readers who love novels about big, mysterious houses always wish that there still will be more rooms to explore.

   --- Reviewed by Sarah A. Wood

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