Review: Cynthia's Attic: The Missing Locket by Mary Cunningham

Cynthia’s Attic: The Missing Locket
BY: Mary Cunningham
PUBLISHED BY: Echelon Press
PUBLISHED IN: 2005
ISBN: 978-1590804414
Pages: 150
Reviewed by Billy Burgess  

            In the summer of 1964, two twelve-year-old best friends Cynthia and Augusta (everyone calls her ‘Gus’) decided to explore Cynthia’s family attic. Her parents are planning on cleaning it out soon and the girls want to check it out to see if they can find anything they want to keep. The girls come upon an old trunk and are memorized by it. Mysteriously, the girls are swept fifty years into the past, where they try to unravel what happened to Cynthia’s great-great Aunt Belle, who vanished years ago without a trace. While on their adventure, the girls take a ride on the seven seas and they must also try to find a locket that was thought to be lost.

 “The Missing Locket” is the first book in the series that follows in the footsteps of the Nancy Drew, and the Boxcar Children. I can’t believe I let this book sit around in my eBook reader for several months before making time to read it. Being an amateur genealogist myself, I found the premise of traveling back in time to help your ancestors to be intriguing. Now of days, the tween market is full of “Twilight” clones, so it was a bit of fresh air to find an exciting adventure written for kids that doesn’t involve creatures of the night. The main characters are two twelve-year-olds, so I was a bit surprised to see kids at this age to be excited about finding old family heirlooms to be thrilling, but Cynthia’s Attic is set in a more simpler time, before cable, cell phones, video games, and the internet. Despite being a mystery with a bit of a science fiction twist, the book offers great humor between the two girls as they try to change the past. I recommend Cynthia’s Attic: The Missing Locket to readers of all ages.

*I would like to thank the author for sending me a copy to review.