I recently received a review copy of Elizabeth Doyle Carey's The Callahan Cousins: Home Sweet Home. Home Sweet Home is the second in this new series about four tween cousins who have free run of their Grandmother's rambling estate in "Eastport Harbor" over the summer.
This series will definitely appeal to girls who love Nancy Drew, The Babysitters Club, and other such middle grade favorites. The four cousins take turns playing the central role in each volume with Neeve (the spunky, adventurous one) heading up Home Sweet Home.
The girls' grandmother, Gee, presents the girls with a challenge in the very first chapter of Home Sweet Home. She allows them to fix up the "Dorm," a two-story cabin near the main house, and make it their own home. Decorating always brings out the worst in people and opinionated Neeve frequently clashes with her more subdued, but aesthetically-gifted cousin, Kate. The other cousins, bookish Phoebe and tomboy Hillary, keep the peace. While cleaning out the Dorm, Neeve finds an old photo--a photo of her father's wedding to someone who is not Neeve's father. The girls spend their summer solving the mystery, fixing up the Dorm, negotiating the social waters of Eastport Harbor, and discovering that cousins really "are forever."
The Callahan Cousins: Home Sweet Home is a cute read and it has helped me to survive my required reading for the week, Crime and Punishment.
