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September 2026 - A Day at the Beach
By Kristen · 5 posts · 43 views
By Kristen · 5 posts · 43 views
last updated Sep 07, 2025 06:50PM
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December Read - Three Times Lucky
By Kristen · 24 posts · 129 views
By Kristen · 24 posts · 129 views
last updated Jan 12, 2013 04:02PM
What Members Thought
It's got drinking and cussing and bad parenting and neglect and murder and child labor. It's also perfect. Every word counts. We need more books like this.
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Mo LoBeau is a rising sixth-grader in the tiny town of Tupelo Landing, North Carolina. She's a slick talking girl whose best friend is a boy named Dale Earnhardt Johnson III. Mo lives with adoptive parents: Miss Lana, a wig-wearing eccentric cafe owner, and the Colonel, a man with no memory of his past who calls Mo "soldier" (affectionately) and hates lawyers. Mo and Dale decide to become detectives when a local man is murdered and the only suspects seem to be Dale and the Colonel.
Sheila Turnag ...more
Sheila Turnag ...more
Completely and utterly charming!
Many lovely bits, but my favorite has to be the line, "I'm a lawyer." Read the book to find out why. ...more
Many lovely bits, but my favorite has to be the line, "I'm a lawyer." Read the book to find out why. ...more
Jan 09, 2017
Astrid Lim
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
children,
series,
newbery,
america,
puzzle,
twist,
lovely-heroine,
middle-grade,
popsugar-2017
I love this book! Mo LoBeau reminds me a lot of Flavia de Luce in different setting (Southern America instead of English) and different time period :) Tupelo Landing is such a charming little Southern town that has all the quirks (but not stereotyping!) to be lovable. The mystery itself is very engaging, suitable for middle grade readers but still enjoyable for adults as well. Love the twist, the dialogues and the ending. And of course- I'm ready for the sequel :)
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I am not very tolerant of spunky heroines who charm their backwoods neighbors and say ain't but realize the audio format doesn't work for me with this genre because it is so much slower than the reading experience would be. I will return the CDs and try the book.
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A friend recently told me that she thought the characters in this book were stereotypical Southerners. I have to say, I just thought they were quirky, and I mean that in the best possible sense. Quirky the same way the ladies in The Help are, quirky the same way most characters in Pat Conroy's books are, quirky like some of Barbara O'Connor's great characters.
I really, really enjoyed the story - the characters, the plot, the little intrigue, and the ironic turn of fate for one of the main charac ...more
I really, really enjoyed the story - the characters, the plot, the little intrigue, and the ironic turn of fate for one of the main charac ...more
The plot of this book is wildly implausible. But...who cares? Mo Lobeau has become one of my favorite heroines in children's fiction. She is funny, brave, and smart; also irresponsibly impulsive and selfish at times. Turnage makes serious issues, such as domestic abuse, murder, and being abandoned by a parent believable to young readers, without being preachy. She also creates an enjoyable mystery, filled with misleading clues, suspense, and danger.
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small southern town populated by quirky characters including a feisty 12 year old girl named Moses out to solve a murder mystery and find her missing moms (both biological and adoptive) against the backdrop of an approaching hurricane.
Will appeal to fans of Jennifer Holm (May Amelia and Turtle), Polly Horvath (Everything on a Waffle), A Year Down Yonder and Moon over Manifest.
Will appeal to fans of Jennifer Holm (May Amelia and Turtle), Polly Horvath (Everything on a Waffle), A Year Down Yonder and Moon over Manifest.
I adored Mo's overly formal speech patterns. I loved all the characters. It was great to read this contemporary book right after Child of the Mountains, which takes place in about the same area, but 60 years earlier.
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The perfect middle grade mystery. Lots of sass and character and originality. A good mystery story at its center.
I loved this--It made me laugh out loud quite a bit.
I think my favorite thing about this book was how all of the adults took the children and their ideas and ambitions completely seriously. They were treated as equals in this small southern town and it ultimately provided them with a confidence to blossom.
Great read!
I loved this--It made me laugh out loud quite a bit.
I think my favorite thing about this book was how all of the adults took the children and their ideas and ambitions completely seriously. They were treated as equals in this small southern town and it ultimately provided them with a confidence to blossom.
Great read!
This didn't engage me much. Disappointed to see it was a Newbery Honor. It's a mystery set in the South, narrated by a spunky girl who's been raised by kindly oddballs after she was abandoned as a baby. She's still hoping to find her mother and writes to her "Upstream Mother" via letter-in-a-bottle.
Overall, a tedious read for me since I never got hooked on the story, the place, or the characters. ...more
Overall, a tedious read for me since I never got hooked on the story, the place, or the characters. ...more
This is the kind of book that makes you want to live in a small town if only to discover your particular eccentricities and experience the familial love that the townspeople seem to have for one another.
A funny southern mystery with memorable, lovable characters--especially Mo.
Nov 28, 2012
Kate Hastings
marked it as to-read
Jan 24, 2013
Jennifer
marked it as to-read
