The Silver Boulder

Sylvia Pantaleo is an assistant professor of education specializing in
children’s literature at Queen’s University. She is the co-author of
Learning with Literature in the Canadian Elementary Classroom.

The Spaldings have written a second mystery involving the brother and
sister sleuth team of Willow and Rick Forster. The setting is Kaslo, on
Kootenay Lake in British Columbia. While on a trip with their parents,
Willow and Rick meet Dusty Malone. Dusty tells them how his grandfather
was involved in the discovery of a silver boulder, but was accidentally
killed in a fight over the land claim. Coincidentally, Melissa Tomi, a
young woman from Lethbridge, Alberta, has also traveled to Kaslo to find
the infamous silver boulder. Melissa’s grandfather, along with Boulder
Bob, originally discovered the silver boulder. Melissa tells the teens
that Dusty’s grandfather tried to take advantage of the two men when
they asked for his assistance.

Melissa, Rick, and Willow join forces to find the silver boulder.
Melissa has her grandfather’s diary and one-half of a map. A visit to
Boulder Bob provides the other half of the map and further details of
the story of the silver boulder. The race is on to locate the valuable
rock before Dusty Malone does.

Although the plot is somewhat predictable, the story is nevertheless
engaging. The use of several historical facts (e.g., the Moyie, a
steamship that sailed up and down Kootenay Lake; a Japanese internment
camp in the area; the Kootenay flood of 1894) contribute to the
development of the plot. Interspersed throughout the book are pages
providing additional information about various topics relevant to the
story. All of the insets have small illustrations and many have Web site
addresses. Recommended.