The Mystery of the Magi's Treasure - Softcover

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Elspeth Campbell Murphy is often asked about her first name. It is a Scottish form of Elizabeth, and is pronounced just like it's spelled, with the accent on the El.

Elspeth was born in Hamilton, Scotland, near Glasgow. She moved with her parents to Canada were she spent her early years. But most of Elspeth's life has been spent near Lake Michigan.

Elspeth received her Master of Arts in Teaching from Oakland University, a B.A. in English at Trinity College, Illinois; and General Bible at Moody Bible Institute. She has taught in the elementary grades; and written and edited curriculum. She now writes full- time. She is a member of the Authors Guild.

Elspeth has been a familiar name in Christian publishing for over 15 years, with more than seventy-five books to her credit and sales reaching five million worldwide. She is the author of the bestselling series David and I Talk to God and The Kids From Apple Street Church, as well as the l990 Gold Medallion winner Do You Se Me, God?

Elspeth loves to write. Most of her work has been for young children, from babies through about fifth graders. She's particularly interested in writing "first chapter books" for kids in the middle grades who are beyond picture books and easy-to-reads, but not quite ready to tackle longer novels. Mysteries were Elspeth's favorite kind of book when she was a kid herself, and they still are. She says it's fun to try to figure things out. In fact, planning and writing a book as a little like solving a mystery-getting a little bit of information here, a little bit there, and putting it all together.

Elspeth enjoys every minute she spends with the three detective-cousins, Timothy, Titus, and Sarah-Jane featured in her series THE THREE COUSINS DETECTIVE CLUB.

Elspeth and her husband, Michael, live in Illinois. From her home-office window, Elspeth can see a school on one side and a zoo on the other. She says it's fun to go to sleep at night, hearing the roar of the lions over the roar of the buses.

Rezensionen

Grade 3-5?Cousins Timothy, Titus, and Sarah-Jane have formed a detective club. In Hobo, they stumble upon a secret message carved in a tree trunk. Their grandfather, Pastor Gordon, tells them that it was a message left by a hobo during the Depression. He explains that hobos were honest, wandering workers, and that his own father was one during his teen years. This is why he knows their code. Later, the children use the code to save their grandfather from being swindled by phony real-estate agents. This is a slight mystery cloaked in a message about the spiritual theme of kindness. However, the characters and theme are better defined here than in others of this series. It's a good addition for collections looking for Christian fiction. In Magi, the cousins have been selected to dress up as the Magi and hand out flyers to the crowd during their resort town's "Christmas in July" Arts Fair. After a stranger hands them three beautifully made boxes to carry as gifts, they learn that these objects have been stolen from the fair and catch the thief. Here, the theme is goodness, the idea being that even someone who seems bad can do something good. It's a rather confusing presentation. Also, it takes the children a whole chapter to realize that they are holding the stolen art in their hands. Characterization is weak; the cousins blend together and seem like one person. For wholesome, better written mysteries, stick with David Adler's "Cam Jansen" books or "Fourth Floor Twins" mysteries (both Viking).?Elaine Lesh Morgan, Multnomah County Library, Portland, OR
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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The Kevins Timothy Dawson sometimes wondered what it would be like to be really, really bad.

Not the kind of bad where you beat up on people or steal things. But just the kind of bad where you were always acting up and goofing off and no one ever expected you to behave yourself.

Timothy sometimes wondered what it would be like to be one of the Kevins.

The Kevins were three boys who went to the church where Timothy s grandfather was the pastor. Timothy and his cousins Sarah-Jane Cooper and Titus McKay knew the Kevins slightly from being in the same Sunday school class with them when the cousins visited. But it was more like they knew of the Kevins.

But then everybody knew of the Kevins. The three boys had met when they had all toddled into the same nursery Sunday school class on the same day. They had been together ever since. Every teacher they d ever known had declared, Those three boys should be separated!

But somehow Kevin O Connell, Kevin Jones, and Kevin Weston had managed to stay together. Always acting up and goofing off. And no one ever expected them to behave themselves.

And that s how on the hottest day of the summer so far Timothy, Titus, and Sarah-Jane came to be wearing long, flowing robes and fancy crowns.

They were supposed to be the Three Wise Men.

They were not too happy about it.

And it was all because of the Kevins.