Asthma Book

The idea of a 13 yo w/a payin job was a joke. Def written in a diff time. It was weird how she sed she'd ben showin dogs since she was a puppy. Y wud she refer 2herself as a puppy? I cudnt swallow the fact that a 13yo had a job, esp an international event showin dogs.

The book rly showed its age w/mention of a typewriter.

It was cool how Stacy wished they were goin2 the McDonald's across the street insted of the old house. It's right across the road from the entrance &it was designed 2look like a European building.

It was funny how the kids r lookin at each other while they're in their cars, glarin like they're each responsible 4them bein there, &wondering y Stacy was so happy.

Typo pg. 10 "It's hard.

Pg. 10 "Me, too." "Yeah!" they cheered.
I had no idea who sed that. Who agreed w/Trent &then y wud they say "Yeah" after they'd sed me, too?

It was interesting hearin about her impression of the place thru Stacy's POV, the girl who lives in Asheville. Their parents r on a mystery writers workshop. She thought of elves &trolls as she came up the Approach Road. She was offended 4the house wen the other kids were complaining about it, that they wudnt want 2b a paper boy, maid or hav2 cut the grass bcuz of the size. She wanted every1 2think it was neat. I feel the same way! I don't like any1 2not like the house, kind of protective of it bcuz of it bein a home state attraction.

I liked that there were things 2learn about the property, like the gardens bein surrounded by a wall 2block cold wind so flowers cud grow there all yr.

I had a hard time readin this bcuzthe words ran 2far ovr on the page, &started 2close 2the edge on the right-hand side. They ran right in2 the crease of the book which I cudnt see w/o splittin the book wide open, which I don't do.

I got a lil impatient with the tour of the grounds b4 they went in Biltmore House. It was like a tour of the map &wasn't relevant 2the story bcuz the mystery takes place inside the house. Havin a 13yo as the main character did prove a prob 4sum1 my age. It was so dramatic how Stacy sed everything was always tomorrow, like birthdays, &bad things like homework were always today, &she felt like the car was a time warp where everything happened 2morrow only 2morrow wud nvr come, all bcuz her mom said they cud eat at the restaurant 2morrow. I guess it's true 2kids tho how they make everything dramatic &bemoan everything.

Typo pg. 29 ...about to gobble them up through it wide-open doors.

The author and I seemed to agree on quite a bit. She said that time of evening where the sky is blueish pink is sad and lonesome, and I think that time is depressing myself.

It was hard to swallow the mystery when I knew under no circumstances would it ever happen. The chessboard that Napoleon Bonaparte owned is securely behind a roped barricade and is nowhere near enough for visitors to touch in any way much less steal all the pieces. And they wouldn't allow guests to play either, so Michael thinking that he could play was ridiculous. I just couldn't get into it because of it went against every rule Biltmore has.

And the chessboard isn't in the Winter Garden either, or the room past it. It's in a library nowhere near this area. It's at the other side of the house so the adults wouldn't be talking about it there. It isn't the first thing you come to. She also described the Billiards room as being up the hallway from the Winter Garden

I found a kindred spirit in Stacy, who's animal lover and would have rather seen the stuffed animals in the billiards room alive and running around on the estate.

It was funny how Michael wrinkled his nose at the flower room in the basement, saying that's where they must make funeral wreaths because of the smell. My sister, mom and I couldn't stand the smell and had to move on quickly because it smelled like a funeral with all those flowers.
It was amusing how Michael kept saying things to scare them, that the cold room was where they kept the dead bodies. It was really the fridge. Then he said the oven reminded him of Hansel and Gretel and to put your head in there, my pretty, and see if it's warm enough. Wendy said they should take one of the utensils along for protection and Michael said don't give her one of those. Who would protect us?

I couldn't believe when Michael fell in the pool. You can't fall in the pool. It isn't open. There's a barricade around it that prevents you from getting at the edge. To have a whole kid fall into it was outrageous. I thought at the most he would drop something in it, not fall in. And it's an empty pool which made it even more unacceptable, because he would have fallen like ten feet. He would break his leg or something else.

It was funny that once they saw the pool Trent said "That Mr. Vanderbilt was okay." And Stacy said I'm ready to move in right now. She should've had one of the other kids say it though, because that was something you say the first time you see it and Stacy's been there a million times, so she shouldn't have been acting like she was seeing it for the first time.

It was another funny moment that one of them asked what the noose-looking things were hanging in the pool room, because my family and I thought they looked like noises to. We realized that they were for people to hold on to.

Wendy rolled a ball down the lane, and they heard someone yell ouch, but couldn't see because it was dark. Stacy went down the lane and someone grabbed her, and threw her back (who would do that to a kid?!) but she couldn't see who it was and the parents arrived angry that they'd gone off on their own. It added a mysterious element and would have probably gave me a little shiver as a kid.

Typo pg. 53 "Big moose heads and a statue knights and statues watched them from above."

Pg. 53 "At one end of the room there was a fireplace so large it had three huge openings for the wood. Across from them there were huge tapestries.."
Using the word huge so close together is a bad idea.

It was so cool to hear George Vanderbilt was a 22 year old millionaire, because I've never heard how old he was when he got so much money.

I liked how the author wove information in here, like saying that the table in the Banquet Hall was longer than the bowling alley and held 64 chairs. I really liked when she wove in that the kids were surprised they could hear the curator from the other end of the table to impart about the design of the room, having her explain that the acoustics were built so that people could hear each other and talk from one end of the table to the other without having to yell. That was an interesting fact I had learned in the Biltmore legacy book I read.

It was cool to learn that he had a 3-mile train track built to carry supplies to the site, and they had brick and wood companies set up for materials. I'd already learned through that book that he had a village built. It was so neat to know that someone had that much influence and brought so many jobs and opportunities in the building of the mansion.

It was interesting to learn that in 1895 only 1 in 5 families had a Christmas tree because most didn't think it was an appropriate way to celebrate. They decorated with things like paper stuffer balls that had gifts in them for guests. Shrubs were trimmed into the shape of animals, like a goose. There were Yule logs put in the fireplace that burned for 10 hours on Christmas Eve to keep bad lucky away. Coals from the fire are saved to start the first fire of the new year. These were traditions I'd never heard of.

There are hand-blown glass ornaments and clip-on birds with spun-glass tails, and Victorian candy like chocolate covered cherries, they piled sugar-covered candies called sweetmeats everywhere. They had 1,000 poinsettias and barrels of mistletoe and kissing balls.

They did things like singing, storytelling, drinking cider. They made Christmas cards in fancy shapes of paper and lace. They put candles and a gingerbread house in the kitchen. They had ribbon candy, paper chains, and cornucopias of sugar plums and wooden toys. The sweets on the tree weren't eaten until it was time to take the tree down.

The mystery was propelled further as Stacy went back into the banquet hall to get her jacket before the curator took the kids on a tour, looked up and saw someone watching her from a window. She started to suspect one of the writers because no one else is allowed in the house. Then she realized there were guards there so they were in the running too.

Run-on sentence pg. 53 "Thinking that an adult or a guard had shown up they all charged back up the alley."

While checking out the bowling alley the next day, they saw a message on the chalkboard that set stay out of section 6. I wouldn't have thought anything of that though, because how would the thief know they'd be coming back? I just assumed there was a problem in that area and it was closed.
It came out of nowhere when they were like let's ask Uncle Ed and I was like who the heck is that? He's a nice guard that likes to tease them but that wasn't right because we hadn't met him so to pull him out of thin air was a bad move. She could have at least mentioned him briefly the first day they were there, to see this relationship they had built up. Because we were with the kids the minute they got to the house and the minute they left the place and not one word mentioned them meeting a guard much less forming a friendship.

It was ridiculous to have kids talking like they knew things about architecture and things like that. Michael at one commented on the tall andirons of the fireplace. Like a little kid would know what that was! I've never even heard of that.

It was so cute that George Vanderbilt had a carved door in his library with an image of a person with their finger to their lips in a shushing motion so he could read in peace.

It was funny when the guard brought them to the library and after he left Wendy said "Just what we need. To be trapped in a library with all these books now that school is out." It was clever how Stacy said it was good because her mom had challenged them to learn about North Carolina writers and she'd take them to the dairy for ice cream.

I thought it was a good idea to mention the writer O. Henry, who I didn't know was the author of the story where the woman sells her hair to buy a watch chain for her husband and he sells his watch to buy her a comb.

Typo pg. 72 "Why didn't they just number them like at a hotel," Trent said.
Should've had question mark.

It was funny how the kids said Vanderbilt's bedroom reminded them of Edgar Allan Poe. It was dark, with that red fabric.

Typo pg 74 "That's how you flush it silly."
Needs a comma

Michael disappeared behind a secret wall in the library, a balcony that went behind the fireplace. It was so cool that Vanderbilt had that made so he could sneak out at night in his pajamas to get a book.

As they looked for Michael they went into his bedroom, heard someone coming and dove into the bathtub. They saw someone flip over the hourglass on the table and thought the person was sending the message that time was running out for them. When they heard the footsteps coming Stacy cried Run! And they went out a window and onto the balcony. It started to get crazy to imagine them on a small ledge.

Neat how the gutter had his initials on it. Such a small detail but cool someone thought of it.
They found a note in section 6 saying You can't go home again. It was funny how Trent said he didn't like he sound of that because it sounds like they might be here forever, and Michael said like someone's not going to let them go home. It was funny the way they were jumping to conclusions and reading things into everything. Stacy said something about it was familiar but she couldn't think what.

That's when they went to Thomas Wolfe's house and learned from a writer that Wolfe had written a book titled You Can't Go Home Again. So sad to learn he wrote a book that his family and friends thought was about them and they didn't like it, so they threatened to kill him and he had to leave Asheville.

Cool learning about Carl Sandburg and that his family was poor and when his mom bought a book from a traveling salesman he hugged it to him.

It was crazy how they went swimming in the outdoor pools like that's okay, and Stacy saw a chess set in the bushes and someone yanked it out of sight.

Pg. 97 Typo "Or how else would Mom make up her stories."

The scene with Stacy and the kids getting into the truck with the gardener who chased after them with a rake was funny. She was sure by his actions that he was going to hurt them. She sat by the door, held onto the handle, expecting to have to jump out. He had to make a quick stop, and it was in the woods, and she was sure he was gong to get rid of them. It turned out he was just going to the vineyard and the stain on his shirt was grape juice and not blood.

Typo pg. 103 "What kind of clue is that."
Why are there no question marks at the end of questions?!

It was such a waste that Stacy didn't even think to look in the bag in the gardener's truck. It was sitting right there in the seat beside her and he even got out of the truck and she was alone in the cab. Such a missed opportunity that made no sense. And when the gardener told Uncle Ed he had a chess game that night it only increased the suspicion. She could've had an answer if she would've just looked.

When they got back to Biltmore House there was a note waiting in he heating vent (why would someone assume they would open the venting?) asking where would you hide something valuable?
It's neat that the chest in the Oak Sitting Room has 35 compartments that he had made so his guests could put their jewels in and he could lock it up at night.

Typo pg. 105 "And what could be more valuable than jewels unless it's a stolen chess set," Stacy added.
Question mark!

It was so annoying that Stacy was always the one figuring everything out and finding the clues. I wanted everyone to have their share of the spotlight, not one kid singlehandedly solving it. It was really annoying when she found a piece of paper in the chest, and when they got back to the inn she went to throw it in the fire without even looking at it, but it bounced out. Then she read it and didn't even tell anyone what I said. She put it back in her pocket, said she needed their help bcuz she thought she knew where it was and didn't tell them where. I hate when characters keep things to themselves.

The note was weird. Follow the tunnel to the tussie mussies.

And then the author completely rewrote history and made things up, having Stacy know what tussie mussies are even though we've never heard of it before. I can't stand mystery books where authors pull things out of thin air for convenience's sake instead of having everything weave together.
Stacy said they're Christmas decorations that the curator told her about one day. Um, when? When she was off by herself one of the only two days she was there? She was with the other 3 kids the entire time. Not one second was she alone with the curator. And we were there when the curator gave them a tour. Which didn't mention one thing about tussie wussies or things being in the attic.
Typo pg. 114 She ducked her head waiting to be hit by something.

It was so far-fetched that the thief dropped the priceless heirloom of Napoleon Bonaparte down the tunnel. Michael found 2 of them. There is absolutely no way that someone would dump something so expensive in a tunnel when they could be broke and destroyed.

Typo pg. 121 Why did Michael think he looked suspicious, she wondered.

It was a clever idea to have Michael tell her about a suspicious writer by saying king to king's pawn too, because the flooring in the Halloween Room was square blocks so it looked like a chess board.
It was too convenient that the thief walked right through the room in front of everyone carrying a box. It was amusing that the kids called out you can't go home again and look homeward angel, titles of books, to indicate to Stacy she needed to check someone out that was leaving. She grabbed the man and the box fell and the wine bottles broke open and revealed the chess pieces. This must be the dumbest thief ever to drop them down a sooty tunnel and then put them in wine.

I didn't care so much for the ending. The grand prize they thought the finder of the chess set would get wasn't true. It was confusing but the curator was talking about the prize of working here. But the writers had a prize that would go to the best story, and since the kids had the best mystery they got a check, well Stacy did because she solved the mystery... She decided to split it with the kids and had enough money to go to California for her dog show. I didn't care about her job so I didn't think that was a good ending. I also didn't like that I thought the adults were in on it the whole time and were setting up a mystery for the kids to solve to keep them occupied while they worked. Having kids actually catch the thief was far fetched. And then Stacy suggested they play chess, as if you could touch the chess set that Napoleon Bonaparte owned. The gaping-mouthed skull image in dirt was completely unsuited for this story. There was no murder, no danger, so that image didn't reflect the story and made it seem like it was a dark, scary story, which it wasn't.

Learning that Carole Marsh lived in diff towns in NC was cool. She also has a Roanoke Collection 2teach kids about the founding of the Roanoke Colony. Such a worthy cause.
The stuff at the end of the book was so interactive. There were ?s about the book, I liked the 1about how ppl in NC live, &a scavenger hunt to find things at Biltmore. My fav part of it was when she told readers how to write like a mystery. Pick a dramatic title, choose characters, pick a real setting, and write out your drafts.

She did a good job teachin ppl about Biltmore &its history &inspirin ppl 2visit. She blended facts w/the story in a way that fit &made sens, cuz it's a place that has many ppl millin about, so guards &staff 2talk2 was spot-on. They do share tidbits about the place &the family. A good job 2her 4teachin in a way that dint feel like we wer bein hit ovr the head w/it. &a good job at inspirin kids 2think &write, def 5 stars 4encouragin kids 2write &even send it 2her. That's an author that cares &I've nvr herd of sum1 goin so far 2help kids. 4that she deservs 5stars. Wher the bk lost it 4me was the actual story. The credibility was shot cuz this goes aginst the vry rules &maks readers think they can do crazy things like play chess, swim in the fountain, crawl thru tunnels, climb out windows, use secret doors, &basically walk all ovr the place, wen u can't touch or get near nething. U hav a narrow walkwy that's barricaded by ropes so u can't do ne of these things. Also, the chess board isn't interestin. Wasn't much of a mystery. It was solved way 2easily. She made up things wen it suited her &made the solution easier, rewrote the past &sed things happened that dint, cuz we were ther the whole time, &Stacy wasnt given info the other kids wernt. Each kid shud hav ben treated equally. I had a big pro w/Stacy bein the1 that solved everything, by herself &dint share details. She got the main role in everything. She even got all the cred4 solvin the mystery, as if the rest of the kids hadn't helped! Not ok. At1 point she sed the kids were bobbin along in the bak. y wud she call other kids kids? I wanted a btr endin, mor concrete mystery. 4starters, I'd act like2 no who the thief was. He was just a random writer. He dint even hav a line! The thief that's the cause of the whole mystery needs 2say sumthin.