Margaret Peterson Haddix’s The Secret Letters is a Mysteries of Trash and Treasure story for 8 year olds about two kids from rival house-clearing families.<\/p>\n
Colin is twelve and his summer has been cancelled. Money’s tight, so instead of day camp he’s working for his mum’s business, clearing out people’s houses. In a shirt with a collar. In ninety-degree heat.<\/p>\n
Across town, Nevaeh has just turned twelve too. Her dad is the Junk King off the local TV adverts, and on her birthday he crowns her Junk Princess with a crown made of old CDs. She adores her big, noisy family. She just doesn’t want anything to do with junk.<\/p>\n
And the two families? They can’t stand each other.<\/p>\n
The chapters take turns between Colin and Nevaeh, so you get both sides of the feud.<\/p>\n
Colin’s chapters are the quiet, thoughtful ones. He keeps noticing the sad old things people throw away. A suncatcher bleached by the sun. A wonky clay pot somebody’s mum made after a stroke. He secretly photographs them so they won’t be forgotten (and doesn’t tell a soul).<\/p>\n
Nevaeh’s first job is opening a storage unit that nobody has touched since 1989. Her family are expecting treasure. Instead it’s completely empty, apart from one envelope and a very strange letter. And within minutes her family have decided exactly who’s to blame. Colin’s mum.<\/p>\n
Then there’s the shoebox. While clearing an attic, Colin comes across a bundle of old letters between two best friends from the 1970s, and he can’t bring himself to throw them out. That’s where the bigger mystery starts.<\/p>\n
It’s a slow burn rather than a thriller. There’s lots about families, money worries and why we hang on to the things we do. Is a stained old Tupperware box rubbish or a memory? Your reader might have an opinion!<\/p>\n
Both main characters are twelve and it reads like a longer novel, so it’ll suit a confident reader who likes a thoughtful story.<\/p>\n
Fancy another small-town mystery hidden inside old things? The Lost Library is a lovely next step. A little free library appears on the town green overnight, and a big orange cat knows exactly where its books came from.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Margaret Peterson Haddix’s The Secret Letters is a Mysteries of Trash and Treasure story for 8 year olds about two kids from rival house-clearing families. Colin is twelve and his summer has been cancelled. Money’s tight, so instead of day camp he’s working for his mum’s business, clearing out people’s houses. In a shirt with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":12402,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"lr_next_read_post_id":9208,"lr_next_read_anchor":"The Lost Library","lr_seo_hook":"Rival house-clearing families, an empty storage unit and a strange letter."},"book_tag":[1045],"age_group":[26],"book_type":[1044],"book_author":[672],"class_list":["post-8212","our-books","type-our-books","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","book_tag-adventure-books","age_group-books-for-8-year-olds","book_type-paid","book_author-margaret-peterson-haddix"],"yoast_title":"Mysteries of Trash and Treasure – The Secret Letters by Margaret Peterson Haddix | Little Reads","yoast_metadesc":"Rival house-clearing families, an empty storage unit and a strange letter. For ages 8+. 3,000+ books in the Little Reads app. 7-day free trial.","acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n