The Complete Screech Owls

Roy MacGregor

6/20/2007

Review by Molly

Anthology of 4 titles

The Complete Screech Owls is a four-in-one edition including The Secret of the Deep Woods, Murder at the Winter Games, Attack on the Tower of London, and The Screech Owls's Reunion. The reader is carried along on tour with the Screech Owls as they compete world wide. Team captain, Travis Lindsay, is our guide and will let nothing: not terrorism or murder, sabotage, theft, kidnapping, or anything else stand in the way of the team on their quest for acceptance and success. Founders of the team were Muck Munro and Don Dillinger, Muck who came home to Tamarack, Canada when his junior hockey career was stopped short because a badly broken leg did not heal properly, serves as team coach assisted by his able associate Larry 'Data' Ulmar. The team has included players Travis Lindsay, Liz Moscovitz, Simon Milliken, Sarah Cuthbertson, Andy Higgins, Gordie Griffith, Derek Dillinger, Fahd Noorizadeh, Jesse Highboy, Dmitri Yakushev, Wayne Nishikawa, Lars Johanssen, Wilson Kelly, Samantha Bennett, Willie Granger, Jenny Staples and Jeremy Weathers may be the best to date.

The Secret of the Deep Woods opens with defensive player Wayne Nishikawa, Nish, wondering if he might be pregnant… his swollen stomach and retching nausea are causing him deep concern. The Screech Owls are on a summer camping/canoe trip in Algonquin Park. Nothing goes quite as they expected.

Murder at the Winter Games opens with Travis who has placed a green jelly bean in his nose. Nish is in charge of the gross out Olympics and things may get a lot worse before they get better. The Screech Owls are now spending a week at summer hockey camp. A body hidden in the boathouse is definitely worse and the Screech Owls are caught up in trying to locate the murderer and solve the mystery.

Attack on the Tower of London opens with Travis passing out cold right in front of the rest of the team. Celebrating Guy Fawkes Day in England may prove to be their undoing. Nish would like to be immortalized in Tussaud’s Chamber of Horrors: after all he is ‘Wayne Nishikawa, the world’s most twisted and evil hockey player'. The Screech Owls practice to become top notch as in-line hockey players and find themselves embroiled in another murderous mystery.

The Screech Owls's Reunion: Travis now teaches high school in Tamarack, Sam has a son, Muck, The Screech Owls are no longer kids, and they no longer play hockey as a team. A decade has passed, the kids are living their own lives. Data runs a computer business with Fahd. Sarah is captain of the women's Olympic hockey team. Wilson is a police officer. As unbelievable as it may seem; Nish is in Las Vegas, where he is a member the well know group; The Flying Elvises. The team finds itself embroiled in another murderous mystery when they gather for a reunion in Tamarack and learn a gambling casino looms on the horizon.

Writer MacGregor has crafted a long running Canadian series which has garnered many awards and acclaim among young ice hockey readers. Each of the four books included in this compilation is well written, fast paced filled with action and just enough gross to intrigue middle grade readers. The mysteries are integral to the tales, the kids are believable in their behaviors and manners.

I received a soft bound single edition for review, and would like to see some of the single editions. I plan to take this volume to my classroom come fall. I think the work will have appeal for the boys in the class and for many of the girls as well. I am considering separating the four books into individual ones so that four kids at a time can be reading rather than just one. The compilation is ideal for the home library. A must have for the active young reader.

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