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Jeanmarie and Malcolm meet Tallulah, the ghost of a once-famous actress, who sends them on a quest to find the Regina Stone--the diamond she wore until it was stolen when she died. But they soon find more than they bargained for.
About the author
E.L. Konigsburg is the only author to have won the Newbery Medal and a Newbery Honor in the same year. In 1968,
From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler won the Newbery Medal and
Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth was named a Newbery Honor Book. Almost thirty years later she won the Newbery Medal once again for
The View from Saturday. Among her other acclaimed books are
Silent to the Bone,
The Outcasts of 19 Schuyler Place, and
The Mysterious Edge of the Heroic World.
Summary
Long before there was Dolly the sheep, Jeanmarie Troxell dubbed the look-alike, think-alike girls in her school "clones" and decided she wanted nothing to do with them. That's how Jeanmarie forms an unlikely friendship with another outsider, Malcolm Soo, over an equally unlikely activity -- burying dead animals at the remote spot they name Jericho Tel.
It's at Jericho Tel that Jeanmarie and Malcolm encounter Tallulah, a famous actress who happens to be dead -- although not too dead to send them on a magical quest to find out who stole the famous Regina Stone. But their search leads Jeanmarie and Malcolm to something far more valuable than a missing diamond -- adventure, friendship, and self-knowledge.
Additional text
Booklist Focus review Konigsburg writes with flashes of brilliance, and her multilayered story is as fresh and funny as any that has come center stage in a while.
