Attention fans of Louise Ladd:
While many of her early works are now out of print, they can still be found at backinprint.com, booksense.com and many other online bookstores. If you enjoy The Double Diamond Dude Ranch series, you’ll also love these fun reads.
A Whole Summer of Weird Susan
Susan is nice--Nice and weird!
Joey and his friends, Max and Rudy, are horrified to learn that Joey’s cousin, Weird Susan, will be spending the entire summer with them. Weird Susan is rightly named, they decide, when she arrives with a car-full of junk, including a dumb umbrella she claims is magic. They dare her to prove it, and to their utter frustration, she does. Or so she claims. It’s just the first of many adventures when Weird Susan manages to triumph, and they pay the price. Then Susan decides to audition for a play and presto, everything gets worse!
The Double Fudge Dare
Dares, Double-Dares and Pink Plastic Flamingoes.
Kit and Meg Sullivan are twins who have just moved to a new house, next door to two brothers who aren’t twins but look exactly alike. Kit and Meg couldn’t be more
un-like. Kit dreams up a crazy-wild plan that involves her grandmother, the Zoning Board, and 28 pink plastic flamingoes. Meanwhile, she’s constantly embarrassed by her feisty sister who keeps getting them into trouble, especially when it comes to Bratty Bart. Turns out he’s just as good at making up dares as Meg. It all begins when Bart dares Meg to pick up a yucky dead jellyfish on the beach. Meg scoops up the gloppy mess and throws it a Bart. From then on it’s all-out war!
The Anywhere Ring Series
To her astonishment, Jennie’s twelfth-birthday gift from her great-grandmother, a lovely garnet ring, whisks her anywhere in the world, even back in time, but the rules are quite complicated and the ring doesn’t come with an instruction book.
Miracle Island
The victim of a stupid practical joke at school and stuck at home with her little brother and the world’s worst baby-sitter, Jenny wishes she were on the beautiful tropical island where her parents are having a second honeymoon. Then, whoosh! She’s floating in a tropical sea, wearing only her raggedy Poochie the Puppy Dog pajamas. Then just as suddenly she’s home again. How did she get to Miracle Island--and back? She discovers it has to do with the lovely garnet ring inherited from her great-grandmother, but how does the magic work? She longs to go back to the island--not in her pajamas--but how? Trying to unravel the mysteries of the ring lands her in more and more trouble until she, her brother and her best friend are marooned on the island with Stephen, a British boy who isn’t handsome but sure is attractive. It looks like they’re not going home--ever.
Castle in Time
Jenny has figured out some of the mysteries of the ring, but not all, not by a long shot. At least, to her delight, she finds she can visit England, where Stephen lives. Right after she arrives Stephen’s sister disappears, lost somewhere in Ireland while trying to find the ancient, ruined castle rumored to belong to their family. Jenny takes Stephen to Ireland with the ring’s help, but whoosh! a brilliant flash of light changes their plans. The castle in the distance glows with life. They’ve gone back 400 years in time, back to an age of kings and queens, and the fierce king, Red Beard, is about to attack his mortal enemy...the English.
Lost Valley
Jenny’s little brother Davy is a pain, and never more so than the day he steals the magic ring. While Jenny and Carly struggle to take it back, the ring whisks all three to a ranch in the Colorado Rockies where a prickly girl is
not happy to see them. Jenny discovers it’s 1906 and she’s visiting her own great-grandmother, the very person who willed her the ring. And Ophelia is still wearing
her ring! Two magic rings means more than double trouble. Ophelia’s plans for protecting a pristine valley with its secret gold mine gets them all into what Ophelia calls, "a real pickle."
Cherry Blossom Moon
Jenny’s bummed about having to do a family tree assignment, but her friend Allison is really upset. Allison has to protect her family’s shameful secret. Her grandfather was a pilot in the U.S. Air Force, stationed in Japan during the Cold War. When he and his top secret jet fighter disappeared, the government branded him a spy. Jenny’s ring takes them to 1956 Japan to find out what
really happened. They meet a group of cool kids, including one guy named Copter who has nothing but mischief on his mind. Sneaking around the base, hiding from adults, spying on Allison’s family, they begin to get an inkling of the truth but Jenny soon realizes if they aren’t very, very careful they could change the course of history forever.
