The Sagebrush Rebellion

This is a great follow up on the first Passport to Danger book.Con's adventures get more interesting every time.

I had really enjoyed Bell's first book, Secret of the Mezuzah, so I was looking forward to Con's further exploits. While it's a good adventure story with interesting characters, I wished that the themes of Indian rights, eco-terrorism and the "new west" had been explored more thoroughly. Bell has already demonstrated that she can handle complicated issues in a sensitive way. Still, it's an entertaining read with strong family values.

I echo the thoughts of previous reviewers on the strengths of this book: a very good middle-school level story, and an excellent description about interrelationships in a functional extended family. I would add that, compared to many "policitcally correct" portrayals of the contemporary West, this story is a nice counterweight by presenting life from the viewpoint of the rancher, as opposed to that of the environmentalist, the Bureau of Land Management and the native American. In this story, the sterotypes are not extended. Everyone in it is portrayed truthfully, meaning less-than-perfect. It is healthy for children to realize that any special interest group, including environmentalists and the BLM, can have less-than-pure motives for what they do. And, I believe the portrayal of a Hollywood star whose self-righteousness turns out to be something less than meets the eye, is a refreshing non-Politically Correct perspective. The point is, it's good to have different kinds of portrayals of people and their motives--that way kids can learn how some folks may behave and allow them to be more prepared to evaluate situations at a deeper level than face value.

I've read a lot of children's literature, being a fourth grade teacher. I read and enjoyed THE SECRET OF THE MEZUZAH a couple years ago, so I was very glad to learn that Mary Ann Bell's book was part of a trilogy. This second book features the same confident, adventurous Con, but this time in an American setting. The central plot and themes were not, to me, as meaningful as the first book, but I really enjoyed learning more about the adventures of Con and his interactions with his family in Wyoming. This book will be very appealing to kids who enjoy books about kids who are "on their own" (like the ever popular Box Car Children books) because Con and his cousins are staying on the ranch without their parents, with only the occasional supervision of their grandparents. The cousins have many adventures taking care of the cattle on the ranch, as well as trying to solve mysteries in town. I'm looking forward to the third book!

This is a book about family, a large sprawling mass of a family, that has unique individuals, who are able to come together and help each other and the world they live in. In this age of the noveau-family, with its single parent, or work-obsessed parents, or alternative-lifestyle parents, or whatever, it seems we have forgotten that the family is not just classified by the parents... nor should it be ruled by selfish desires. True, the nuclear family of the fifties is a myth, and in many ways I think we can be glad of that. But the extended family, the kind where there are grandparents, aunts and uncles, nephews and nieces, cousins, parents, and sons and daughters... that used to be the way all humanity lived. It gave us strength, stability, diversity, chaos, love. There are many reasons why that model is no longer the norm, but we can strive to have a sense of it, and that is what this book gives all who read it. Set in the vast expanses of the West, there is a sense of large empty spaces. But the heart of this quirky family beats loud and happy, and fills all the empty spaces. Read this book, and go talk to someone in your family you haven't talked to in a while. Both actions are well worth the effort.