Twenty Gold Falcons

Do you like a good mystery? Would you like to search for gold coins? Aiden Farmer, is a young girl who's life is turned upside down after the unexpected death of her father. Aiden and her mother must give up their life on the farm and return to the city,to find work and to live with her mother's brother, who is an opera singer. Aiden feels totally out of place and thinks only of finding a way to return to her friends and life on the farm. When she hears of the lost twenty gold falcons hidden in the Ingle Building, where her uncle performs, she determines to find them and return to the farm. Along the trail of the missing coins, she finds new friends, new hopes and new family. As well as a better understanding of what things are truly important in life. A well told tale, that all ages will enjoy. Also try The Gorillas of Gill Park

Aiden Farmer misses her farm. When her father dies, her mother moves them to the city of Gloria and puts the farm up for sale. Aiden doesn't feel like she fits in at the private school she must attend. The kids and even her teacher call her "farmer girl" instead of her name. She and her mother are staying in the tiny apartment of her famous opera uncle Tony Balboni. Throughout this book she meets Liesl, a strange adopted cousin, makes friends with Adam, meets charles the mouse who loves opera, befriends Rosie and her siblings who operate the elevators in the Ingle building, and stumbles upon the biggest mystery of her life. When Aiden hears a story about 20 gold falcons hidden in the Ingle building she dismisses it. That is until the bank has decided to accept them again and they become valuable. Stumbling upon several clues she decides to hunt for the hidden gold and in doing so uncovers several other mysteries. I read this book straight through. It was so good. The characters were so believable I felt like I was in the story with them hunting for the gold. Amy Gordon is a master story teller. She drew her characters so well that you could not help but dislike Marissa and Quentin. You felt the evil exuding from Grip. You wanted to sit in the elevator with Rosie and listen for hours to her tell the stories of the old building. This was my first book by Amy Gordon but will definitely not be my last. I can't wait for my students to get their hand on this and her other books. We need more books like this that keep you on the edge of your seat.

Moving to the city proved difficult for twelve-year-old Aiden Farmer. True to her last name, she loved the farm and wished desperately that her mother did not need to sell it. But they had trouble making ends meet, especially after her father died, and a kind uncle in the city had offered to take them in for a while. Although Aiden could attend the elite private school where her mother had found a teaching job, she felt ostracized and out of place. Life in her new home and school took an unexpected turn for the better when Aiden became enmeshed in an exciting hunt for a cache of gold coins hidden away in the grand Ingle building. Although those coins had lost most of their value after the Great Depression, they had remained hidden so long that they were worth a lot of money -- enough to pay for Aiden's dream of keeping the farm. Would she and the friends she made along the way manage to decipher the mysterious clues before the other treasure hunters did? This mystery novel provides middle-grade readers with an appealing mix of intrigue, humor, and adventure. Key to the plot development are some important economic ideas revolving around tight budget constraints, the value of real estate and gold, and the class barriers created by wealth differentials. A bright and vivacious heroine sweetens the pot to make Twenty Gold Falcons a highly satisfying read.