KATHY AND THE MYSTERIOUS STATUE

Family mystery-cum-adventure with a very real, undoctored quality that makes a sculptor's family's new life in a Maine seacoast town, seem as if it were happening right next door. The Collins' -- Henry and his motherless brood of four- must move to Barmouth from New York, to set up a ceramics shop, because of an injury that prevents Henry from doing heavy work. Fifteen year old Kathy and three younger brothers and sisters, have their misgivings. But they are troupers from the first, turn an old fishing house into a studio for Henry and a home for them all and proceed to latch on to a mystery that turns up another sculptor on the point of winning a prize with some old sketches of Henry's. The solving gets them a new house and a real grip on the future. The fascination stone holds for the author seems born out by two former mysteries for the 8 -- 11 group- The Quarry Adventure and The Rocky Summer.