Part of Series
There are strange goings-on once again in Middleburg, and Bernie Magruder is determined to get to the bottom of things, and maybe get his picture in the paper in the process. Someone has put up posters all over town warning townspeople that the dreaded Indiana Aztec bat, whose bite is often fatal, has been sighted in the area. What's more, the town is in a political uproar over the bells recently placed in the church belfry that every hour—twenty-four hours a day—chime out the hymn "Abide with me." Placed there in accordance with the will of town benefactor Eleanor Scuttlefoot so that her surviving husband will always be reminded of her, the incessant pealing of the bells is driving the town mad. Who put up all those posters about a species of bat no one has ever heard of? What can the townspeople do to return some peace to their lives? And are the bats that Bernie and his family see swooping about the belfry the dreaded Indiana Aztecs? Bernie Magruder and his friends Georgene and Weasel set out to answer these questions in this new volume in Phyllis Reynolds Naylor's hilarious series about the Magruder family who live in and operate Middleburg's famous Bessledorf Hotel.
Author
Phyllis Reynolds Naylor was born in Anderson, Indiana, US on January 4, 1933. Her family were strongly religious with conservative, midwestern values and most of her childhood was spent moving a lot due to her father's occupation as a salesman. Though she grew up during the Depression and her family did not have a lot of money, Naylor stated that she never felt poor because her family owned good books. Her parents enjoyed reading stories to the children—her father would imitate the characters in Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer—and her mother read to them every evening, "almost until we were old enough to go out on dates, though we never would have admitted this to anyone." By the time Phyllis reached fifth grade, writing books was her favorite hobby and she would rush home from school each day to write down whatever plot had been forming in her head - at sixteen her first story was published in a local church magazine. Phyllis has written over 80 books for children and young people. One of these books, "Shiloh," was awarded the Newbery Medal in 1992, was named a Notable Children's Book by the American Library Association and was also Young Adult Choice by the International Reading Association. Naylor gets her ideas from things that happen to her or from things she has read. "Shiloh" was inspired by a little abused dog she and her husband found. The little dog haunted her so much that she had to write a story about him to get it out of her mind.
