Seize The Treasures Of Weatherby Written By Zilpha Keatley Snyder Digital Copy

disappointment from one of my alltime favorite authors, Feels like the novel is just getting started I am just beginning to care a bit about the characters and wonder what's going on when all of a sudden, the climax falls from the sky.


I didn't connect with this one, I would say skip it and read one of Snyder's classics any of the Stanley Family series, or the Green Sky series, or The Egypt Game, . . This book was a disappointment, Supposedly a mystery, there was little to boggle the mind or made the skin tingle, The parts that, I can only assume, were supposed to be suspenseful were only slightly entertaining, The character development was weak and shallow as well as unbelievable, Needless to say, I didn't like it, Harleigh J. Weatherby IV feels misunderstood. At age twelve he is about as tall as a sixyearold, and no one lets him forget it, At school the bullies nicknamed him "Hardly, " Now he is homeschooled at the Weatherby mansion, where strict Aunt Adelaide is always on his case about something,

Then Harleigh meets Allegra, When she literally flies over the walls of Weatherby and into Harleigh's life, the two form an unlikely friendship, Allegra is fascinated by the enormous Weatherby mansion, and against Harleigh's orders, sneaks inside, Together they discover that someone is trying to find and steal the longlost Weatherby treasure, Will Harleigh and Allegra be able to foil the villain and save Weatherby House

Threetime Newbery Honor winner Zilpha Keatley Snyder combines a cast of quirky characters with an eerie old mansion to create a spellbinding tale of mystery and magic.
Not my favorite Snyder book,.stars. This is a pretty disappointing book, especially coming from an author like Snyder, who has demonstrated in the past that she can write tight plot and complex characters.
I don't mind that the mysteriousoldhousewithsecrets plots is overused as she admits herself but I don't see why she bothered when she does so little with it.
The house and family history are only sketched in vaguely, as a backdrop, Harleigh was all right, if uninteresting, but Allegra was really annoying, I guess Snyder stuck in the homeschooling plot line to explain why the poor protagonist would bother being friends with such an irritating and rude person, Also, I was irked that Snyder kept emphasizing how Allegra was really interested in the house and asked all these prying questions, and physically forced her way inside to explore, and then NEVER GIVES A REASON for her interest.
In the end there just wasn't enough to this book! If it were possible to give half I'd give this a half less,.stars!
I loved two books by this author that I read in grade school The Changeling and The Egypt Game, but only recently rediscovered her and learned that she wrote many more books.
Ive read several of them, and have never been disappointed, Harleigh J. Weatherby the Fourth, age, in no way

has the perfect life, Lifelong health problems have greatly slowed his growth, so he is only about half the size of many kids his age, His only parent, Harleigh the Third, is more interested in traveling the globe than spending time with his son, Harleigh Four is left in the care of extended family at Weatherby House, the huge but costly mansion he will inherit,

There are many odd relatives living in all the many wings of Weatherby House, but Harleigh feels alone, He is tutored by wellmeaning Uncle Edgar, but he has no friends,

Almost by magic the fairylike young girl Allegra appears one day on the grounds of the manor, For Harleigh, things begin to seem a bit unreal at that point as Allegra encourages the uncovering of the old yew maze, the exploring of the mansion where selfappointed ruler Aunt Adelaide has forbid nonWeatherby's, and the investigation of a crimeinthemaking someone is planning to steal the Weatherby Treasure.


Strangely when elements of ordinary, real life creep back into the story, Harleigh finds solutions to some of this worries, not only solving the mystery but seeing that, even if life doesn't turn out perfect, things do change over time.


This is a children's story with mystery, a struggling young hero, and the lessthanstorybook ending, which makes it more relatable, It should appeal to around the middle elementary reader atrd orth grade, This is the first Zilpha Keatley Snyder novel I have read, so if you recommend others of her long list of books, please leave me a comment.
The main character, Harleigh, isn't likable, relatable, or interesting, I've enjoyed books about characters that aren't likable or relatable, but they were interesting,
There's a lot of mystery going on in this story but it's not mystery worth caring about, Mysterious Allegra tries too hard to be mysterious when she already is, The way the story toys with her existence is a drag,.stars

I'll start this review with the good things about The Treasures of Weatherby before I get to sink my teeth into a good ranting session: for one thing, the story is suspenseful and atmospheric enough to make it a quick read.
The setting is intriguing even though it is nowhere near developed enough, I liked that Harleigh IV came to appreciate the people around him more and to take more interest in things beyond his own problems,

Now for my many, many questions:
WHY WASN'T ALLEGRA A GHOST For pity's sake, she is hinted to have supernatural powers, wears the same ragged dress all the time, and is extremely vague about her background.
It would make perfect sense for her to be some otherworldly being, but instead we get the shocking twist that she is, . . from a family of circus acrobats, Seriously, that's it. There is no reason why this needed to be mysterious at all, The way Allegra talked you would have thought her parents were spies, or mobsters, or in witness protection! Why on earth would she feel compelled to hide something this anticlimactic

What was the point of Harleigh's unnamed medical condition I thought there would be some meaningful payoff or explanation behind his being so small.
But it ended up being so irrelevant that he could have been eight feet tall or had webbed feet and it would have made no difference to the story.


What about Aunt Adelaide Did she actually just have a stroke and spend the rest of her days in bed staring at the TV Is this supposed to be some kind of twisted happy ending because she no longer bosses everyone around

Why the revelation about Harleigh the First Like Harleigh Four's stunted growth, the fact that his ancestor was a greedy robber baron has no bearing on the plot whatsoever.


Why even have a villain This isn't the kind of story that needs one, and it felt like he was thrown in as an afterthought.
Junior as the baddie was underdeveloped, cartoony, and far too easily vanquished to add anything of value to the book.
The only purpose he serves is to save Harleigh and Allegra the trouble of finding the treasure themselves, It's like the publishers thought kids couldn't properly follow a story without some hulking brute to pit the childheroes against,

It pains me to rate The Treasures of Weatherby this low because it's not all bad, and I know full well that Zilpha Keatley Snyder could do so much better than this mediocre and wishywashy story.
She even wrote better books with mysterious old houses: The Velvet Room, The Headless Cupid, and even Libby on Wednesday are far more satisfying!.