Mr. Mysterious & Company by Sid Fleischman. Magic, mystery and adventure in the Old West.
Mr. Mysterious & Company, aka the Hackett family, made up of Mama, Pa, Jane Paul, and Anne, is traveling west in a covered wagon. The year is 1884.
“[I]t was like no other wagon seen in those parts before. To begin with, it was the wrong color. Its canvas was bright red and could be seen for miles. The wheels were painted gold, like a circus wagon, and the horses (if seeing was believing) were as white as swans.”
“The man driving this most remarkable wagon and these white horses was himself a most remarkable man. He wore a stovepipe hat, as tall as Abe Lincoln’s and just as black, and had a smiling red beard even sharper than the letter V. If the hawks and buzzards could have read, they would have seen his name in golden letters a foot high on the sides of the wagon: MR. MYSTERIOUS & COMPANY.”
First narration project: everybody draw the wagon or Mr. Mysterious or both from that description. The writing in this 150 page Western novel is spare and easily accessible to anyone age ten or older, but it is also descriptive in a sort of caricature way. The children in the story, ages 11, 9, and 7, and their parents come across as real people. The other adults are somewhat stereotypical westerners: the sheriff, the outlaw, the cowboys, the storekeeper, the undertaker, the fresh-faced young ingenue.
The story moves along with gentle humor, as the Hacketts move from town to town entertaining the townspeople with their magic show. They are headed for California where the family plan to settle down and live on a ranch. Jane can’t wait to live in one place and make real friends. Paul has mixed feelings, depending on whether he wants to become a traveling magician like Pa or a cowboy on any given day. Anne wants to find a ballet teacher who will teach her to dance on her toes.
The story could be a Christmas read aloud, since the goal for Mr. Mysterious & Company is to reach California and their uncle and aunt’s house by Christmas Day. There are, of course, both obstacles and celebrations along the way. Warning: your children may want to plan their own Abracadabra Day* after reading this book, a celebration which could be either hazardous or humorous.
*Abracadabra Day: “It was a secret holiday that belonged to the show family. They had invented it, and no one else knew about it. The secret was this: no matter how bad you were on Abracadabra Day or no matter what pranks you pulled, you would not be spanked or punished. It was the one day in the year, in the Hackett family at least, on which you were supposed to be bad.” Sort of a once a year get out of jail free card.