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Cape Cod Adventure, published by Wilma Pitchford Hays in 1962, is a delightful mystery story for upper elementary school readers. The book is set in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, focusing on a family from New York city who owns a 200-year-old house that Mrs. Mason’s great-grandfather built. She had gone there every summer for vacation and loved it. This present summer, her children Peter and Anne are there with their father, who is recovering from a long illness while she works in the city to keep the family business going. Mr. Mason is totally a city person and wants to sell the house because he doesn’t like staying there at all. Add in an old seaman, Captain Amon, that Peter and Anne come to know, their desire to earn the money to buy their own rowboat, their mother’s journal, written when she was 12 years old and hidden in a secret drawer, and the possibility of a criminal hiding out nearby, and you get an exciting, realistic, and heart-warming story. There is even a lovely touch when Peter and Anne’s friend Manuel invites them to go with him on his Sunday School’s picnic!
Wilma Pitchford Hays (1907 born in Nebraska, 2006 died in Florida) was a prolific author, writing many other historical novels, mainly about the United States and primarily written at the upper elementary to middle school level. Look for her other books – they are all worth reading (see my reviews on Drummer Boy for Montcalm and The Scarlet Badge).