SUSPENSE SERIES SUMMARIES

New Start Suspense Series
The New Start Suspense Series is a set of six short suspense novels with high interest and low vocabulary (grades 2-3). We invite you to read these brief summaries.

The kids must get their stuff for school. They split up so that they can get all their things and then have lunch. Kim, the one who wants to get rich, finds a bag of money and wants to keep it. The rest of the kids tell her that she should not keep it. Someone must be looking for it. Kim takes the bag of money to try to get it back to the one who lost it. Someone has seen Kim with the money. Trouble begins again for the kids.

An old house is located in the swamp and is rumored to be haunted. The young people decide to enter the house. At one point, they hear what they think is a cry of someone in trouble but are uncertain if the cry is that of a child, a ghost, someone in the house or simply the wind. Their resulting actions put them in trouble with their parents.

Two of the characters find a locked bag beside a skeletal hand wearing a ruby ring. As they investigate, they are trapped behind falling rocks. The remainder of the book revolves around whether they will be rescued and what they should do about the locked bag, ring and hand.

It is just a trip to a farm for horseback riding. The kids had been in so much trouble that their folks do not want them to go. At last, they let them go on the trip. The kids had made a pact that they will stay out of trouble. When they are riding, the horses get spooked. Beth had ridden a horse before, but the rest of the kids had not. The kids end up in big trouble once again.

It is hot and the kids wanted to be at the lake and have some fun in the water. Nick is a good swimmer. When the kids see stuff way out on the lake, Nick swims out to see what is out there. He does not come back. The rest of the kids are not good swimmers and cannot think of what to do. They cannot see Nick, and they do not think that they can get the raft out to the stuff to look for him. They must do something, but what?

Kim wants to be rich. One day she goes to the junk yard to look for stuff that could make her rich. Things get bad for her when she gets trapped. No one can find her. The kids do not want Kim's mom to find out that she is lost. They look in all the spots that they can think of, but still no Kim. At last, Dan says that they should go to the junk yard. When they get there the gate is shut and has "Keep Out" on it.

This resource provides background information on the novels, an overview and suggestions for introducing the book, discussion questions for each chapter. Each book has a word study in two different formats (alphabetical and divided phonetically into word families and sight words).