Bonnie Swinehart Livres

The Belsnickel is coming… Dressed in black from head to toe. Porcupine quills in his hat. A whip in hand. And bells that jingle with every step. Benjy, a lovable eleven-year-old in the 1930s, just can't seem to help himself from pulling pranks and letting people down. His target is most often Miss Nettie, the schoolmarm at the one-room schoolhouse where he gets into more trouble than she's willing to tolerate. Maybe he's pulled one too many practical jokes…because everyone keeps telling him he's going to get a visit from the Belsnickel. Although Benjy believes the Belsnickel is just an old Pennsylvanian folktale told to scare kids into better behavior, deep down he fears the grim legend is real. When the Belsnickel comes knocking, Benjy quickly learns he is no fable.

A paper route sounds like the perfect new job...until a mystery crops up. At almost thirteen, Benjy is thrilled to get an extra year of school and enter seventh grade. But then his pa tells him he needs to say goodbye to his goats. Benjy misses them...and the milk money they'd brought in. Soon he sets out on a new adventure when he becomes the town's first paperboy. Before he knows it, he's caught up in a mystery involving a spooky house, strange boxes, missing dogs, suspicious footprints, and unexplained findings in a cave. To make matters worse, his nemesis Bruce Landis is seen hanging around Landisburg. When Benjy confides in Sarah, the two become a pair of amateur detectives. Can they solve the mystery?