Synopses & Reviews
Franny longs for adventure but can't even do a cartwheel. Pru can do a cartwheel but prefers hiding under her quilt, making up safety tips. Cat has no use for safety tips but supposedly has ESP. And Ivy has had a seven-year string of bad luck—a Jinx that's about to get a whole lot worse.
They have nothing in common except for the name of their street. And the fact that they dislike one another. A lot.
The four are thrown together when a pair of mysterious ruby-red slippers turns up . . . along with the fashionably mad Cha Cha Staccato, who bears a frightening resemblance to a certain wicked witch. . . .
As hilarious as it is original, The Secret Order of the Gumm Street Girls is an unforgettable take on girlhood, piano recitals, The Wizard of Oz, and the dependable everyday magic of true friendship.
Review
"The unbelievable creatures the girls encounter on their trek to find the missing slipper makes this a page turning experience. The unending action moves the story along." Children's Literature
Review
"Great fun in parts, ambitious and good-natured, with satire, invention and silliness." Kirkus Reviews
Synopsis
From the bestselling creator of Auntie Claus comes her novel debut. When Ivy and her mother move to a ramshackle house on Gumm Street, a mysterious pair of ruby red slippers turns up and sweeps away Ivy and her new neighbors: Pru, Cat, and Franny. Illustrations.
Synopsis
For seven years, bad luck has followed Ivy around like a dog on a leash. Her father disappeared, her mother is a washed-up beauty-pageant winner, and now Viola and her mother have moved into a raqmshackle house on Gumm Street. Ivy's new neighbors-bookish Pru, stuck-up Cat, and wannabe adventurer Franny-are worse than unfriendly. But then a mysterious pair of ruby red slippers turn up, and the four girls are swept away...not to OZ, but to the jaw-droppingly strange lands of SPOZ, and SPUDZ, and OOZE, pursued by the fashionably mad Cha-Cha Staccato, who bears a frightening resemblance to a certain wicked witch....
Ages: 8 -12
About the Author
Elise Primavera has, like Ivy, suffered her fair share of jinxes in life and has found it helpful, like Cat, to consult the
I Ching before making any important decisions. She often feels, like Pru, that the safest place in this danger-filled world is under a quilt with a good book. As Franny dreams of doing, she has made her mark in the world—but as a writer and illustrator of children's books and not as an explorer in the mold of Sir Ernest Shackleton. Among her many books are the national bestselling
Auntie Claus and its sequel. This is her first novel, but it won't be her last, because like Hieronymus Gumm, she always likes to have the last word and is hard at work on another book about the Gumm Street Girls.
Elise Primavera has, like Ivy, suffered her fair share of jinxes in life and has found it helpful, like Cat, to consult the I Ching before making any important decisions. She often feels, like Pru, that the safest place in this danger-filled world is under a quilt with a good book. As Franny dreams of doing, she has made her mark in the world—but as a writer and illustrator of children's books and not as an explorer in the mold of Sir Ernest Shackleton. Among her many books are the national bestselling Auntie Claus and its sequel. This is her first novel, but it won't be her last, because like Hieronymus Gumm, she always likes to have the last word and is hard at work on another book about the Gumm Street Girls.