I must have read this book 15 times as a kid. I loved it. I've been looking for it in every used bookstore I've come across. I can't think of a book that deserves a re-release more.

As good as a juvenile mystery gets! As an avid juvenile mystery reader in the 1970's this was by far the best mystery I read. My kids are reading my copy and I'd love to replace it with a new one. The only other Kin Platt book I read was atrocious, so I'm not sure that this book is representative of his work.

A simply marvelous mystery novel for kids (and adults who have managed to keep their imagination intact). My wife and both read this as kids, and both still love it! If you can find it, this is a book you will read more than once, appreciate more with each reading, and want to share with your family and friends. I gave away my copy years ago to a younger brother of a girlfriend, and it took a year of searching to find another one! It should not be that difficult to own this book - bring it back in print!!!

I gave this book to my five year old niece only after strictly informing her that I would be repossessing it after a few years for my own personal collecion. Big Max is fun to read on a rainy afternoon, no matter your age. Is Big Max the world's greatest detective? He only admits that he tries to be, and that is all you can ask for.

The King of Pooka Pooka's elephant is missing, and Big Max, the world's greatest detective, is hired to find him. This is a heartwarming story about the importance of family, disguised as a suspenseful mystery. Where did Jumbo go, and why? The journey to the answer is entertaining, and should appeal to all ages. I read it for the first time more than 25 years ago, and it is still one of my favorite books after many, many readings.

Kin Platt's "Big Max" chronicles the adventures of the title character, a Sherlockian detective who approaches a case concerning a missing elephant with unorthodox but always logical acumen. Young readers will delight in solving many of the small mysteries along with Big Max on the way to the resolution of the central enigma. Robert Lopshire's clean illustrations perfectly complement the story, putting a droll face on Max, The King of Pooka Pooka, and Jumbo the Elephant. "Big Max" played a major role in my own development as a reader -- I devoured it dozens of times when I was a child.

My fifth grade teacher read this book to the class twenty six years ago and I have never forgoton how I couldnt wait everyday for him to read it. This book made me want to read more. I am buying for my sixth grade son hopeing it will do the same for him.

I have read this book for years to fifth and sixth graders. My paperback copy is falling apart. Every year the kids are just on the edge of their seats and beg for me to read it. Nearly every chapter leaves the reader (or listener) with a desire to go on.

The quirky title caught my eye when I was nine years old; I pulled the book off my school library's shelf, sat at a table and read nonstop for an hour. This was my first experience with science fiction, and perhaps my first experience with a truly exciting story.

Steve Forrester, a teen who is trying to find himself, goes to spend the summer at his uncle's hotel. The first guest he registers is bundled up in an overcoat and gloves despite the heat. When Steve takes the man his towels, he learns why: the man's body is cobalt blue, from at least the waist up. Stunned, Steve frets about whether he should tell his uncle and aunt about their guest. The blue man makes up Steve's mind for him the next morning; instead of checking out, the blue man kills Steve's uncle and escapes.

Steve climbs into his uncle's Hudson Hornet and gives chase. Over the course of the next couple of days, he learns that he is suspected of his uncle's murder. Now, as he chases the blue man, the state police are chasing him. A sensible girl gives Steve temporary shelter, but he knows he can't rest until he captures the blue man. At last they meet in New York City, in an exciting confrontation that answers the question of how the man came to be blue.

This juvenile novel, a precursor to Mr. Platt's stellar "Sinbad" books, starts with a memorable paragraph and proceeds through a plot as twisty as a luge ride with an equally brisk pace. There is no good moment to put the book down; fortunately, an average reader can finish the novel in a reasonable time.

When the book was published in the 1960s, America's librarians warned that the characters spoke in ungrammatical English. In other words, Steve and his cohorts sound natural, real. This book was ahead of its time as juvenile mysteries go; Mr. Platt did not concoct a '50s-style sedate story. It has guts, a raw, lively structure that does not shield its intended audience from reality. As such, Mr. Platt deserves praise for being willing not to treat his audience with condescension, and the book makes as good a read for adults as it does for nine-year-old boys who are lucky enough to discover it at the library.

Anyone who's read Kin Platt knows to expect a tight, sometimes humorous, always spine-tingling adventure with a bit of psychological daring-do thrown in for good measure. This time, Steve and Sinbad are out to solve the mystery of all mysteries. By all appearances, all of the "clues" seem to be in Steve's head when, before you know it, Minerva's dad meets the business end of a time bomb, Steve finds an old neighbor under the spell of Mandrake (a bracelet made of a mandragora root), Herk and Steve stumble onto the witch who wouldn't (for her own reasons), and a platinum blonde who looks older than she should, along with a legendary Hollywood vampire, do their best to ensure Steve and Sinbad are out of their hair forever.

Sign up for the waiting list, and spend your spare time cloud-busting while you wait for this outstanding book. You'll be glad you did!

If you liked/loved "Sinbad and Me" read this book! It offers a great mystery of Aurelia, a witch who has ethics. She comes up against Baalzaphon, and some very evil people; of course, Steve gets involved along with Sinbad, Minerva and the Sheriff.

Dracula Go Home is a great book and I would recommend this to any child from ages 8-13. You (the reader) should read this book because it is a great mystery and is full of suspense and humor.The book is basically about a boy Larry who visits his aunt for the summer to help her run her hotel and ends up seeing a guy that looks like Dracula and who signs in as A.R. Claud (rearrange the letters) So Larry keeps a close eye on him and solves the mystery. So read the book to find out what mystery I'm talking about and no, it's not whether he is Dracula or not.

The book that I'm reading is called The Ghost on Hellsfire Street. This book is about a famous ecologist named Gunther Waldorf. One day when Steven was going home from the corner store he sees Mr. Gunther Waldorf being kidnapped. When he goes to Sheriff Landry, he thinks that he has just seen something small and blowing it way out of proportion. Then, all of a sudden a man or a committee I should say was going to run against Sheriff Landry for Sheriff. When his daughter Minerva gets involved she tries to analyze things and thinks that everything that happens in life has a reasonable explanation.
On a totally different subject one night Steven is contacted by a pirate ghost who asks him to be the one who finds his treasure. All he wants with the money is a proper burial. But the catch is his over 200 years old, and so is his treasure chest. Solo Yerkes is the one who is suspected of burning down Mr. Gunther Waldorf mansion. But you will be in a big surprise when you find out who the real culprit is.

I really enjoyed this book because, I thought that it brought more to you that the normal mystery standards. I had a lot of depth and touch topics. Sometimes when I was reading this book I would get confused and think how does this go with the story but later I found out that everything was put in this book for a reason you just have to think and suspect thing you never would. But it all leads to the killer and where this treasure is located to eventually catch the potential murderer.

There is a ghost on Hellsfire Street. The street is appropriately named by the way. Mrs. Teska is in trouble, and it's up to Steve and Sinbad to help her. They use a "trojan horse" manuever to try to save Sheriff Landry's job as well. Steve and Sinbad are kept busy in this adventure to help some elders in their town preserve their lives! This is just a little reminiscent of "Sinbad and Me."

I read this book back just after it first came out, when it was a little more relevant. That said, Platt has written a book that is still applicable to today's violent adolescent subcultures. Read the book remembering that it was written in the mid 1970s, and you will realize that the book accurately describes the same nihilism seen in 1990s movies such as "American Me" and "Boyz n the hood."

This book is far too heavy for anyone under the age of seventeen.

I heartily disliked this book as a child and as an adult. It is a very sad story, to say the least. Roger Baxter is the protagonist of this tale. At 12, he has a speech problem that precludes him from relating to peers. He is understandably embarrassed about his inability to pronounce "R" and rues having "Rs" in his name. Roger has a mother nobody would wish for and a disinterested father, who ultimately get divorced. At the opening of the story, Californian Roger has traveled across country to Manhattan with his wretched mother. Flashbacks are interspersed throughout the story and in each one, Roger relates yet another horror story of maternal abuse. At 6, he is verbally flayed and locked in his room because he was too scared to order a hamburger at the UCLA cafeteria; at 3, he remembers the mother's "mean mouth" when he injured his tongue chewing on a styptic pencil. In New York, he makes some friends, among them the cute Nemo Newman and a French citizen, Monsieur Roger Tunnel. Tunnel and a school speech teacher are the only adult characters one can like. They both take Roger under their wings and try to nurse him through the mental breakdown he suffers at the close of the book. Poor Roger is committed to Bellevue and his stupid mother won't even be bothered with him. All that vapid, vain thing wants to do is travel to Florida where she can get some sun and sees the institution as a place where Roger can be safely deposited. Roger's speech teacher rightfully cleans the mother's clock when she walks in on the mother haranguing the boy shortly after his discharge from Bellevue. She deftly punches Roger's mother in the jaw, which she richly deserved. Poor Roger is left in the limbo of mute mental illness. Roger Tunnell is a treat -- he actually cares about Roger.

Now that I've told you this story, do you really still want to read it? Read something else instead. Gently put, this is a downer.

i loved this book when i was in 9th grade, i took it out of my high school library many times. i have always been attracted to sad stories; i guess i kind of collect them. this may be a depressing story but thats life. i love this book. i wish it were easier to get.

Poor Chloris has a lot on her plate. A spoiled, favored little princess of a sister who shouldn't happen to a dog, a lousy mother, a father who killed himself when she was 8 and a nice step father she refused to bond with. I absolutely hated Princess Jenny and their stupid mother. The vain, spoiled woman clearly needed male attention and was a pitiful excuse of an adult and an embarrassing excuse for a mother. She clearly favors Princess Jenny and I didn't like the way she referred to Chloris as "your sister." The stupid woman wasn't even NICE to Choloris. The poor girl had no inheritance as her father squandered it and rotten Jenny ended up getting the lion's share of everything -- affection, inheritance and esteem. Too bad Jenny never got hers -- she's a two faced back stabbing creep. I always hoped Chloris would come out on top and ditch that rotten mother and rotten sister once and for good. Who needed them anyhow?

I am saddened to see that the Chloris books by Kin Platt have gone out of print. Though written in the early 1970s these books have a lot to say about our divorce happy society and the effects on children. The characters of Jenny, Chloris, and Fidel Mancha are very true to life and likeable. I love all three of the Chloris books and I would highly recommend them all, especially to children of divorce.

I thought this was one lousy book as a child and I think it is one lousy book as an adult. I can save you folks a little time right now by warning you in advance of what you will come into.

The main character is a boy who baits a severely retarded peer. He calls the boy "Dummy" and uses him as a subject of an English composition. His teacher naturally calls him on his cruelty and insists that he get to know the boy he calls Dummy. Comstock, the protagonist does and in so doing learns that that boy has a truckload of problems -- an autistic sister, a mother who works for crumbs in a bakery and no other adult or back up to be found.

Comstock has horrible parents. They compare him to the ghost of his dead brother, crab at him when he accepts his $2.00 allowance instead of demanding more (what a weird parental wish) and constantly hound and belittle him and his sister, Susie. Susie is the only character one can like. She accepts everyone including the boy called Dummy. Her stupid parents think the boy is dangerous and forbid her or Comstock to have any further contact with them. The mother mocks the boy and tells Susie he is bad. Susie laughs at the sheer madness of anyone thinking that boy is dangerous. The stupid mother slaps her and turns on Comstock, saying, "By rights, mister, I should have given that one to you." That mother belonged in the wastebasket.

The end was simply unfinished business. The boy called Dummy was accused of killing a little girl (that was never explained) and he is subsequently killed by folks who just have no sympathy for anyone whose just a tad different. As for Comstock, he suffers a mental breakdown and ends up in an institution. The story closes with Comstock saying that he needs a new chest because he thinks he outgrew his old one.

Now that I've provided you with this information, do you STILL want to read this?

I thought this book was interesting because it gives you all the things that you want to read about. You get mystery, suspence, action , and some parts that are funny. Then again it also is very odd at times. Overall I recomend this book to others.