Gilda Joyce: Psychic Investigator

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Gilda Joyce: Psychic Investigator
Gilda Joyce Psychic Investigator.jpg
Author Jennifer Allison
Illustrator Greg Swearingen
Country USA
Language English
Series Gilda Joyce
Publisher Dutton Children's Books
Publication date
2005
Pages 321
ISBN 0-525-47375-0
OCLC 55228488
LC Class PZ7.A4428 Gi 2005
Followed by Gilda Joyce: The Ladies of the Lake

Gilda Joyce, Psychic Investigator is the first book in the Gilda Joyce mystery series for children written by Jennifer Allison. Gilda Joyce, Psychic Investigator was published by Dutton Children's Books. There are three books in the series: Gilda Joyce: Psychic Investigator; Gilda Joyce: The Ladies of the Lake ; and Gilda Joyce: The Ghost Sonata .

Gilda Joyce is a mystery novel series written by Jennifer Allison, published by Dutton Children's Books. According to Allison, the idea for the story of Gilda Joyce: Psychic Investigator first emerged while she was living in San Francisco and had recently been laid off from a "dot com". She wanted to write stories like the ones that had most moved her in her youth.

Mystery fiction genre of fiction usually involving a mysterious death or a crime to be solved

Mystery fiction is a genre of fiction usually involving a mysterious death or a crime to be solved. Often with a closed circle of suspects, each suspect is usually provided with a credible motive and a reasonable opportunity for committing the crime. The central character will often be a detective who eventually solves the mystery by logical deduction from facts presented to the reader. Sometimes mystery books are nonfictional. "Mystery fiction" can be detective stories in which the emphasis is on the puzzle or suspense element and its logical solution such as a whodunit. Mystery fiction can be contrasted with hardboiled detective stories, which focus on action and gritty realism.

Jennifer Allison is an American author of mystery novels who is best known as the author of the Gilda Joyce children's series of books.

Contents

Synopsis

Gilda Joyce is a spunky, 13-year-old that wants to be a psychic investigator. She (and her not so enthusiastic friend) start an investigation. They go around town spying on people. Gilda lives in Detroit with her mother, and older brother, Stephen, as her father died of illness two years ago. Before his death, he told Gilda that she should have his typewriter, saying that "it's a magic typewriter," so Gilda keeps it with her as much as possible and tries to incorporate it into her psychic investigations, such as for Automatic Writing. After Gilda, following her instinct, lies to her class and teacher saying that she is going to San Francisco for the summer. She looks into ways of getting to San Francisco for the summer, so that her bluff wouldn't actually have been a lie. She soon learns of her uncle, Lester Splinter, her mother's second cousin and a stranger to the family, whose sister, Melanie Splinter, met her death through a suicide jump from the top of a tower in the Splinters' own backyard. Thrilled at this opportunity for investigation into Melanie's death, Gilda quickly writes a letter to Mr. Splinter introducing herself and requesting that she be allowed to stay at his house for the summer. The letter, upon its arrival in San Francisco, is found by Mr. Splinter's assistant, Summer, who finds Gilda very intriguing and writes back inviting Gilda to stay, and providing airline fare for her. Meanwhile, Juliet Splinter, Lester Splinter's 13-year-old daughter, is bedridden with a broken rib and a twisted ankle. Juliet, having come home from ballet class one day, was considering swallowing some of her father's sleeping pills when she seemed to see Aunt Melanie standing at the top of the staircase she was climbing, causing her to faint and fall down the stairs. When Gilda arrives in San Francisco to find that the sunny, warm paradise she had pictured was covered with fog during the summer so the mansion she will be staying in is hardly a place of fun and that her only company of her age group will be Juliet Splinter, Mr. Splinter's petite, unsociable, sadistic daughter who is currently recovering from an "accident" which makes her enthusiasm dampen slightly. But soon, through a little investigation, Gilda and Juliet become unlikely partners on their mission to uncover what really happened to Melanie Splinter. Together, they complete the mystery all and all, and Gilda is sent back to her regular life.

Detroit Largest city in Michigan

Detroit is the largest and most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan, the largest United States city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of Wayne County. The municipality of Detroit had a 2017 estimated population of 673,104, making it the 23rd-most populous city in the United States. The metropolitan area, known as Metro Detroit, is home to 4.3 million people, making it the second-largest in the Midwest after the Chicago metropolitan area. Regarded as a major cultural center, Detroit is known for its contributions to music and as a repository for art, architecture and design.

Typewriter machine for writing in characters

A typewriter is a mechanical or electromechanical machine for writing characters similar to those produced by printer's movable type. Typically, a typewriter has an array of keys, and pressing one causes a different single character to be produced on the paper, by causing a ribbon with dried ink to be struck against the paper by a type element similar to the sorts used in movable type letterpress printing. Commonly, a separate type element corresponds to each key, but the mechanism may also use a single type element with a different portion of it used for each possible character. At the end of the nineteenth century, the term typewriter was also applied to a person who used a typing machine.

Automatic writing or psychography is a claimed psychic ability allowing a person to produce written words without consciously writing. The words purportedly arise from a subconscious, spiritual or supernatural source. Scientists and skeptics consider automatic writing to be the result of the ideomotor effect and even proponents of automatic writing admit it has been the source of innumerable cases of self-delusion. Automatic writing is not the same thing as free writing.

Awards

<i>School Library Journal</i> US monthly magazine

The School Library Journal is an American monthly magazine with articles and reviews for school librarians, media specialists, and public librarians who work with young people. Articles cover a wide variety of topics, with a focus on technology and multimedia. Reviews are included for preschool to 4th grade, grades 5 and up, and teens. Both fiction and non-fiction titles are reviewed, as are graphic novels, multimedia, and digital resources. Also included are reviews of professional reading for librarians and reference books.

<i>Booklist</i> magazine containing book reviews

Booklist is a publication of the American Library Association that provides critical reviews of books and audiovisual materials for all ages. Booklist’s primary audience consists of libraries, educators, and booksellers. The magazine is available to subscribers in print and online. Booklist is published 22 times per year, and reviews over 7,500 titles annually. The Booklist brand also offers a blog, various newsletters, and monthly webinars. The Booklist offices are located in the American Library Association headquarters in Chicago’s Gold Coast neighborhood.

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References

  1. School Library Journal; Dec 2005, Vol. 51 Issue 12, p42-51, 8p
  2. Booklist; 5/1/2006, Vol. 102 Issue 17, p49