The Books: The Summer Sleigh Ride (Betty K. Erwin)

Daily Book Excerpt: YA books:

Next book on the shelf is The Summer Sleigh Ride by Betty K Erwin.

I loved this book when I was a kid and my love was something akin to mania. I had to constantly take it out of the library so I could read it yet again. There were illustrations, black scratchy drawings – and I found the whole thing magical. It’s long out of print but last fall I did a search on Amazon and found it at some used bookseller’s in Texas. I ordered it. When it arrived, it was the exact same edition of the book that I remembered as a kid. Not only that but this was a “discarded” library book, with the word DISCARD written across the main page.

Last time I had even seen the book I was 11 years old. I don’t even really remember what exactly it was that I loved so much but that doesn’t matter! Summer Sleigh Ride and Sheila are back together again!

Four young girls all somehow were whisked, via sleigh, into an alternate universe. A sort of Aldous Huxley-esque future universe. These 4 friends live in a small town, and in their normal girlhood experiences one year (carving pumpkins for Halloween, sitting on the roof of one of their houses star-watching, etc.) they start to get the feeling that someone is following them. They aren’t sure if it’s a game or if it’s real. Then one of them disappears, off the face of the earth, it seems. A huge search ensues. Everyone goes nuts. It’s a Natalee Holloway type situation. Only without the Dutch government.

The 3 friends left behind walk around the town, putting up posters, and then, winter comes – and one snowy night they somehow start speaking to a man driving a huge sleigh and he says he knows where Emilie is. If they’ll just get into the back of the sleigh and come with him, he’ll take them to her. Excited, they leap into the back of the sleigh. They’re 11 years old. Forgive them for their naivete. The book takes place in 1933. I loved books that took place in earlier times.

The sleigh ends up acting as some kind of time traveler because eventually they slip into an alternate universe: an exact replica of their old town but with all different people, and with one very eerie difference: There are no children in the town. The girls are treated like wild animals at the zoo, to be gawked at, stared at, feared. Are they real? What do we feed them? We’ve heard rumors of such creatures but now here they are!

Here’s an excerpt from the beginning half of the book, before they all are kidnapped.

From The Summer Sleigh Ride by Betty K Erwin.

The coal hole was behind the church; it was covered by a trapdoor which led into the cellar. Since the door was flat with the surrounding brick, very people knew it was there.

Emilie was last. When she got there the girls were holding the trap up for her. She swung down into the dark and Margaret let down the trapdoor. It was black as pitch.

“Now where did I leave that candle?” Belle was saying. She fumbled around on a shelf in the blackness. She found a candle and a match at last; there was a flare of light and then the welcome flame burned steadily.

“I left some candy, too, the last time I was here,” Belle said. “Where did I put them? A couple of bars at least.”

“The janitor probably ate them,” Margaret said. “He could live on the food you scatter behind you.”

“Here they are,” Belle said, “two good Hershey bars. Let’s divide them.”

There was a noise from above. The trapdoor opened and two legs appeared in the candlelight.

“Here you are,” a voice said. “I knew I’d catch up to you. I’ve got something to tell you.”

“Dick Stone,” Margaret said disgustedly, “why can’t you leave us alone? We don’t go following you around, for heaven’s sake!”

“Keep your hair on, Meg,” Dick said. “I’m trying to do you a good turn.”

“Good turn,” scoffed Belle, “why, you wouldn’t help your grandmother across the street!”

“All right,” he said. “you”ll see. I’ve come to warn you.”

“Warn us!” Polly said. “Don’t be silly. You’re trying to frighten us because we let your poor old raccoon go.”

“So it was you!” he said wisely. “No, that isn’t it. This time you’ve got to believe me. Listen –” And for once his pale bony face wore such a look of earnestness that, in spite of themselves, the girls were impressed.

“Listen,” he said, “you know when you were up in that tree back of Polly’s? There was a man watching you!”

“Pooh!” Emily said bravely. “I don’t believe you.”

“Who was he?” Belle asked.

“I’ve never seen him before,” Dick said. “He wasn’t like anyone I know. He was standing by the corner of the shed, watching and watching. It gave me the willies. Gosh! I wouldn’t like to be you! He was a funny-looking guy.”

“You’re just trying to frighten us, Dick Stone,” Margaret said.

“Cross my heart and hope to die,” he said soberly.

For a minute they believed him, and then Belle said, “You get out of here this minute. We’re not going to listen to you any more!”

“All right,” he said, “I’ll get. But I wouldn’t be surprised if he wasn’t hanging around out there now.”

“Pooh!” Polly said.

Dick went out the trapdoor and when it was safely shut the girls looked at each other, their eyes round and shiny in the candlelight.

“Well,” Emilie said, “what do you make of that?”

“Nothing,” Belle said. “I don’t believe it.”

“At this rate,” Margaret said, “what with being followed all over the place we won’t have to look for a new game.”

“What if he is out there?” Polly asked.

“You wanted adventure,” Belle said. “This is it.”

The curfew began to ring. Even underground, they heard it.

“C’mon,” Margaret said, “we’ll walk Emilie partway home and then run back. Are you afraid?”

“Of course not,” Polly said. “Let’s pretend someone is following us. It’ll be fun.”

Belle blew out the candle, and, like a thrifty housewife, put the candle end away. She put the Hershey bars away too. The girls had forgotten them and they would come in handy another time.

Once outside they drew together and clasped hands. For a moment, all common sense was lost and they felt eyes staring at them from every tree. “Goodness,” Emilie said. “I think our old games were nicer.”

“You wait,” Margaret said. “This is going to be fun. It may lead to anything!”

Long afterward, looking back, they agreed that this night, with the warning they had laughed at, was the first thing. They counted them up — four things all together, before the adventure.

All unwittingly, they had found a new game. Or a new game had found them.