ALA Booklist (Tue Jul 01 00:00:00 CDT 2008)

Words and writing are an exciting part of the story in this Step into Reading book about Sara, who keeps a diary, writes a note, makes a list, draws a map, and chalks clues on the sidewalk as she plans a surprise for her friends. The surprise is for readers, too, as tension builds to the climax. "What is that key?" one kid asks. "Wait and see!" Sara answers. The casual, rhyming text has fun with the sound of words as well as their meaning, and the colorful, relaxed pictures, in thick line and watercolor, add to the celebration of reading and writing t as a duty, but as play.

Horn Book (Fri Aug 01 00:00:00 CDT 2008)

Juliet Bradshaw's brother, a guerrilla Confederate fighter, is the only family she has left. Incarcerated with other sisters and wives of soldiers, Juliet survives her prison building's collapse, which kills almost everyone. Rinaldi's impassioned characters will sustain readers' interest, though some of the portrayals are sanitized or overly sentimentalized. An author's note explains the real events on which the story is based. Bib.

Kirkus Reviews

The "mystery" of the key Sara finds on her doorstep plays itself out in this wan offering for young readers. Part of the venerable Step into Reading series, this tale has most of the earmarks of a book for new readers: generous font, understandable page breaks, rhyme and easily decoded words. What is missing is a readily comprehensible and engaging story. Sara writes in her journal off and on while also planning a surprise for her small group of friends. There's little explanation for the confluence of these two plot elements, and close readers will wonder why a key was needed for the "surprise" in the first place. Some unusual words, such as "scram" and "bandanna," have clearly been chosen to fit the phonics patterns, even when they sound stilted. Emergent readers deserve better than this incoherent and condescending tale. (Early reader. 4-7)