Mysteries of Trash and Treasure: The Secret Letters (Mysteries of Trash and Treasure Book 1) by Margaret Peterson Haddix

Alexandra Adlawan’s

Book Title & Alexandra's Review

Mysteries of Trash and Treasure: The Secret Letters (Mysteries of Trash and Treasure Book 1) by Margaret Peterson Haddix

5^th Grade and Up

Colin and Nevaeh, whose parents own rival junk-removal businesses, uncover mysteries hidden in attics and basements and discover how trash can become treasure.

When Colin finds a shoebox full of letters hidden in a stranger’s attic, he knows he’s supposed to throw them away. That’s his summer job, getting rid of junk. But Colin wants to rescue the letters and find out what happened to best friends Rosemary and Toby way back in the 1970s.
Meanwhile, Nevaeh also finds a mysterious letter inside an empty storage unit. But this one reads like a confession to a crime. And Nevaeh knows her father, the “Junk King,” expects her to join the rest of the family in blaming a single suspect: his business rival, Colin’s mom.
But that’s not what Nevaeh wants, either.
Even as one set of letters brings Colin and Nevaeh together, the one Nevaeh found threatens to tear them apart. Is their new friendship as doomed as Rosemary and Toby’s?

Now, this is a story that will spark your interest in history.

I love how Colin and Neveah bonded over the 1970s letters. After reading through Rosemary and Toby’s letters, Colin and Neveah start to feel like they know them. From the letters, they learn about social issues from the 1970s, like ‘women’s lib’ and the ERA, and TV shows like Charlie’s Angels and Happy Days.

Colin’s mother and Nevaeh’s father are business rivals who have their own beliefs about junk removal. Colin’s mother helps people declutter and organize, while Nevaeh’s father takes away people’s junk and resells it. I kept wondering why these two were so hostile towards each other. Where did all this hostility stem from? There must be more to it than just being business rivals.

I spent most of the book wondering how Rosemary and Toby’s letters and the letters found in the empty storage unit tie together. The big reveal of how everything was connected together was elaborate and dramatic. I felt like I needed one of those crime boards with the red string to see how everything linked together.

Thankfully, this isn’t a stand-alone story. There are many more to come. Each book in the Mysteries of Trash and Treasure series will examine a different time period in history and make readers think about how we value the stuff we hold on to and what makes it valuable.

I recommend this book to fans of historical fiction, Antiques Roadshow, and Storage Wars.