In this third book in the series that began with The Indian in the Cupboard, the action picks up where The Return of the Indian left off. Patrick and Omri have to explain the aftermath of a burglary they thwarted with the help of the magic key, the cupboard that brings little plastic people to life, and the trunk that sends full-sized people back in time. And yet they have to keep all that magic a secret, or everything will be ruined.

They get over this first challenge, but things keep getting trickier. First Patrick's cousin Emma gets in on the secret. Then Mr. Johnson, Omri's school headmaster, realizes that Omri's prize-winning story is not fiction after all. And Patrick's mother is growing frantic about the disappearance of her son, who has gone back to the wild west to visit his cowboy friend, Boone. Only in a case of magical crossed signals, Boone gets sent back to our time (in miniature form) and gets critically injured along the way.

Aided by a miniature hospital Matron, Omri and Emma take care of the casualties of Little Bear's attempt to use "now-guns" on his Algonquin enemies, and nurse Boone back to health. But they have to make a costly deal with Emma's nasty twin sister Tamsin, who had better not find out about the little people from the past.

Meawhile, back in the Old West (this synopsis sounds more and more like a B-movie) Patrick himself has shrunk down to three inches tall, and with the help of a Texas tart named Ruby Lou he tries to take care of the body Boone left behind when his spirit went to the future.

Inevitably, all these risky games with history, and little people, and boys locked in trunks, and magical keys, become too much for Emma and Omri to keep secret. And just when everything looks like it's going to blow up in their face... it does, in a spectacular and unexpected way. But will this mean the end of the magic, once and for all? You might think so, in the end. But things obviously start happening again, since there are two more books in the series. To find out what happens next, read The Mystery of the Cupboard.

Like the earlier books in this series, The Secret of the Indian is an adventure that combines magic (toys coming to life), science fiction (people traveling in time), and an appealing yet realistic glimpse into the lessons that three children learn, on their way to becoming adults. It's both wonderful and terrible to have a secret like theirs-- wonderful to have magic in your life, and terrible to see what it can do when it gets out of hand, or could fall into the wrong hands. And as the friendship develops between Omri and Emma, and as Patrick learns from experience what it's like to be a pigmy in a land of giants, you will learn to care about them and thrill to the same wonders and terrors.

Robbie Fischer
Arizona USA

Recommended Age: 10+

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