Inside a crumbling mansion, a hidden stairway leads to a locked room that holds a message from the past. Best friends Joyce and Cynthia have always been fascinated by the huge Colonial with a pair of round windows resembling eyes. When Goliath the cat disappears inside the boarded-up house, the girls follow, uncovering the key to a very old secret.Readers who love the Nancy Drew adventures will cherish this tale of two teenage sleuths and their exciting investigation of a mystery that dates back to the Civil War. The first book in Augusta Huiell Seaman's sought-after series, The Boarded-Up House offers intriguing glimpses of American life from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. AGES: 11 to 14 AUTHOR: Augusta Huiell Seaman (1879 1950) graduated from New York City's Normal College (later Hunter College) in 1900. A resident of Island Beach, New Jersey, she held various local government offices including Borough Clerk, Tax Collector, and Borough Registrar. She wrote several children's mysteries and works of historical fiction.