Courting Danger and Other Stories

Courting Danger and Other Stories


Author	Dina Anastasio
Illustrator	Eric Velasquez
Publication date	1992
Published by	Bantam Books
ISBN	978-0553480702
Publication Order
Preceded by A Match of Wills	Followed by Dress Code Mess

Courting Danger and Other Stories is a title in the Ghostwriter book series, featuring Jamal, Lenni, Alex, Gaby and Tina.

Synopsis[]

The team solves four different mysteries in New York.

Summary[]

Photo Finish[]

Tina videotapes the Fort Greene Community Center Race that Alex is running in, while Gaby narrates. Tommy Choi is in the lead, with Alex behind him. Gaby continues, including telling about runners Katherine Brown and Henry Livingston, when she suddenly stops.

Tina asks what is wrong, and Gaby says that something is the matter with Alex. Her brother stumbles, then falls onto the track. She, Tina, the rest of the team, and other people go to see Alex. Tommy wins first place, mostly unnoticed. Alex says that he would have been the winner if he had not been tripped, but Tommy says for him to not be a sore loser.

Tina suddenly remembers about her camera, which she had left behind, and dashes toward the bench she had left both the camera and microphone on. Unfortunately, she had missed seeing a sign for wet paint. Tina also sees that the tape from the camera is missing.

She goes back to the team with the camera and microphone and informs them of the theft. They figure that the person who had tripped Alex had stolen the tape, and that they must have red paint on their fingers from the wet paint on the bench. Alex remembers that the person had been wearing a red shirt with the letters D and O, and that the letters had reminded him of a deer.

Ghostwriter finds three possible wordings for the t-shirts, and Tina discovers that two of the runners in the race have red paint on their hands. They go up to the winner’s circle and high-five the first, second, and third place winners, noticing that Tommy and Henry have red fingers. Jamal, Gaby, and Lenni state that they have figured out the thief, which is Henry.

Courting Danger[]

Lenni’ father, Max, takes the team to a New York Knicks game. Unfortunately, they discover from an usher that the tickets Max had gotten by mail are fake and are duplicates of actual ones, among half of the other tickets from other arrivals to the game. Jamal and Alex, as well as Ghostwriter, notice the messages on the scoreboard are odd, including some missing “R’s”.

Max tells the team that manager had stated that the people with the fake tickets to leave the stadium. They decide to try to catch the person behind the fake tickets and to meet at Jamal’s house later. The usher that had spoken to them earlier runs by them, nearly knocking Gaby down. A bit later, they leave the stadium.

Later, the team sees on television that the usher is one of the suspects behind the forged tickets, and find out that the man was in a hurry since he knew that the police was after him. They decide that the odd scoreboard is important, and that someone had put coded messages on it. They come up with “Danger, beware, police are watching”, and that the last message, which had a lot of extra R’s in it, has the place where the crooks are currently: “Meet at Moe’s Deli at 12:15”.

A Question of Time[]

The team is looking at a Stamps of Brooklyn exhibit at the Fort Greene post office. Lieutenant McQuade and Grandma Jenkins are also there. The team is confused by a Coney Island stamp that seems to be a general one, and Ghostwriter points out that it is missing the letter “S”. Jamal’s grandmother states that the mistake is what makes the stamp valuable, since only one hundred of those stamps were printed. The one in the exhibit is the only one left.

A woman that says she is Ms. Park from the Brooklyn Historical Society come in, asking to see the stamp. Manual Vega grudgingly opens the case and hands it to her. Suddenly, it falls out of her hand. She picks it up, and hands it back to Mr. Vega. The woman then quickly leaves the building to get on a train.

A bit later, the team is surprised by another woman named Ms. Park, and discover that the one before her had used a false name. They see that the valuable stamp had been stolen, and replaced by a common one with the letter S. Gaby goes to get Lieutenant McQuade.

The team looks at the train schedule that the fake Ms. Park had dropped, which Lenni had picked up after the woman had left. Jamal figures out the woman is still at the train station, since she had mistakenly thought that the train was leaving at three o’clock. Later, Lieutenant McQuade calls Jamal, and tells him that the person had been caught.

The Polar Bear Puzzle[]

Gaby excitedly tells Alex about an art contest for immigrants to America, where the winner would be shown on television. She wonders who had created the statue of a polar bear across the street from the bodega. They ask Mrs. Radchenko, who along with her husband owned a furniture store, and a man bamed Mr. Madoud, but they do not know who the artist is.

Both brother and sister want to quickly find out the identity of yhe artist, since the deadline is the next day. Jamal joins them, and Ghostwriter gives them the clue to look for the artist’s signature on the statue.

Later, Lenni and Tina join them outside the statue. The team thinks that Mrs. Radchenko and her husband could be the creators, since they come from Siberia. Using a pencil rubbing, they see that the signature is what they think are Egyptian hieroglyphics. Jamal states that Mr. Masoud, who is Egyptian, lives in the neighborhood.

The next morning, Lenni goes over to Jamal's house, and try to find out what the hieroglyphics from the statue mean. They only come up with two that looks Egyptian, and ask Ghostwriter for help. However, the ghost cannot read what is on the paper rubbing. Jamal figures out the rubbing is of pictures, not hieroglyphics.

Jamal calls a rally to the statue, and they meet with the rest of the team there. Jamal tells them that the pictures must be a rebus that tells the artist’s name. Gaby then figures out that the artist is Ivan Bowman, the new stockboy for the bodega, and that he cannot enter the contest since he is from Rhode Island.

After the story, Gaby had drawn a rebus for the reader to solve, as an aid to figure out the identity of the artist.