A review by herbalmoon
The Mystery of the Cupboard by Lynne Reid Banks

4.0

This is a really good book, even with the characters of old missing. Learning how the cupboard and the key came to be was fascinating. After re-reading the first book, I also discovered that my childhood belief that it was a "small cupboard" (as the book said) was all wrong, and that it was more like a regular-sized medicine cabinet! (Surely no smaller than the one in my grandparents' bathroom.)

One big question that bothers me (and I see it's been carried over to the final book)...why the change to Little Bull? I know that Natives taking new names to mark significant moments in their lives means that the change could've been brought about by Little Bear becoming chief, but why wasn't that done all the way back in the second book, rather than arbitrarily popping up in the fourth?

That (seeming) error and one more made me suspicious that books four and five might be ghostwritten: fortunetelling was illegal in England (and Great Britain later on) until the year after

Spoiler

Jessie died

. As I suspected, fortunetelling was covered under witchcraft laws in their various forms until the final one was repealed in 1951. (more info) A woman who has lived in the UK all her life would not only know that, she'd probably use it to have

Spoiler

Jessie put in jail a few times, thereby proving Maria's belief that she was "wicked". Or she'd talk about Jessie having to hide her work from the authorities.

Either way, someone who knew what they were doing wouldn't casually write that their secondary protagonist made a living telling fortunes without any significant legal repercussions.