Everything happens in Bandit Creek, including a children’s story by Sherile Reilly.

Ten-year-old Sarah Crawford, aka Spunky, arrives in town with her mom. They rent a house which has a tenant in the basement apartment – a bitter old lady who does not approve of the way Spunky dresses or the way she practices her tap dancing in the laundry room. In fact, the old lady doesn’t even like Spunky’s name.

But Spunky has found a friend, Sammy Wong, and the two children like to ride their bikes along Lost Lake Road and play hide-and-seek in the big garage at the back of the property where Spunky’s mother parks her car.

There’s only room for the one car, because the rest of the garage is filled with junk.

And then the children discover a rope, attached to a ladder that drops from the ceiling. Who wouldn’t want to investigate? They climb the ladder, go through the big square hole . . . and discover the attic, a forgotten attic, filled with stacks of magazines and carefully wrapped boxes.

This story reminds me of the Beverly Cleary “Ramona” books. I used to read them at bedtime to my children. I hope Ms. Reilly will be writing more stories about Spunky and her adventures.