NEW RELEASE: PRETTY LITTLE RUMORS

NEW RELEASE

PRETTY LITTLE RUMORS

     Sixteen-year-old Jen Wallace leads a double life at Springdale High. In secret she's the wildly popular advice columnist known as ASK AMY. But to the world she's just boring old Jen. Which wouldn't matter if Marc Adams didn't exist. Determined to make him notice her, she accepts a challenge to win a spot on the cheerleading squad. But how can she learn all the right moves when her ASK AMY identity is under attack? Someone is raiding the locked ASK AMY mailbox. They're blackmailing students who've written in for advice. 

     As Jen closes in on the blackmailer, she learns it’s a lot easier to dispense advice than to take it. Worse, Jen knows she's being set up for a fall. It's only a matter of time before her secret identity is exposed and her reputation is ruined. It will not only be goodbye to Mark, but to everyone and everything she cares about.

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BOOK REVIEW: SLEUTH OR DARE: PARTNERS IN CRIME

SLEUTH OR DARE: PARTNERS IN CRIME

Kim Harrington

Scholastic

2012

Available: Paperback, Kindle

Seventh grade best friends Darcy and Norah have a big class presentation in less than a week. They have to create a business to present to the class complete with a logo and everything. After a few rejected ideas, they come up with a great idea. A detective agency called PARTNERS IN CRIME. They take it a step further and instead of gluing things on a poster board like everyone else, they build a web page to showcase it like a real business. It's only been online for one day when someone emails them with a case. A missing person case. Even though they aren't a real detective agency they decided to try their luck cracking the mystery. After all, it's intriguing and gives them a chance to help someone in need. Plus, they think the anonymous client could be one of their schoolmates. They need more information and will have to discover that person's identity before they can even begin to locate the missing person. Once they start making headway on the case, it seems as though there is someone trying to stop their investigation. Has their sleuthing put them in danger?

This was a great middle grade mystery and I look forward to reading the next book in the series. Darcy and Norah's friendship is endearing because they are so different from one another and at the same time best friends. The mystery is good and it's solution unexpected. Nancy Drew would be proud of these two junior detectives.

Target audience: Grades 5-7

Mystery/ suspense: excellent
kid appeal: definate

         

BOOK REVIEW: EIGHT KEYS

Eight Keys - mystery book review

EIGHT KEYS

Suzanne LaFleur

Scholastic

2011

Available: Hard cover, paperback, Kindle & audio

Middle school is turning out to be the pits for Elise. She doesn't really fit in. She can't seem to get her work in on time. On top of this, she's been assigned to share a locker with a popular mean girl. Worse, her longtime best friend embarrasses her because he seems like he's still in grade school. She lives with her aunt and uncle because her parents died when she was too young too remember them. That doesn't bother her, because it's home and they love her. But then another aunt with a baby moves in, and everything changes at home, too. Elise receives a mysterious key left for her by her father. The key unlocks one of the eight doors upstairs in the barn behind the house.

The eight keys in the story each open a new door, each one revealing something new to Elise about herself and her family. This is not a traditional mystery for the reader, but it is one for Elise as she comes of age and learns to navigate middle school. It is a sweet story that girls would enjoy.

TARGET AUDIENCE: 5-6 grades

MYSTERY SUSPENCE: low key

KID APPEAL: girls

BOOK REVIEW: CORA FLASH AND THE DIAMOND OF MADAGASCAR

Cora Flash and the Diamond of Madagascar - mystery book review

Cora Flash and the Diamond of Madagascar

Tommy Davey

Thomas Brown

2012

This is the first book in the Cora Flash mystery series.

Eleven-year-old Cora Flash is on the train headed for Topaz Mountain to spend time with her uncle. Although it's an over night trip, she's travelling as an unaccompanied minor and feels perfectly safe. After all, what can happen on a train? Much like the traditional English cozy, she meets a full cast of characters, all traveling in the same direction. Being stuck on the train forces them to share meals and conversation. Then, a third of the way through the story comes the mysterious disappearance of the priceless Diamond of Madagascar. Each traveler becomes a suspect, but which one of them took the valuable gemstone? And how? More important, where is it now?

While I really like the idea a kid's cozy mystery, and kids will love the clever outcome of Cora's detective skills, I wish there could have been more kids and fewer adults in the story. Cora is the only real kid the reader gets to know. The story is set in modern times, but carries the flavor an older time period. Advanced readers will probably be charmed by the mystery.

TARGET AUDIENCE:  Grades 5-7

MYSTERY/SUSPENCE: Clever premise

KID APPEAL: Higher level readers

       

BOOK REVIEW: UNDERCOVER GIRL# 1: SECRETS

UNDERCOVER GIRL# 1: SECRETS

Undercover Cirl: Secrets - mystery book review

Christine Harris

Scholastic

2004

UNDERCOVER GIRL is total action, intrigue and fun.

   Although Jesse Sharpe is just a kid, she's also a secret agent for C2 a secret government agency.  In fact, she's been trained to be a spy all her life and has incredible special skills like martial arts. She's a genius and has all sorts of cool spy gadgets at her disposal. But she's never been in the real world outside C2. They've controlled her life forever because she's an orphan and the organization is her legal guardian. When the story starts, Jessie is getting her first  real mission and a chance to explore the world outside.  She's partnered with Liam, a grown-up man who isn't pleased to be stuck with a "thumb sucker." She has to prove herself as they take on a mission to save a girl from a kidnapping plot.

   The book is non-stop action, almost like a fast paced movie thriller. There's lots of intrigue both in her mission and about her own mysterious past. The more she learns, the more she suspects that maybe everything she thinks she knows, might not be what it seems. It was a fun and exciting read.

TARGET AUDIENCE: grades 6-8

MYSTERY/ SUSPENCE: Non stop

KID APPEAL: High

BOOK REVIEW: SAMMY KEYES AND THE SISTERS OF MERCY

SammyKeyes and the Sisters of Mercy - mystery book review

SAMMY KEYES AND THE SISTERS OF MERCY

Wendelelin Van Draanen

KNOPF

1999

Available: hardcopy, paperback, Kindle, audio

    This is the third book in the Sammy Keyes series.

    Instead of serving detention at her junior high, Samantha "Sammy" Keyes is putting in twenty hours of community service at St. Mary's church after school. It's almost fun until Father Mayhew's valuable ivory cross is missing. At first he suspects her and she's banished to the soup kitchen. She has to clear her name and fast. Then other things go missing and she's on the case with a whole bunch of suspects to choose from. The church's regular staff, a group of traveling gospel singing nuns, a homeless girl, and a carrot eating dog who devours everything in sight. What's really weird is that as she investigates she realizes that St. Mary's is a lot like junior high with its gossip, jealousies, secrets, and cliques. Things aren't perfect at school either. Her softball team is in the middle of the final playoffs. Someone has taken her catcher's mitt. It's the only thing she has of her fathers. Its theft is more than a little upsetting and threatens to affect her game.

    Although the mystery is a little predictable, it's fun. Full of quirky characters sure to keep a smile on any reader's face. You can't help cheering for Sammy as she battles tween angst and at the same time tracks down the thieves at both school and St Mary's.

TARGET AUDIENCE: grades 5-8

MYSTERY / SUSPENCE: a little predictable but still fun

KID APPEAL: girls will love it

LITTLE SECRETS: NO ACCIDENT

Little Secrets: No Accident - mystery book review

LITTLE SECRETS: NO ACCIDENT

Emily Blake

SCHOLASTIC

2008

Available: paperback, library binding, kindle, audio

   LITTLE SECRETS: NO ACCIDENT is the second in the series about three teen girls and two teen boys whose lives intersect. All five have secrets to hide. All five have secrets to uncover. All five are immersed in their own private dramas of self-discovery and private schemes. The story slips from character-to-character as their worlds seem to implode upon one another.

   All in all, the book is one big teen soap opera. It's got it all. Misplaced loyalties. Broken relationships. Back stabbing. Secret pasts. Revenge. Betrayals. Blackmail. Lies. Twisted friendships. Social climbing. Unrequited love. And more. True to the soap opera format, only some of the issues raised are resolved with a slew of new ominous threats lurking in the shadows for the next book in the series.

TARGET AUDIENCE: grades 7-9

MYSTERY / SUSPENCE: ever present

KID APPEAL: girls who like drama

BOOK REVIEW: THE CASE OF THE PECULIAR PINK FAN

The Case of the Peculiar Pink Fan - mystery book review

THE CASE OF THE PECULIAR PINK FAN

Nancy Springer

Philomel Books

2008

AVAILABLE: hard copy, paperback, Kindle & Nook

 FROM:

   THE CASE OF THE PECULIAR PINK FAN is the fourth book in the An Enola Holmes Mystery series.

   Fourteen-year-old Enola Holmes, the younger sister of the famous detective Sherlock Holmes, has runaway to pursue her own detective pursuits in London, England. Because it's 1889, Enola has taken extraordinary measures to maintain her independence from her overbearing brothers and society at large. As the mistress of disguise, she manages to fool the world as the indispensable assistant of "Dr. Ragostin, the Scientific Perditorian." Of course there is no Dr. Ragostin, but who would turn to a young girl for help if they knew that? While on another case Enola spots an old friend, Lady Cecily. The young girl notices Enola and frantically signals with a pink paper fan that she's in danger and in dire need of rescuing. But from what? Cecily is whisked away by her chaperones before Enola can learn more. After tracking a series of clues Enola discovers her old friend is being held prisoner and if not rescued soon, will be forced into a dreadful marriage.

   This is a delightful read and a stand-alone mystery in the series. It's full of clever language and unusual situations showcasing the outrageous exploits a most remarkable young girl. Less experienced readers may have a little difficulty getting into the story, but if someone read the first chapter to them they'd be hooked and finish it on their own.

TARGET AUDIENCE: Girls-- grades 7-9

MYSTERY / SUSPENSE: Full of stealth & disguises 

KID APPEAL: Advanced readers & Sherlock Holmes fans