Monthly Archives: December 2009

Down the Rabbit Hole by Peter Abrahams

Posted on by
Reply

Down the Rabbit HoleIngrid’s parents are always running late. Unlike most students, she doesn’t have a cell phone to check to see where they are. If she misses soccer practice, she’ll be benched for the next game, so she decides to run to practice. On her way to practice she gets turned around and ends up lost in the Flats, a neighborhood in her Echo Falls community. Cracked-Up Katie, a woman who has seen a lot of hard times, helps Ingrid out by inviting her into her home and calling her a cab. The next day, to her horror, Ingrid sees Cracked-Up Katie’s picture plastered across the front page of The Echo. Katherine Kovac was murdered! Ingrid, whose idol is Sherlock Holmes, launches her own investigation into Kate’s background to discover why someone would want to kill her. Will Kate’s killer feel that Ingrid is discovering too much?

The Convicts by Iain Lawrence

Posted on by
Reply

convictsTom Tim’s father, Captain Tim, has been taken to debtor’s prison in London because of the debt he owes to the calculating Mr. Goodfellow. His mother has been paralyzed with grief from the loss of his sister, Kitty, in a drowning accident years before and isn’t much help. It is up to Tom to find a way to pay the family’s debt. So Tom leaves home to find away to make things right for his family. Tom finds himself down by the river while contemplating what he should do next, he notices a blind man poking his cane in the mud to find coins. Tom decides to do the same and while walking barefoot in the mud finds a large diamond. The blindman laying claim to the area goes after Tom to get the treasure. Tom fights off the blindman and loses him on the streets. There he meets Worms who gives him a ride in exchange for some help with a job and a small payment. Worms is a grave robber and he needs help stealing a body. A body that turns out to be a dead ringer for Tom. In a rush to escape being caught at the grave, Tom leaves his coat with the diamond in the pocket. Events in the story escalate with Tom getting accused of murder and continually getting mistaken for someone called “Smasher”. Who is Smasher and why won’t anyone believe his story? How will he get out of this mess?

The Fairy-Tale Detectives by Michael Buckley

Posted on by
Reply

fairy-tale detectivesThe Fairy-Tale Detectives is the first book in a series about the Sisters Grimm. Sabrina and Daphne Grimm have been shuffled around from foster home to foster home and back and forth to an orphanage after their parents just disappeared. Ms. Smirt, their caseworker, delivers the girls to a woman claiming to be Grandma Grimm. Sabrina, the eldest, is skeptical that this woman is her grandmother because her father never talked about her. Daphne likes the kind but strange old woman who takes them to live with her, Mr. Canis (her assistant) and a Great Dane named Elvis. The town of Ferryport Landing isn’t like most towns and Grandma Grimm has lots of rules, secrets and locked rooms in her home, weird things happen around the house, and odd people keep visiting Relda Grimm. Grandma Grimm informs the girls that they are the descendants of the Brothers Grimm, the ones who wrote the fairy-tales and they are not tales but true incidents. Now Sabrina believes that the old woman is crazy and decides to run away from Ferryport Landing the first chance they get.

The Old Willis Place by Mary Downing Hahn

Posted on by
Reply

old willis placeDiana and Georgie watch from the shadows of the woods as the new caretaker, his daughter and dog move into the trailer on Oak Hill Manor. Diana knows that caretakers never stay long because the Old Willis Place, as Oak Hill Manor is more commonly known, is haunted. But Diana decides to make friends with Lissa Morrison, the caretaker’s daughter, even if means breaking all the rules.

Stormwitch by Susan Vaught

Posted on by
Reply

stormwitchRuba senses something wicked is coming to Pass Christian, Mississippi. Something that will take all her courage, strength and knowledge of magic to fight. After the death of her Grand-mere Ruba Cleo in a violent storm in Haiti, Ruba has left the world she knows and understands to live with her Grandmother Jones in Mississippi in 1969. Tensions between the blacks and whites in the small coastal town are high, and the fact that some of the “dangerous” whites in the town see Ruba as a “juju” girl intensifies emotions. Grandmother Jones has forbidden Ruba to use any of the old ways Grand-mere Ruba Cleo has taught her. Without using the magic that has been passed down to her from generations, how will Ruba fight the Stormwitch?

Seeing Redd by Frank Beddor

Posted on by
Reply

Seeing ReddAlyss of Wonderland has just regained the thrown from her evil Aunt Redd. Redd and the Cat escaped through the Heart Crystal but are now trapped within the crystal. Hatter Madigan is on a retreat. Homburg Molly, Alyss’s bodyguard, is off sulking after a reprimand. Alyss is even managing to find some time to spend with Dodge as she settles into the demands of running her queendom. And then it begins, brutal attacks on Alyss’s soldiers by Glass Eyes and phantom sightings have the Wonderlanders wondering, “Is she back?” Seeing Redd is book two of The Looking Glass Wars.

Code Orange by Caroline B. Cooney

Posted on by
Reply

code orangeMr. Lynch’s science research assignment on contagious diseases requires that students use at least four books.
“Books?” questions Mitty Blake. “Nobody uses books anymore. They’re useless, especially in science. Facts change too fast.” But Mr. Lynch wants students to use books for their report and not rely totally on the Internet. Mitty, a master procrastinator and slacker when in comes to school assignments, finds himself in a jam because he doesn’t have any books on smallpox and it’s the weekend and he’s at his family’s vacation home without access to book stores or libraries AND he has to show Mr. Lynch the books he’s using tomorrow. So Mitty decides to use some of the antique medical books his mom uses for her interior decorating business. When he opens Principles of Contagious Disease, printed in Boston in 1899, Mitty is skeptical that he will find any useful information. Within the book he finds an envelope and hand-written upon the envelope in fountain pen ink is the label “Scabs–VM epidemic, 1902, Boston”. Mitty opens the envelope, handles the some fragile scabs which crumble in his finger tips, and rubs his itchy nose. Has Mitty just infected himself with variola major, an airborn virus? Will he be the new Typhoid Mary of New York City? Code Orange will keep you turning pages to find out what will happen to Mitty, his parents, his friends and classmates and New York City.

Incantation by Alice Hoffman

Posted on by
Reply

incantationSixteen-year-old Estrella DeMadrigal writes, “I thought I knew the world. I thought I knew myself. I thought I knew my dearest friend. But I knew nothing at all.” Estrella’s life is changing. The fervor of the Spanish Inquistion has reached Encaleflora, her beautiful village in Aragon. Estrella witnesses the flames of persecution spark in the Plaza one day, as soldiers burn the books of an old Jewish man, and then beat him. Soon the evil flames are burning out of control; pitting neighbor against neighbor, bringing fear and deception to the once beautiful village. Amid this turmoil, Estrella discovers a dangerous secret.

Cover-up by John Feinstein

Posted on by
Reply

cover-upStevie Thomas and Susan Carol Robinson, teen journalists, get an opportunity of a life time to cover the Super Bowl in Indianapolis. Susan Carol will be covering the event for Kid Sports on USTV while Stevie recently fired by USTV will be covering the Super Bowl for the Washington Herald. This is the duo’s third adventure together. In Last Shot, they covered the Final Four and in Vanishing Act they covered the U.S. Open. Trouble seems to follow the pair wherever they go, and it isn’t any different at the Super Bowl. Susan Carol soon uncovers some information that will make national news and ruin careers. Information that certain people will do anything to keep out of the papers.

How Rude! by Alex J. Packer

Posted on by
Reply

how rudeThe official title of this humorous but helpful book by Alex J. Packer is How Rude! The Teenager’ Guide to Good Manners, Proper Behavior and Not Grossing People Out. Everything is covered in this book from how to be polite in daily life with your family and at school to how to be a gracious guest in a friend’s home. If you have ever had any questions about how to handle different types of situations from hygiene to what to wear to different types of occasions to dating, this book covers all these topics and more in a humorous, fun-to-read style. If you think good manners aren’t important any longer, Alex Packard offers a top ten list of “Why Good Manners Are Good for You” with quotes from teens sharing how good manners worked positively for them.