Cold Case by Julia Platt Leonard - OPTIONAL

Leonard, Julia Platt Cold Case, 281 pgs. Aladdin, 2011. Language - PG (3 swears, 0 "f"), Sexual Content - G; Violence - PG; Oz doesn't like his older brother being his boss, but when he has to get up at six in the morning to go into work Saturday morning, is no exception. That's when Oz stumbles upon a crime scene in the restaurant. Oz's older brother is suspected of the murder and is taken to jail, while Oz and Rusty work to solve the mystery--or at least give reasonable doubt--without being killed themselves. 

I enjoyed this murder mystery, but it went by too fast. There were so many things intertwined that it shouldn't have been solved so fast. Plus, when the murderer finally explained to Oz what happened, it was too much information to take in at once and became confusing. 

MS - OPTIONAL. Reviewer: CCH

Killer Genes by C T Furlong - ADVISABLE

Furlong, C T  Killer Genes, 188 p. Inside Pocket (Lerner), 2010.  $8.  Violence: PG.  The ARCTIC 6 have been separated for a vacation, but when danger rears its head in the form of a deadly virus that has targeted the world’s leaders, it is a case of being in the right place at the right time.  The gang soon reassembles and it is a race between good an evil – can they find the cure, escape and administer it before not only the American President dies, but many others?  Another absurd situation  for the ARCTIC 6, but you can’t help admiring their guts and their genius. EL, MS – ADVISABLE. Cindy, Library Teacher

Killer Strangelets by C T Furlong - ADVISABLE

Furlong, C T  Killer Strangelets, 206 p. Inside Pocket (Lerner), 2010.  $8.  Violence: PG.  Iago Johnsonm his sister and his friends are in a life-threatening race to save not only their father, but also the entire human race.  A crazy person has plans to use the CERN Particle Collider to create a reaction will annihilate the world.  And nothing will deviate her from her path – except for six determined young people who are MUCH smarter than every single adult around them.  

Fans of Alex Rider will probably enjoy the ARCTIC 6 adventures.  The action is non-stop and heart pounding.  The solutions are mind-boggling and you had better be ready to suspend your belief!  EL, MS – ADVISABLE. Cindy, Library Teacher

Theodore Boone: The Abduction by John Grisham - OPTIONAL

Grisham, John  Theodore Boone: The Abduction  217 pages Penguin, 2011.  $16.99  Language: G; Mature Content: G; Violence: G.  Theodore Boone is a thirteen year old boy, an only child whose parents are lawyers.  He has an interest in law that takes him to the local courthouse and involves him in a small case in town, but when his best friend is abducted he doesn’t sit around and wait for the local law department to figure it out.  When he takes matters into his own hands he relies on the help of his uncle and computer geek friend Chase.  

The novel ends well, and the character is likable, even though he is sometimes unbelievable.   This is a good clean boy book to add to your library. EL (4-6); MS-OPTIONAL.  Reviewer, C. Peterson.

Eddie: The Lost Youth of Edgar Allan Poe by Scott Gustafson - ADVISABLE

Gustafson, Scott  Eddie: The Lost Youth of Edgar Allan Poe.  Simon and Schuster, 2011. $15.99  Content: PG (the illustrations are a bit scary sometimes).  Eddie is an orphan that lives with the Allans.  He likes to write about dark mystical things and he has a friend that is a crow and a little imp named McCobber.  Eddie is blamed for trapping the neighbor’s rooster in a pillowcase with the Allan’s cat, so to prove his innocence he starts to follow a visiting magician.  He soon learns that the magician knew Eddie’s parents and is a family friend.  Eddie helps Mephisto the magician with his stage act and Mephisto helps Eddie get out of trouble with the Allans for the prank with the rooster.  

The illustrations are great and the story is a fun mystery that has mystical elements.  El (4-6); MS-ADVISABLE.  Reviewer, C. Peterson.

The Exquisite Corpse Adventure - OPTIONAL

The Exquisite Corpse Adventure: a Progressive Story Game Played By 20 Celebrated Authors and Illustrators, 276  p. National Children’s Book and Literary Alliance, 2011. Language: G (0 swears, 0 'f') Violence: G, Mature Content: G.  Twins Joe and Nancy leave the circus where they were raised to look for their missing parents who abandoned them as babies nearly eleven years earlier.  Accompanied by a guardian Pig, and encountering many friends, helpers and villains, Joe and Nancy go on the adventure of their lives to rescue their parents, find the parts to “the exquisite corpse” and battle alien invaders.  This book was originally published online in serial form by the  Library of Congress.  The authors contributed their stories one chapter at a time building on the previous chapter written by a different author.  Right from the beginning, it seemed the authors were trying to set up impossible situations for the following author to work through, forcing the story to get stranger and more disconnected with each succeeding chapter.  Lemony Snicket, in one of his chapters writes, “It’s as if your lives are being written, not by a single, beneficent author, but by a whole team of authors pushing the story every which way, the way an Exquisite Corpse is built from whatever scraps are found.”  Unfortunately, while this method of writing make a fun parlor game or language arts activity, it produces a story that is difficult to follow and not very fun to read. I found it silly, incoherent and disappointing.   MS  - OPTIONAL.  Lisa, Reading Teacher

Truth with a Capital T by Bethany Hegedus - ADVISABLE

Hegedus, Bethany  Truth with a Capital T, 258 pgs. Delacorte Press, 2011.  $16.99. Language- G Sexual Content-G; Violence-G; Discouraged about getting kicked out of the Gifted & Talented program, Maebelle goes to Tweedle, Georgia. She is surprised when her adopted northern cousin and his trumpet-playing ability will be staying with her, Gramps, and Grams. Trying to prove that she has some talent by baking a blue-ribbon recipe, she discovers a forbidden locked wing in her Grandparent's old house. Will she open it? Read Truth with a Capital T and find out! This book was hilarious and sweet. Maebelle learns an important lesson in the end of the book. Readers will have a great time reading such a cute story which is also jam-packed with mystery. EL-ADVISABLE. Student Reviewer: HF.    

  

The L.A. Dodger by David Kelly - OPTIONAL

Kelly, David A.  Ballpark Mysteries 3: The L.A. Dodger  105 pages  Random House, 2011. $4.99  Content: PG.  EARLY READER.  Mike and Kate fly to Los Angeles to see Kate’s father who scouts for the L.A. Dodgers.  While there Kate’s father is threatened that if he doesn’t quit his job that bad things will happen.  Kate and Mike keep their eyes open and see someone who is following Kate’s father as they are going to the different tourist sites.  Eventually Kate and Mike help catch the man and Kate’s father’s stolen possessions are returned and he is able to keep his job.   

This was a fun fast paced transitional reader and there are fun facts about baseball at the end of the story.  EL (3-6)-OPTIONAL.  Reviewer, C. Peterson.

Shelter by Harlan Coben - ADVISABLE

Coben, Harlan  Shelter (A Mickey Boltair novel), 304 pages  Penguin Young Reader’s Group, 2011.  $18.99  Content: Language PG-13 (9 swears); Mature Content: PG-13; Violence PG-13.  Mickey Bolitar is a 6’4” sophomore who is living with his uncle because his father recently died in a car accident and his mother’s way of coping is to do drugs.  On the first day of registration Mickey meets a new girl named Ashley and they become friends.  Three weeks into school Ashley mysteriously disappears and nobody can give Mickey a good enough answer to where she went, so he starts an investigation of his own.  Along the way he befriends a social outcast girl who becomes his best friend and a computer nerd named Spoon.  The clues these three friends find lead them to a strip club where they uncover an abusive and violent manager’s hold over his women employees.  This book was a fun mystery with characters that are enjoyable to follow and it is hard to put down.  This book has a few violent moments and although the strip club is all implied seedy behavior, I believe it should probably be kept in the high school setting.  HS-ADVISABLE.  Reviewer, C. Peterson.

Here Lies Linc by Delia Ray - OPTIONAL

Ray, Delia Here Lies Linc, 294 pages. Alfred A. Knopf, 2011. $16.99. Language: G; Mature Content: PG; Violence: G.  Lincoln Crenshaw has spent all of his life hanging around cemeteries. His mom’s work as a professor who specializes in burial customs has taken them to more graveyards than Linc can count. When an assignment in American Studies has Linc and his classmates “adopting graves”, Linc will find his choice of the Black Angel monument revealing more than he intended. Linc’s decision to investigate the infamous Black Angel Curse will lead to him uncovering mysteries long forgotten and changing the lives of those he cares for most.  The book is presented as a mystery, but spends little if any time exploring the secrets of the cemetery and its graves. Linc is a typical young boy with the typical anxieties of middle school regarding girls and fitting in. The book spends the majority of its pages setting up numerous plots that are resolved at lightning speed in a dissatisfying blur. The dialogue at times feels forced and the behavior of the character more the work of a middle-aged author trying to remember what it is to be a teenager rather than the true words and actions of a 12-year-old boy.  EL , MS—OPTIONAL. Reviewer: AB

Johnny Swanson by Eleanor Updale - ADVISABLE

Updale, Eleanor  Johnny Swanson, 382 p. David Fickling Books, 2010. $16.99 Language: G (0 swears, 0 'f') Violence: G, Mature Content: G. Johnny Swanson is desperate to make some money.  His paper route hardly pays enough to buy the weekly comics, but the rent his mother pays is being raised 3 shillings a week, and, in 1928, there aren’t that many jobs for an 11-year-old bullied little boy.  After being tricked himself, Johnny places advertisements in the newspaper to fool people into sending money to him for worthless advise.  One thing leads to another, and before long, Johnny turns amateur detective to help solve a murder and to get his mother out of terrible trouble.  I really enjoyed this historical mystery.  Johnny is a capable detective.  The bits of history – WWI information, post office rules and a TB scare add to the realistic feel of this well written detective story.  Look out Hardy Boys, Johnny Swanson is here!   EL, MS - ADVISABLE.  Lisa, Reading Teacher

The Mystery of the Missing Everything by Ben WInters - OPTIONAL

Winters, Ben H. The Mystery of the Missing Everything, 263 pgs. HarperCollins Children’s Books, 2011. Language – PG (13 swears, 0 “f”), Sexual Content – G; Violence – G; The school’s only trophy is missing and the principal is throwing a fit. All the extracurricular activities are cancelled, including the eighth graders special field trip. Bethesda is determined to solve the mystery, but the more she learns the more the case confuses her. Time went by so slowly in this book and I feel it took too many pages to solve the mystery. I was also disappointed by Bethesda’s detective skills, I didn’t like how she went about poking her nose in everything the wrong way. It made me frustrated and I didn’t want to read about her poor choices and be embarrassed with her. EL, MS – OPTIONAL. Reviewer: CCH

Trapped on the D.C. Train! by Ron Roy - ADVISABLE

Roy, Ron Capital Mysteries: Trapped on the D.C. Train!  87 pgs. Random House, 2011.  $4.99 Content-PG.  KC, the stepdaughter of the President of the United States, and her best friend Marshall are on a train traveling with the Vice President when the train loses power.  As the two kids go explore the train, they get separated from Secret Service and they are persued by kidnappers.  After hiding and avoiding the kidnappers they are nabbed, but eventually the Secret Service rescues them.  A fast paced transitional reader with fun characters and an exciting storyline.  EL (K-3) & EL-ADVISABLE.  Reviewer, C. Peterson.