Tag Archive: mysteries


Review: Hold Fast by Blue Balliett

Filed under: Book Reviews, Elementary School — 1 Comment
March 7, 2013

hold fast

Hold Fast by Blue Balliett

Early lives in a warm and loving family.  Her father Dash is a lover of words and word games.  Her mother Sum and little brother Jubie make up the total of four in their family.  But when Dash gets involved in something shady, their loving family becomes three.  Then people raid their home, breaking down the door and they are forced to head to a shelter without knowing where Dash is or how he will find them again in the big city of Chicago.  Early finds she has to be the strong one as her mother begins to falter and her brother is so little.  Shelter life is difficult and it takes Early some time to realize that she is in the middle of a mystery that she can help solve. 

Balliett demonstrates her own love of words and wordplay throughout this novel.  Told in beautiful prose, she writes poetically about the city she loves, the beauty of snow, and the power of family.  She incorporates wordplay through her protagonist, who looks at words the way her father taught her to.  Many times words sound like what they are, points out Balliett, and just reading this book will have readers seeing words in a new way.

Balliett also introduces young readers to the poetry of Langston Hughes.  One of his books is at the heart of not only the mystery of the book but at the heart of the family.  As Hughes muses on dreams and their importance, both Early and the reader are able to see his words and understand them deeply. 

The aspect of the homeless shelter and the difficulties the family and Early face there is an important one.  Balliett is obviously making a point with her book, sometimes too obviously.  There are also some issues with plotting, with the book dragging at points and struggling to move forward.  That aside, the writing is stellar and the characters strong. 

Another fine offering from Balliett, get this one into the hands of her fans.  It will also be great choice for reading aloud in classrooms with its wordplay and strong African-American characters and family.  Appropriate for ages 9-12.

Reviewed from ARC received from Scholastic.

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Review: One Came Home by Amy Timberlake

Filed under: Book Reviews, Elementary School, Middle School
January 18, 2013

one came home

One Came Home by Amy Timberlake

Georgie knows that she is the reason her sister Agatha left.  When an unidentifiable body is found with her sister’s hair color and the dress her mother sewed, everyone assumes it is Agatha.  But Georgie refuses to accept that.  She sets off to find out what happened to her sister.  In 1871 in rural Placid, Wisconsin, Georgie is forced to ask her sister’s old beau Billy to give her a horse.  She has a gun that she is an expert at using and a destination in mind, where the body was found.  It doesn’t work out the way Georgie expects since Billy insists on joining her for the trip and gives her a mule rather than a horse to ride.  The two set off arguing all the way, traveling through the debris from the largest passenger pigeon nesting in history, finding wild adventures along the way. 

Written in a lyrical voice, the prose in this book is noteworthy and lovely.  Timberlake has radiantly recreated both the society and setting of the late 1800s.  Happily, she spends less time on clothes and societal niceties and much more on spirit and gumption.  Early in the book you can see her words at work, drawing a picture of the two sisters using imagery from nature around them:

Feathers flew up with each breaking bottle. Pigeon feathers that spring were like fallen leaves in the autumn-they were everywhere, in everything. But there’s a difference between feathers and leaves. Feathers claw their way back into the sky, whereas leaves, after flying once, are content to rest on the earth. Agatha? She was a feather. She pushed higher, farther always. I suspected my constitution was more leaf than feather. I hoped I was wrong about that, though, because I wanted to be like Agatha.

Georgie is a tremendous protagonist.  She’s a natural with a rifle, looks forward to taking over the family store in their small town.  She’s not interested in boys and is far more concerned with her own future with her sister than with anything else.  She speaks with confidence and very boldly, never keeping her opinions to herself for long.  At the same time, she is also the voice of the novel, and through that she herself looks at the world in a poetic way.

Beautiful with a strong heroine, this book is a dazzling read for tweens.  Appropriate for ages 9-12. 

Reviewed from copy received from Knopf Books for Young Readers.

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Review: The Great Cake Mystery by Alexander McCall Smith

Filed under: Book Reviews, Chapter Books, Elementary School — 1 Comment
July 25, 2012

great cake mystery

The Great Cake Mystery by Alexander McCall Smith, illustrations by Iain McIntosh

The author of The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series has written his first children’s book.  This one too stars Precious Ramotswe and is the story of her very first mystery as a child in Botswana.  When her father tells her a favorite story about when a lion got into their village, he notices that she has several characteristics of a detective: she asks a lot of questions and she can tell when people are telling the truth.  So when food starts disappearing at Precious’ school, she gets involved in solving the mystery.  She is shocked when one of her friends accuses another boy of being the thief because he has sticky fingers, literally.  It makes her even more determined to figure out exactly who is stealing the food. 

Told in very simple prose, sometimes a bit too simple, this story has a certain charm about it.  The book begins in a rather stilted way thanks to the wording, but quickly moves on to a more natural cadence that works much better.  I am pleased to see a mystery set in Africa with a young female protagonist who manages to solve the mystery without any adult help.  Smith captures the differences between societies as well as the special setting of Botswana.

McIntosh’s illustrations are block prints done in a limited color palette of red, black and gray.  They have a quality about them that speaks to the setting clearly.  They have a delicate and yet unfinished quality that is very appealing.

This book for young readers has plenty of mystery, detective work and an appealing heroine.  Appropriate for ages 6-9.

Reviewed from library copy.

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Review: Three Times Lucky by Sheila Turnage

Filed under: Book Reviews, Elementary School, Middle School
May 29, 2012

three times lucky

Three Times Lucky by Sheila Turnage

Mo LoBeau arrived in the small North Carolina town of Tupelo Landing as an infant riding on a hurricane wave.  She was discovered by the Colonel, a man also trapped in the storm who completely lost his memory.  Now at age 11, Mo helps the Colonel and Miss Lana run the café that is attached to their home.  It’s a quiet life, punctuated by the hope of her long-lost mother finding one of the bottles that Mo sends off upstream.  Then the law comes to town and things get interesting.  A murder was committed in a nearby town, then someone is murdered right in Tupelo Landing!  Mo and her best friend, Dale, form a detective agency and try to stay a step ahead of the police as they investigate the murder, try to clear Dale’s name, and worry that the Colonel may be mixed up in things too.  All Mo knows is that it is up to her to continue to trust the people she loves so fiercely and to prove their innocence. 

I must admit that I sighed a bit when I discovered that this was another book set in a small town in the south.  I knew that it would be filled with interesting small town characters, probably have a spunky heroine, and expected that it would be pretty formulaic as well.  It does have interesting small town characters, but also ones that resemble modern society.  As much as this is a story of a family that is created out of love alone, it is also the story of what a small town community can be.  Yes, Mo is spunky.  She is also smart, savvy and wonderfully inventive.  And while the story starts out in a familiar way, it quickly turns into a book that is a fun, fast-paced read.

The story is not as light-hearted as it might seem on the surface.  Dale lives with his mother in fear of his drunken father returning and beating him.  There are families that are divided in other ways, including money.  And without giving anything away, there are twists that are surprising in a children’s book.

Turnage’s writing is filled with humor.  She creates memorable characters, dancing quickly with stereotypes and then reaching beyond them to something that means much more.  She is not afraid of real danger in her book and she is also not shy about deep love.  It is a book about family, community, bravery and friendship. 

This is one to read on a slow summer day, preferably one threatening a nice fat thunderstorm.  Now if someone can just find me a real café like Miss Lana’s I’m all set.  Appropriate for ages 9-12.

Reviewed from ARC received from Dial Books.

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Review: Liar’s Moon by Elizabeth C. Bunce

Filed under: Book Reviews, Teen
November 8, 2011

liars moon

Liar’s Moon by Elizabeth C. Bunce

When Digger is arrested and thrown in jail, she isn’t that surprised.  She is a pickpocket after all.  But it is interesting that the men who grabbed her knew that she was a girl though she was dressed in men’s clothing and that they were looking just for her.  When she is put into prison, she is surprised to find that she’s been put in Lord Durrel Decath’s cell.  He has been accused of poisoning his wife.  This is the man who once saved her life, and so she sets to work with her thieving skills to set him free.  As she searches for answers, she is drawn into the high society of their besieged city.  The clues seem to lead to only more questions and new theories rather than answers in this politically charged, masterful mystery.

This second book after Star Crossed is just as elegantly plotted as the first.  Bunce excels at creating a world that is familiar to readers but also unusual and unique.  Throughout the book, magic is a theme.  But in this world, it is reviled rather than embraced.  Magic users are persecuted, imprisoned and even slaughtered.  This forms the backbone of the story, the society itself, and our protagonist.

Digger is an amazing female protagonist.  She is gutsy, strong, intelligent, and loyal.  She never seems to be afraid of action or danger, making the entire story a delight to read since it is always moving quickly forward.  The other characters are equally complex.  There are women who appear to be flighty and dim, yet are something else entirely when their pretense is dropped.  There are suspects who seem obvious but then melt away to innocence and others who are just the opposite.

This is a complex and intricate mystery set in a world that is equally compelling.  Get this into the hands of fans of Tamora Pierce who will discover another amazing female protagonist to enjoy.  Appropriate for ages 14-16.

Reviewed from ARC received from Scholastic.

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Review: Pie by Sarah Weeks

Filed under: Book Reviews, Elementary School — 1 Comment
October 7, 2011

pie

Pie by Sarah Weeks

When Alice’s Aunt Polly dies, the entire community of Ipswitch feels the loss.  Polly, the Pie Queen, left behind quite a void, one that had been filled by her pie shop and her incredible gift for baking pies.  Every resident had a favorite and with her death, they knew they would never taste them again.  But for Alice it is much worse, she has lost one of her dearest friends as well as the shop where she spent much of her time.  Her Aunt Polly left the recipe for her award-winning pie crust to Lardo, her ornery cat, and she left Lardo to Alice.  No one is really sure how someone can leave a recipe to a cat.  As the days pass, strange things start happening, but only Alice seems to notice.  She knows there is someone out there trying to get their hands on the recipe.  With her new friend, Charlie, Alice is determined to solve the mystery.

Weeks has written a book as light as meringue but that has plenty of depth as well.  The story is great fun to read.  It has the tang of a mystery combined with the sweetness of pie.   The pie recipes shared at the beginning of each chapter will have you drooling and determined to see if you could maybe be the next Blueberry Award winner.

Notice how that rhymes with Newbery Award winner?  Weeks has a lot of fun with her brief description of how the Blueberry Award is announced.  It closely resembles the Newbery Award process and had me giggling.  It’s a great insider joke to have in a children’s book.

Alice is a strong character, struggling with the loss of her aunt.  She is determined, creative and imaginative, singing little songs to herself all the time.   These are the things her aunt supported in her, but that her own mother doesn’t understand.  The family dynamic is an important piece of the entire book and is written with great honesty.

A delicious, fun read, this book of pie and mystery is a treat whether read with alamode or alone.  It’s an ideal book for classroom sharing as well, after all who doesn’t like pie?  Appropriate for ages 9-12.

Reviewed from ARC received from Scholastic Press.

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Blank Confession

Filed under: Book Reviews, Teen — 1 Comment
December 7, 2010

blankconfession

Blank Confession by Pete Hautman

This book begins with Shayne Blank entering a police department to confess a murder.   The question for readers is how this kid who is new to school got into the situation.  Mikey is a kid whose mouth always gets him into trouble.  Though he thinks he wants to blend in and be invisible at times, he dresses in secondhand suits that make him stick out from the regular high school crowd.  When Shayne seems interested in being his friend, Mikey has just ticked off his sister’s boyfriend, drug dealer Jon by dumping a bag in order not to be caught in a sweep of the school.  Jon now says that Mikey owes him $500 and that he will pay it back.  As the tension grows throughout the novel and the damage done by Jon and others gets more intense, readers will be caught in flashbacks looking for the trigger to the murder.  A riveting and tense story about truth, friendship and what one is capable of, this slim novel will hook many readers.

Hautman has written a novel with a structure that creates tension all on its own.  Add in some evil drug dealing teens, a mouthy unusual teen who tells the bulk of the book in his voice, and the natural vibe of the police department, and this is one pulse-pounding book.  Additionally, Hautman puts the characters in situations where murder is not only possible but likely.  This adds to the taut nature of the book even further.  The characters are interesting, especially Shayne who is very bright, very tough and a complete mystery.  Mikey is a character who would be easily unlikeable but because much of the book is shown through his perspective becomes understood at least by the reader. 

That said, the book is not perfect.  The ending was brilliant, twisting away from the twist I had expected to my great delight.  But the book should have ended a chapter earlier than it does.  It should have left us hanging a bit, figuring it out for ourselves.  With the final chapter added in, the mystery of Shayne is revealed and it is all a bit too neatly resolved.  I’d have much preferred the mysteries and questions to remain.

A book that teens will relate to and be unable to put down, this is a tense and thrilling ride from confession to deed.  Appropriate for ages 16-18.

Reviewed from copy received from Simon & Schuster.

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Lunch Lady and the Summer Camp Shakedown

Filed under: Book Reviews, Elementary School, Graphic Novels — 1 Comment
July 29, 2010

Lunch Lady and the Summer Camp Shakedown by Jarrett J. Krosoczka

A fourth book in the spectacularly funny Lunch Lady series, this book returns with the same formula of humor and action.  In this book, Lunch Lady is working at a summer camp that the Breakfast Bunch kids just happen to be attending.  This is not going to be the relaxing summer they all expected!  A swamp monster is on the loose at camp, coming out only at night.  Now Lunch Lady and the kids have to once again join forces to find out who is behind the attacks.

The puns here are just as funny as in all of the previous books.  They are guaranteed to have readers groaning and then sharing them aloud with friends.  The art is just as simple and fun too, sticking to the limited color palette that marks this clearly as a Lunch Lady book. 

A winning addition to a very popular series, every library should have this series for young graphic novel fans.  Appropriate for ages 7-10.

Reviewed from copy received from Knopf.

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The River

Filed under: Teen
March 29, 2010

The River by Mary Jane Beaufrand

Ronnie has moved from Portland to rural Oregon with her parents.  They now live at the end of a dead-end road and run an inn.  Ronnie is not happy at all to have moved to this very isolated area where she can hear the river running.  Ronnie has taken up running and people along her route time her run, including the local ranger and a family with lots of children.  Ronnie quickly learned to follow one of those children, because Karen was always up for an adventure.  But when she is on her run one day, Ronnie glimpses something along the river and discovers Karen’s body.  Now the sinister and gloomy feel of the area comes to fruition as Ronnie is obsessed with figuring out who would kill Karen and what Karen may have discovered in one of her adventures along the river.

Beautifully atmospheric, this novel excels at bringing the world of rural Oregon to life.  Filled with sensory information like the sounds of the river, the feel of the rain, and the small details of life at the inn, readers are surrounded by Ronnie’s world.  The book also does well in building tension through the slow storytelling in the beginning.  The details and the pace help build the eeriness of the novel.

However, the book does fall short despite the great writing.  Ronnie’s character is well-developed and interesting, but others around her are not as well defined.  Her foster brother Tomas is not even introduced in the first couple of chapters and suddenly appears.  When their relationship becomes more involved, it is done suddenly and with little build up which was jarring.  Additionally, the slow pace of the beginning of the novel turns into a rushing speed where the lovely details are forgotten and the mystery is solved far too quickly.

I would have loved this novel if the pacing was more consistent and the characters better defined.  But even with these shortcomings, the novel will be enjoyed by teen readers who will find a contemporary mystery set in an evocative place.  Appropriate for ages 14-16.

Reviewed from library copy.

Also reviewed by Words World and Wings, Katie’s Bookshelf, Sarah’s Random Musings, The Reading Zone, Wordbird, and Katie’s Book Blog.

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The Case of the Case of Mistaken Identity

Filed under: Book Reviews, Chapter Books, Teen — 1 Comment
November 23, 2009

The Case of the Case of Mistaken Identity by Mac Barnett, illustrated by Adam Rex

Steve was a great fan of the Bailey Brothers who star in a series of detective novels.  In fact, Steve considered their series and The Bailey Brothers’ Detective Handbook to be the best books ever.  But even though he had read their books through several times, Steve was very surprised when he went to the library to work on his report about early American needlework and was attacked!  Steve now had to recover a national treasure, evade secret-agent librarians, and clear his name of national treason.  Oh, and finish his report by Monday.

An amazing riff on and homage to classic detective series like the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew, this book is hilarious, exciting and just pure fun.  Barnett’s tone dances between tongue-in-cheek and sincerity with great ease.  Steve is a great protagonist, eagerly following the advice of the Bailey Brothers throughout his own adventure even though things rarely go as planned. 

Rex’s illustrations are vintage Hardy Boys, done in black and white with gray washes of shadow.  Just as with the novel itself, Rex plays with the format, making it modern but vintage at the same time. 

Highly recommended for all libraries, this book begs to be shared with others.  It would make a super read aloud for elementary school classes, because of its episodic nature and cliffhanging chapters.  Appropriate for ages 9-13.

Reviewed from copy received from publisher.

Also reviewed by Book Trends, TheHappyNappyBookseller, and Fuse #8.

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