Behind the Curtain by Peter Abrahams (Laura Geringer Books, 2006.)
These Echo Falls mysteries are my Twilight Saga. My Girl with the Dragon Tatoo. My Harry Potter. When does the next one come out? When? When?
Granted this is the second of three. But I already read number three. Unlike Twilight, you really don't need to read these in order.
Ingrid suspects that her brother Ty is doing steroids to get strong for football. Through her sleuthing, she links the drug ring to her friend Stacy Rubino's rotten older brother Sean and the Kraken family, who are also rotten.
Meanwhile, her dad seems to have been replaced at work by Julia LeCaine. Julia becomes Ingrid's assistant soccer coach, and soon shows her colors as a bit of a psycho. Ingrid's dad is in hot water because Ingrid's grandfather refuses to sell his property to the Ferrand Group, which employs Ingrid's dad. As always Ingrid's math teacher is giving her a hard time.
When Ingrid is preparing to leave for a math fest that she's been forced into, she gets kidnapped. She escapes, but the problem is: nobody believes her! After all there was no ransom note, and Ingrid has no enemies. Or does she?
Ingrid assumes the kidnapping is related to steroids. The drug ring leaders must have sensed that she was onto them. Rather than telling her boyfriend Joey's father--town detective Officer Strade, lest her brother get popped, she investigates on her own.
The steroid case gets wrapped up in an exciting chase scene...then comes a surprise ending.
The verdict: Love this series. The plot strands are beautifully woven together, and it presents a realistic portrait of a junior high girl in Ingrid's situation (which is an upper-middle class family whose members are under a lot of pressure to achieve, achieve, achieve.) When will the next book come out? When? When? When?
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
The Crooked Man
The Crooked Man, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
A grumpy military man argues with his wife, and then winds up dead. The wife is in shock. Did she kill him.
Sherlock Holmes, seeing that the key with which they had locked themselves into their room, is gone, deduces that a third party was in the room. He discovers that the third party was the wife's long-lost love. He had been betrayed by her husband in battle. But he didn't kill the husband, either, he died of apoplexy--probably a heart attack or stroke in today's medical lingo.
Once again, I liked the retelling of the argument and the long lost love the best.
Verdict: I think that because Holmes' clues are so concrete, and mysteries so memorable, they're great for kids. Not that he needs anybody's endorsement. No, sir!
A grumpy military man argues with his wife, and then winds up dead. The wife is in shock. Did she kill him.
Sherlock Holmes, seeing that the key with which they had locked themselves into their room, is gone, deduces that a third party was in the room. He discovers that the third party was the wife's long-lost love. He had been betrayed by her husband in battle. But he didn't kill the husband, either, he died of apoplexy--probably a heart attack or stroke in today's medical lingo.
Once again, I liked the retelling of the argument and the long lost love the best.
Verdict: I think that because Holmes' clues are so concrete, and mysteries so memorable, they're great for kids. Not that he needs anybody's endorsement. No, sir!
The Red-Headed League
The Red-Headed League, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
This was the Sherlock Holmes story I red as a kid--it was in one of the big reading anthologies--issued by my school--that were hit or miss. Like so many things, I realize now that I read it without reading it. Spacing out as usual. Too bad they didn't have Ritalin when I was a kid!
Beginning a review with a personal anecdote...always professional.
A small business owner visits Sherlock Holmes and tells him an odd story: At the urging of his assistant, he answered an ad in a paper for a red-headed man. He was chosen, and was paid well to sit all day and copy entries from the encyclopedia. Then one day, the job--and the Red-Headed League--are gone without a trace.
Holmes realizes the assistant and the Red-Headed League man were in cahoots. They wanted to get the business owner out of his shop so that they could tunnel through to the bank, which had recently gotten a valuable shipment.
I love when there is a story within a story in Sherlock Holmes. More so than when he and Watson are chasing people or uncovering clues. Not sure why. I guess because the back stories have that air of a story that is supposed to be a secret. The kind where you think, "I can't believe you're telling me this," but say, "Go on. Go on."
Needless to say, Holmes and Watson catch the bad guys and remark that the business owner isn't the sharpest tool in the tunnel that his assistant was digging.
The verdict: How did Sir Arthur Conan Doyle come up with this stuff? Brilliant!
This was the Sherlock Holmes story I red as a kid--it was in one of the big reading anthologies--issued by my school--that were hit or miss. Like so many things, I realize now that I read it without reading it. Spacing out as usual. Too bad they didn't have Ritalin when I was a kid!
Beginning a review with a personal anecdote...always professional.
A small business owner visits Sherlock Holmes and tells him an odd story: At the urging of his assistant, he answered an ad in a paper for a red-headed man. He was chosen, and was paid well to sit all day and copy entries from the encyclopedia. Then one day, the job--and the Red-Headed League--are gone without a trace.
Holmes realizes the assistant and the Red-Headed League man were in cahoots. They wanted to get the business owner out of his shop so that they could tunnel through to the bank, which had recently gotten a valuable shipment.
I love when there is a story within a story in Sherlock Holmes. More so than when he and Watson are chasing people or uncovering clues. Not sure why. I guess because the back stories have that air of a story that is supposed to be a secret. The kind where you think, "I can't believe you're telling me this," but say, "Go on. Go on."
Needless to say, Holmes and Watson catch the bad guys and remark that the business owner isn't the sharpest tool in the tunnel that his assistant was digging.
The verdict: How did Sir Arthur Conan Doyle come up with this stuff? Brilliant!
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
The Dollhouse Murders
The Dollhouse Murders by Betty Ren Wright (Holiday House, 1983.)
Confession: I almost returned this book to the library unread. The cover on my copy(which has since been updated) was so dated and downright ugly, I assumed the book would be dated, too. It wasn't.
Granted, there weren't cell phones, or even answering machines when the book was set. Other than that, the book has aged beautifully. Meaning it's an old school mystery that a kid could pick up right now and love. (Versus new school mysteries, which I think tend to have more bells and whistles--puzzles! word games! cool first person narrators! That's fine and all. But there's something to be said for the kind of mystery you can retell to your kids in the car over and over until they're under the impression that it happened to your own family.)
Plus, this is the rare ghost story/true mystery combination. Our heroine is actively trying to solve a mystery, and ghosts are helping her. I love this kind of story. (In some ghost story/mysteries, the ghost story is the pulled pork sandwich; the mystery is the side of cole slaw if not the optional pickles.)
Um...anyway, the plot: Amy Treloar is charged with babysitting her sister, Louann, who has brain damage, every day. She loves Louann, but the constant babysitting is weighing on her. After fighting with her mom, she rides her bike to her grandparent's big old home. They passed decades ago, but her Aunt Clare has moved into the home to clean it up before it goes on the market. Seeing that Amy needs a break, Clare asks her to stay and keep her company for a while.
In the attic, there is a dollhouse that Amy thinks is beautiful--it's an exact replica of the family home--complete with a grandmother and grandpa doll, and one of Clare as a teenager and Amy's father as a little boy. (The two siblings were raised by their grandparents. However, Clare really hates the dollhouse--it reminds her of the bad relationship she had with her grandparents, who in hindsight had been trying to protect her from a dangerous boyfriend.
To Amy's shock, the dollhouse pieces appear to move on their own when Amy isn't watching. As she learns that her grandparents were murdered in the home, she realizes the dolls are trying to help her solve the crime. Unfortunately, Clare, who is a bit of a hothead, thinks Amy is reenacting the murder out of curiosity.
Finally, Clare understands that the house is haunted--probably by her grandmother. With the help of the dolls, Amy, Clare and Louann (who in the end also has to stay with Clare) solve the murder...in a really cool way.
The Verdict: Old School Mystery at its best/plus great ghost story/mystery combo.
Confession: I almost returned this book to the library unread. The cover on my copy(which has since been updated) was so dated and downright ugly, I assumed the book would be dated, too. It wasn't.
Granted, there weren't cell phones, or even answering machines when the book was set. Other than that, the book has aged beautifully. Meaning it's an old school mystery that a kid could pick up right now and love. (Versus new school mysteries, which I think tend to have more bells and whistles--puzzles! word games! cool first person narrators! That's fine and all. But there's something to be said for the kind of mystery you can retell to your kids in the car over and over until they're under the impression that it happened to your own family.)
Plus, this is the rare ghost story/true mystery combination. Our heroine is actively trying to solve a mystery, and ghosts are helping her. I love this kind of story. (In some ghost story/mysteries, the ghost story is the pulled pork sandwich; the mystery is the side of cole slaw if not the optional pickles.)
Um...anyway, the plot: Amy Treloar is charged with babysitting her sister, Louann, who has brain damage, every day. She loves Louann, but the constant babysitting is weighing on her. After fighting with her mom, she rides her bike to her grandparent's big old home. They passed decades ago, but her Aunt Clare has moved into the home to clean it up before it goes on the market. Seeing that Amy needs a break, Clare asks her to stay and keep her company for a while.
In the attic, there is a dollhouse that Amy thinks is beautiful--it's an exact replica of the family home--complete with a grandmother and grandpa doll, and one of Clare as a teenager and Amy's father as a little boy. (The two siblings were raised by their grandparents. However, Clare really hates the dollhouse--it reminds her of the bad relationship she had with her grandparents, who in hindsight had been trying to protect her from a dangerous boyfriend.
To Amy's shock, the dollhouse pieces appear to move on their own when Amy isn't watching. As she learns that her grandparents were murdered in the home, she realizes the dolls are trying to help her solve the crime. Unfortunately, Clare, who is a bit of a hothead, thinks Amy is reenacting the murder out of curiosity.
Finally, Clare understands that the house is haunted--probably by her grandmother. With the help of the dolls, Amy, Clare and Louann (who in the end also has to stay with Clare) solve the murder...in a really cool way.
The Verdict: Old School Mystery at its best/plus great ghost story/mystery combo.
Regarding the Fountain
Regarding the Fountain: A Tale, in Letters, of Liars and Leaks, by Kate Klise, illustrated by M. Sarah Klise (Avon, 1998.)
When Principal Walter Russ writes to Florence Waters asking for a bid to replace the leaky school drinking fountain, he gets more than he bargained for. Waters doesn't simply design drinking fountains. She creates works of art. She also involves Mr. Sam N's fifth grade class in the design process.
Suggestions range from making the water come out in a loop-the-loop to including a wading pool to offering options besides water, such as rootbeer and chocolate shake. To the surprise of Principal Russ, Waters appears to be considering their suggestions--and she hasn't even given a bid yet.
Meanwhile something fishy is going on between the school board president, Sally Mander, who owns a nearby swimming pool, and Dee Eel, the owner of the town's water company. The town's creek dried up a few years back, limiting the swimming options to Mander's pool, and requiring people to buy their water from Eel. At the same time, the middle school was built.
As Waters works with the fifth grade class (all through letters) to find a water source for the fountain, they uncover the truth about both the leaky drinking fountain and the dried up creek.
I'm sure you can put two and two together here. But here's a spoiler alert in case not. Mander and Eel diverted the water from the creek to suit their own interests, and the Spring is now bubbling up under the school. For kids who don't give much thought to water works, the mystery might take more time to solve. Otherwise, it's like a Columbo mystery. We know what's up; we just don't know how it will be uncovered, which is fine.
The way that it's written, with the letters and emails and drawings, it's a lot of fun to read. Plus, it begs the question: Why do the things kids use everyday--paper towel dispensers, drinking fountains, floors--have to be so boring? Maybe they don't! After all, in the end, the fountain includes a walrus, tree slide, swiming pool, and ice skating rink!
The verdict: Nice visual mystery.
When Principal Walter Russ writes to Florence Waters asking for a bid to replace the leaky school drinking fountain, he gets more than he bargained for. Waters doesn't simply design drinking fountains. She creates works of art. She also involves Mr. Sam N's fifth grade class in the design process.
Suggestions range from making the water come out in a loop-the-loop to including a wading pool to offering options besides water, such as rootbeer and chocolate shake. To the surprise of Principal Russ, Waters appears to be considering their suggestions--and she hasn't even given a bid yet.
Meanwhile something fishy is going on between the school board president, Sally Mander, who owns a nearby swimming pool, and Dee Eel, the owner of the town's water company. The town's creek dried up a few years back, limiting the swimming options to Mander's pool, and requiring people to buy their water from Eel. At the same time, the middle school was built.
As Waters works with the fifth grade class (all through letters) to find a water source for the fountain, they uncover the truth about both the leaky drinking fountain and the dried up creek.
I'm sure you can put two and two together here. But here's a spoiler alert in case not. Mander and Eel diverted the water from the creek to suit their own interests, and the Spring is now bubbling up under the school. For kids who don't give much thought to water works, the mystery might take more time to solve. Otherwise, it's like a Columbo mystery. We know what's up; we just don't know how it will be uncovered, which is fine.
The way that it's written, with the letters and emails and drawings, it's a lot of fun to read. Plus, it begs the question: Why do the things kids use everyday--paper towel dispensers, drinking fountains, floors--have to be so boring? Maybe they don't! After all, in the end, the fountain includes a walrus, tree slide, swiming pool, and ice skating rink!
The verdict: Nice visual mystery.
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