Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer, by John Grisham (Penguin Audio, 2010, read by Richard Thomas)
Both of Theodore Boone's parents are lawyers--his mother, a divorse attorney, his father, something to do with taxes, I think. His uncle has been disbarred but used to by an attorney, as well. Theodore is also a lawyer, of sorts. He sees kids pro bono and offers them info on matters such as home foreclosures and pets picked up by animal control.
When a murder trial is held in town, a friend comes to Theo with incriminating evidence that his cousin turned up. The problem is: the cousin is an illegal immigrant and afraid to tell the police what he knows. Can Theo keep the witness secret and still reveal the truth?
I don't know. Maybe he should ask his parents. Or his uncle. If he wants to ruin the book, that is!
In real life, yes. When in doubt, tell your parents. If your parents are idiots, find an adult who is not an idiot, and talk to them. Talk to two adults so that if one flakes out on you, you've covered your bases.
But in books...the kid should solve the problem on his own. I thought we'd established that in all the other kids books. Instead, Theo tells his uncle, who makes him tell his parents. This cuts through the tension a little too early in the book. However, Grisham is such a skilled storyteller that he can break this kidlit rule and still pull off an exciting and well-plotted mystery.
It is a courtroom thriller for kids, which I love. To Kill a Mockingbird is the only courtroom drama I can think of that, if not written for kids, has become a must-read for junior high or high school kids. (Must read because their teachers make them read it, but many of them end up loving the book.)
Loved the plot, loved the idea. However, there was something pretty big I didn't like about this book: Theo. He just didn't seem like a realistic 13 year old to me. His life and his comfort level in all situations seemed too perfect. Nobody has a perfect life, least of all a 13 year old.
Maybe your parents get along great and have good jobs that they love. Maybe you've come to terms with the fact that you are not athletic but are instead smart. Maybe classmates turn to you when they're in trouble. Okay, maybe Theo really does have a perfect life. What can you do? Don't hate him because he's perfect.
I guess I just like a little vulnerability in my characters. In the Echo Falls series, Ingrid is cute and good at soccer. She lives in a nice house with successful--and pretty nice--parents. But there is vulnerability. Her family is always under pressure to succeed. It makes them real.
Everybody has something. They don't make problem-free lives. It's like a jackalope. You can buy the postcard. But it doesn't really exist.
I had a nice life when I was 13. My parents loved each other. My brothers and I laughed together. I got good grades. I had a best friend. But I was still miserable. Because I was 13! Not to say every 13 year old has to be miserable, but I have a hard time believing they'd take everything as philosophically as Theo does.
I listened to the audio version and found myself responding aloud in certain parts.
Book: Theo's dad liked to give him suggestions for improving his golf game. Theo took them well.
Me: Of course he did.
Book: Theo never charged his classmates for his legal advice.
Me: Of course he didn't. Classic Theo.
To me, either Theo is too good to be true, or his life is too good to be true.
That's just a personal thing, though. Nancy Drew and The Hardy Boys are very popular, so lots of people must like invulnerable characters.
The verdict: More (less perfect) legal thrillers for kids, please.
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Behind the Curtain
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?
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?
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.
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Into the Dark
Into the Dark by Peter Abrahams (HarperCollins, 2008.)
In this, book three of the series, Ingrid is performing in the community theater's production of Hansel and Gretel. Meanwhile, her grandpa is arguing about his property with a guy from the Department of Conservation. (Grandpa is an environmentalist, but he believes the department to be meddlers.)
When Ingrid stumbles upon the conservationalist's dead body during a hike with her boyfriend Joey, all heck breaks loose. Grandpa is accused of the crime. He refuses to give himself an alibi, for reasons related to a doctor's appointment. Joey's father has instructed his son not to talk to Ingrid because of a conflict of interest (he is the detective working the case.) And soon, another bombshell is dropped on the family. Ingrid's dad is having an affair with Ingrid's friend's mom!
The story doesn't get all "poor Ingrid-y" though. Our heroine pushes forward and solves the crime on her own--without revealing grandpa's medical secret.
Love this series. Love. Was a little taken aback by the affair. I tried to think of the age at which I knew about affairs. I think it was fifth grade. That is probably the age this series is for (5th-8th.) (And kids are probably more socially savvy today than I was in the 80s.) It did make me think twice about loaning this book to my fourth grade niece. I would probably recommend the first two in the series instead. Not that I don't think she should read it (I would let my third grade son read it, if he could get over the female protagonist thing) but her not being my own child, well, you know.
As I read this, I realized how great Abrahams is at giving you a window on his characters. He never forces them on you. He lets you get to know them and make your own judgements. Ingrid's dad, for instance, has always been kind of a slick guy. Ingrid likes him. He's not my kind of person, probably because my dad is the opposite of him, but I do enjoy him as a character, and I can see why Ingrid adores him. He's always seemed like a standup guy, so the affair kind of floored me. Okay, so this is how real the characters are. Even one I don't particularly love, I feel utterly betrayed by him, for Ingrid's sake.
It reminds me of something my friend told me. He was a Hallmark illustrator. There, he had to draw characters who made an instant connection with the card buyer. They were posing for the camera, reaching out a hand to greet the buyer, asking the buyer to like them. When my friend switched to children's book illustrating, editors told him he had to learn to paint "candid shots" of his characters. They should be going about their business. The reader is looking in on them unbeknownst to them. Abrahams made me realize that writers have to do this, too. He does it just brilliantly.
Also, he briliantly draws one of the villains of this story in the likeness of the witch in Hansel and Gretel. How he does this without going over the top is beyond me. It should be over the top. I mean, the villain wears pointy boots, for Lord's sake. But it isn't. It feels real. Maybe this works because kids are open to the fact that some people are over-the-top evil. Grownups think bad guys need a psychiatrist. But kids know some people are just bad--by the book bad. That's how Ingrid sees this villain and it feels very real.
Interestingly, the part of Hansel and Gretel that Ingrid's mother remarks at the beginning always seemed unreal--that parents would leave their children to starve in the woods--is kind of explained here. It's not that Ingrid's parents want her to meet a witch in the woods. But Ingrid--because of her family falling apart--has to take matters into her own hands. Does that mean her parents are culpable for the danger that befalls her, or simply that we all have to do our part for our families--no matter our age? I think it's the latter. Incidentally, her dad comes to the rescue at the end--which I thought was an appropriate ending. After all, kids--no matter how smart or tough--need their parents--even when they're flawed.
In this, book three of the series, Ingrid is performing in the community theater's production of Hansel and Gretel. Meanwhile, her grandpa is arguing about his property with a guy from the Department of Conservation. (Grandpa is an environmentalist, but he believes the department to be meddlers.)
When Ingrid stumbles upon the conservationalist's dead body during a hike with her boyfriend Joey, all heck breaks loose. Grandpa is accused of the crime. He refuses to give himself an alibi, for reasons related to a doctor's appointment. Joey's father has instructed his son not to talk to Ingrid because of a conflict of interest (he is the detective working the case.) And soon, another bombshell is dropped on the family. Ingrid's dad is having an affair with Ingrid's friend's mom!
The story doesn't get all "poor Ingrid-y" though. Our heroine pushes forward and solves the crime on her own--without revealing grandpa's medical secret.
Love this series. Love. Was a little taken aback by the affair. I tried to think of the age at which I knew about affairs. I think it was fifth grade. That is probably the age this series is for (5th-8th.) (And kids are probably more socially savvy today than I was in the 80s.) It did make me think twice about loaning this book to my fourth grade niece. I would probably recommend the first two in the series instead. Not that I don't think she should read it (I would let my third grade son read it, if he could get over the female protagonist thing) but her not being my own child, well, you know.
As I read this, I realized how great Abrahams is at giving you a window on his characters. He never forces them on you. He lets you get to know them and make your own judgements. Ingrid's dad, for instance, has always been kind of a slick guy. Ingrid likes him. He's not my kind of person, probably because my dad is the opposite of him, but I do enjoy him as a character, and I can see why Ingrid adores him. He's always seemed like a standup guy, so the affair kind of floored me. Okay, so this is how real the characters are. Even one I don't particularly love, I feel utterly betrayed by him, for Ingrid's sake.
It reminds me of something my friend told me. He was a Hallmark illustrator. There, he had to draw characters who made an instant connection with the card buyer. They were posing for the camera, reaching out a hand to greet the buyer, asking the buyer to like them. When my friend switched to children's book illustrating, editors told him he had to learn to paint "candid shots" of his characters. They should be going about their business. The reader is looking in on them unbeknownst to them. Abrahams made me realize that writers have to do this, too. He does it just brilliantly.
Also, he briliantly draws one of the villains of this story in the likeness of the witch in Hansel and Gretel. How he does this without going over the top is beyond me. It should be over the top. I mean, the villain wears pointy boots, for Lord's sake. But it isn't. It feels real. Maybe this works because kids are open to the fact that some people are over-the-top evil. Grownups think bad guys need a psychiatrist. But kids know some people are just bad--by the book bad. That's how Ingrid sees this villain and it feels very real.
Interestingly, the part of Hansel and Gretel that Ingrid's mother remarks at the beginning always seemed unreal--that parents would leave their children to starve in the woods--is kind of explained here. It's not that Ingrid's parents want her to meet a witch in the woods. But Ingrid--because of her family falling apart--has to take matters into her own hands. Does that mean her parents are culpable for the danger that befalls her, or simply that we all have to do our part for our families--no matter our age? I think it's the latter. Incidentally, her dad comes to the rescue at the end--which I thought was an appropriate ending. After all, kids--no matter how smart or tough--need their parents--even when they're flawed.
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