The books we read this week were from the following categories:
Mystery books for Elementary, Middle School, & High School
Series
I'm going to share information about two mystery books (The Kidnappers: A Mystery by Willo Davis Roberts and Dead Girls Don't Write Letters by Gail Giles) and also give an overview of the A-List Series by Zoey Dean (which is actually a joint pseudonym for Cherie Bennett and Jeff Gottesfeld).
Roberts, W. D. (1998). The Kidnappers: A Mystery. New York, NY: Atheneum Books for Young Readers.
Many of the books I read this summer featured girls as the main character; this was a nice switch as all the key players were boys. Joey is kind of like the boy who cried wolf - always telling stories and/or embellishing what really happened when he gets in trouble. When he witnesses the school bully (who he is hiding from so he won't get beat up) being kidnapped, no one believes him (at least at first) when he tries to report the crime. This is a relatively short story, but there are lots of twists and turns as Joey tries to figure out what happened to Willie and who he can trust. Joey's frustration with not being believed is palpable and becomes really intense when he too is kidnapped.
Perfect for a middle school library. While the idea of a child being kidnapped is very serious and scary, the books focuses more on how Joey deals with trust issues and sleuthing skills than it does on the actual kidnap victim. There's a bit of a shift when Joey is kidnapped too, but again the focus is more on the boy's determination to get away than it is on their fear of being held captive. Given that there is so much reported in the news these days about missing kids, this would be a great way to start conversations about the issue in a safe setting so kids could ask questions, talk about fears, etc. without it being a "real life" (i.e. fear inducing) story.
Following are reviews from School Library Journal and Kirkus:
From School Library Journal
Grade 4-6?In a new twist on the old "The Boy Who Cried Wolf" story, 11-year-old Joey Bishop's well-deserved reputation as a liar and teller of tall tales gets in the way of helping to solve a crime. When Joey accidentally hits the class bully in the nose, he knows it's only a matter of time before Willie seeks revenge. Hiding outside of his expensive New York City private school after most of the chauffeurs have come and gone, Joey witnesses the abduction of his worst enemy. By the time he convinces others of the veracity of his story, he realizes that having seen the kidnapping is nearly as dangerous as being kidnapped. The fast-paced mystery unfolds with suspense and excitement, as Joey is nearly run down and then abducted himself. A double-crossing by an old friend and the making of a new one conclude this first-person narrative. Joey's frustrations with his schoolmates and family add humor to the mystery. While the subplots tend to dilute the tension, this remains a quick, satisfying read.?Connie Tyrrell Burns, Mahoney Middle School, South Portland, ME
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
THE KIDNAPPERS (reviewed on December 15, 1997)
An 11-year-old's reputation for wild stories comes back to haunt him when he's sole witness to a kidnapping but can't get anyone to take him seriously. After seeing classmate Willie Groves pulled into a car outside their exclusive private school, Joey beats his head against a wall of adult disbelief for hours; Ernie the chauffeur laughs it off, his family is skeptical, he gets a lecture about playing pranks from the 911 operator, and when he finally badgers his parents into calling the Groves, they reach a maid taking messages. Joey passes a restless night, his vivid imagination working overtime on what Willie must be going through. When police show up the next day, he's vindicated, but a new and more pressing worry intrudes after first a cab, and then the kidnap car nearly run him down. Roberts (Twisted Summer, 1996, etc.) cranks up the suspense, delivering several ingenious twists in the process; as it turns out, the crooks are hiding in Joey's apartment building, and after a surprise meeting in the elevator Joey finds himself locked up with an unharmed and bored Willie. Readers will feel Joey's fear and frustration keenly in this expertly done page-turner. (Fiction. 10-12)
Pub Date: March 1st, 1998
ISBN: 0-689-81394-5
Page count: 137pp
Publisher: Atheneum
Giles, G. (2003). Dead Girls Don't Write Letters. Brookfield, CT: Roaring Brook Press.
This is a psychological thriller of a book - it leaves you saying "what??". It's about a girl named Sunny (short for Sunflower) whose older sister Jazz (short for Jasmine) has recently died in an out-of town apartment fire. Or so we're led to believe until Sunny gets a letter in the mail from Jazz several months after her supposed death. A girl who looks like Jazz, talks like Jazz, but is NOT Jazz shows up at their house. Sunny sees through the rouse, but her parents play along and "accept" the returned-from-the-dead NuJazz (her story is that she was out of town doing summer theater when the fire broke out and contacted them as soon as she realized they thought she was dead). Sunny finds a journal in NuJazz's things and tracks down the real Jazz's former roomates' family. They warn her that NuJazz has assumed another girl's identity before and that she's probably dangerous. When confronted, NuJazz flees. Sunny chooses to live with her grandmother since her parents seem even more unstable due to the whole she's dead-now she's not dead-oh, yes, she really is dead Jazz scenario. Sunny's grandmother thinks that Sunny made up the whole story (there never was a NuJazz) and wrote NuJazz's journal herself, but she's still willing to help Sunny get set up in a new school......the biggest question comes in the last paragraph of the book when Sunny gets a letter in the mail and asks "what have I done?"
While middle school readers would be perfectly capable of reading this, it's creepy enough that I'd put it in the high school library. It's just weird enough to keep you wondering about it for days - probably not the type of distraction a younger student would do well with! At the high school level, readers would likely be more apt to seek out answers about psychological disorders than would younger readers.
Here are reviews from Kirkus and School Library Journal:
DEAD GIRLS DON’T WRITE LETTERS (reviewed on February 15, 2003)
A creepy psychological thriller offers a slick update to the parable of the returning prodigal. With her mother sunk deep in depressive lethargy, and her father indulging in alcoholic binges, 14-year-old Sunny has become the only functioning member of her family since the accidental death of her brilliant, beautiful older sister Jazz. Tossing a bombshell into this corrosive family circle is a letter from Jazz, announcing that the reports of her demise have been greatly exaggerated. But the Jazz who arrives is an imposter; or so Sunny insists, and her father grudgingly concedes, even though her mother accepts her with painful joy. But this Jazz seems to know too many intimate family details, and fit in far too well—or maybe that’s just what Sunny, so often outshone by her sister’s glamour, and the victim of her secret spite, wants to believe. Lies pile upon lies, and secrets upon secrets, in a twisty narrative that turns in on itself so often that the reader is left not knowing quite what is real. Giles (Shattering Glass, 2002) here shows the same acute psychological observation and masterful sense of pacing of her sensational debut, but without the same depth and subtlety. While Sunny is drawn with a sensitive hand, the rest of the characters are too over-the-top to be convincing, and the plot has the feel of a drawn out short story. Still, teen readers will love having their preconceptions continually turned topsy-turvy, and will endlessly debate the tale’s maddeningly ambiguous conclusion. Another winner. (Fiction. 12+)
Pub Date: March 1st, 2003
ISBN: 0-7613-1727-9
Page count: 144pp
Publisher: Roaring Brook
From School Library Journal
Grade 9 Up-Sunny's older sister has been presumed dead for several months when Sunny receives a letter from Jazz explaining that she was away working in a repertory theater when her apartment burned to the ground. Then Jazz, or Not-Jazz as Sunny calls her, returns home. Her mother has become addicted to sleeping pills and Dad has fallen back into the bottle since his daughter's "death." Sunny and her father soon realize that the young woman is indeed not Jazz, even though she knows a great deal about their family history and secrets. As Sunny investigates, she begins to discover who this imposter is and how she knows so much about their family. This novel is not of the same quality as Giles's Shattering Glass (Roaring Brook, 2002), and the ending is truly a bolt from the blue. Readers' reactions may range from shock to frustration to confusion to anger that they've invested time in this book. The plot is intriguing, but the ending is just too unclear.Lynn Evarts, Sauk Prairie High School, Prairie du Sac, WI
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Dean, Z. (2003). The A-List. New York, NY: Little, Brown.
Zoey Dean is actually a pen name for the husband wife writing team of Cherie Bennett and Jeff Gottesfeld. In addition to the A-List series (and it's sister series, the A-List Hollywood Royalty), they've also written the Gossip Girl Series, the Dawson's Creek series (based on the CW show), and many others. Both also write YA books under their real names. The A-List series chronicles the exploits of Anna, a wealthy teenager from New York who moves to Los Angeles during her senior year of high school, and all of the rich, Beverly Hills High kids she becomes friends with. The series is heavy on sex talk, sexual encounters, includes some drug use, and is filled with "bad" language.
Definitely for the high school reader due to mature content. Anna and her friends live in a world of privilege - big houses, nice cars, lots of designer clothes, private jets, exotic vacations, etc. But, at the heart of the story is human relationships that all people deal with - divorced parents, friends who stab you in the back and steal your boyfriend, death, substance abuse, trying to figure out who you are. Good summer reading, but not high literary quality.
Here are some reviews of the first book in the series from Kirkus and School Library Journal:
THE A-LIST (reviewed on August 1, 2003)
In this fast-paced but uninspired soap opera, 17-year-old Anna Cabot Percy, an elegant, self-contained New York upper-crust WASP, goes to Los Angeles to visit her distant father and cast off her good-girl image. On the plane she meets a handsome, charming, rich Princeton freshman who invites her to be his guest at a movie star’s opulent wedding. But what Anna doesn’t know is that his invitation stirs the ire of the most powerful (and indeed selfish, unhappy, and unpleasant) teens at the wedding, the so-called A-List girls, who aren’t about to let an interloper poach on their turf. As with the Gossip Girl books, adult readers will be struck by how alone these kids are—there is barely a caring adult in sight—while teens will get the thrill of seeing how the super-rich live, coupled with the heartening insight that money doesn’t guarantee happiness. (Fiction. YA)
Pub Date: Sept. 1st, 2003
ISBN: 0-316-73435-7
Page count: 228pp
Publisher: Little, Brown
From School Library Journal
Grade 9 Up-The sequel to the The A-List (Little, Brown, 2003) is a combination of Sex and the City and The Women, complete with backbiting, sabotage, gossip, and scheming set in La La land where overprivileged, poor-little-rich-girls endlessly indulge themselves. Though the issues and scenes are current, the book reads like fantasy as this much intrigue would wear out even the most devious, superficial girl-on-the-go. The one stable figure in this milieu is Anna Percy, an East-Coast transplant who ventures to California to change her good-girl image, but who finds that she doesn't have the stomach for the escapades of her peers. Trying to get over her powerful crush on Ben Birnbaum, a guy she views as all wrong for her, and attempting to settle with Adam, the good guy who just doesn't light her fire, Anna is caught between her heart, body, and mind. Dean's dialogue is flip and slick, and all of the characters have a rapid-fire wit that makes for page-turning, guilty pleasure. Girls on Film is a fast-clipped, juicy read that picks up where The A-List left off, and those who haven't read the first installment are quickly brought up to speed. Irresistible mind candy that teens will devour.
Tracy Karbel, Glenside Public Library District, Glendale Heights, IL
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Tracy Karbel, Glenside Public Library District, Glendale Heights, IL
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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