Genre: Mystery

Monsters Don’t Scuba Dive

Howie, Melody, Eddie, and Liza are spending their vacation at Camp Lone Wolf. The kids think that Mr. Jenkins is a werewolf because he is so hairy and he’s super strict. Then, when the kids get to camp, Mr. Jenkins introduces Nessie McFarland, who is going to teach the kids how to snorkel. Nessie loves being in the water and is nervous when she’s on land. Because of her shy demeanor and her strange looks, the kids are convinced that Nessie is the Loch Ness Monster. Will the kids be able to prove that Nessie is a monster?

 Monsters Don’t Scuba Dive will entertain mystery-loving readers. Even though the kids think Nessie is a monster, she is never portrayed in a scary or negative manner. For instance, when the kids fall out of a raft, the monster helps them make it back to shore safely. The fast-paced story never fully reveals whether or not Nessie is a monster. Instead, it leaves enough doubt that readers can make the decision on their own. Throughout the book, the Bailey School kids are reminded that every plant and animal deserves to live out its life in peace, including monsters.

Howie, Melody, Eddie, and Liza are relatable characters who work together to solve the mystery. However, the kids sometimes make bratty remarks to each other. For example, Howie shows his friends a book about monsters and Eddie says, “You have monsters in your head if you think I’m going to read a book on my vacation.” In addition, when the camp counselor is talking, Eddie often whispers complaints to his friends.

Monsters Don’t Scuba Dive allows young readers to wonder if monsters really exist without giving them the heebie-jeebies. The Bailey School Kids Series is perfect for emerging readers who are ready for chapter books because it has easy vocabulary, short chapters, and illustrations. The large, black-and-white illustrations focus on the characters and appear every 2 to 3 pages. The illustrations will help readers understand the plot and visualize the characters. However, Mr. Jenkins is a little bit creepy because he is so hairy and his smile shows all of his teeth, including his eyeteeth that “look like fangs.”

While parents might not like all of the kids’ behavior, Monsters Don’t Scuba Dive will entertain readers and make them excited about reading. Readers who want more monster action should check out the Desmond Cole Ghost Patrol Series by Andres Miedoso and the Notebook of Doom Series by Troy Cummings.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • None

 Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • When the camp counselor tells the kids they will learn how to swim, Eddie says, “But this is our vacation. We shouldn’t have to learn a doggone thing!”
  • Eddie calls his friends names such as monster breath, water brains, and octopus brain.

Supernatural

  • None

 Spiritual Content

  • None

The Disappearance of Sloane Sullivan

 No one wants me to tell you about the disappearance of Sloane Sullivan.

Not the lawyers or the cops. Not her friends or family. Not even the boy who loved her more than anyone. And most certainly not the United States Marshals Service. You know, the people who run the witness protection program? Yeah, those folks definitely don’t want me talking to you.

But I don’t care. I have to tell someone.

If I don’t, you’ll never know how completely wrong things can go. How a single decision can change everything. How, when it really comes down to it, you can’t trust anyone. Not even yourself. You have to understand, so it won’t happen to you next. Because you never know when the person sitting next to you isn’t who they claim to be…and because there are worse things than disappearing.

This story begins with Sloane once again changing her name and going to a new school. While Sloane is quickly brought into a group of friends, none of the characters are likable. By the end of the story, readers will wonder why Sloane let any of these people into her life. Each character is so full of secrets that it is difficult to distinguish the truth from rumors. While Sloane’s lies are understandable, the rest of the characters come off as self-centered, manipulating liars.

Sloane tells her own story, which allows the reader to understand her motivations. In addition to her thoughts, Sloane often has flashbacks. Readers will empathize with Sloane, who constantly has to move in order to keep safe. Her only stability is Marc, who is posing as a federal Marshal. Marc has taught Sloane the importance of being aware of her surroundings as well as how to protect herself. Despite this, Sloane makes so many mistakes that it’s amazing she is still alive.

While The Disappearance of Sloane Sullivan has a unique premise and suspenseful moments, by the end, none of the characters can be trusted. The complicated ending is not believable, and even Marc, Sloane’s protector, turns out to be a bit of a creep. At 400 pages, some of the high school drama and Sloane’s inner struggles could have been cut out. If you’re looking for a suspenseful mystery romance, some better options would be Six Months Later by Natalie D. Richards and Crossing the Line by Simone Elkeles.

Sexual Content

  • While talking about the senior trip, someone says, “I heard the chaperones go to bed early and everyone sneaks out and hooks up.”
  • When Sloane was a freshman, she skipped school to hang out with Ben, a senior. “Ben gave a throaty laugh as he pushed my brown hair off my shoulders and kissed the side of my neck. My heart jumped in my chest.” When Marc finds them, Ben “leaned in and kissed me right on the mouth, all the while glaring at Mar . . I’d done my fair share of imagining my first kiss, even the possibility it might happen with Ben, but I never thought it would happen just to taunt Mark.”
  • When Sloane enters a new school, she sees some students “making out in front of classrooms.”
  • Sloane thinks back to a time when she had a boyfriend named Duke. “He leaned in and kissed me. It was slow and sweet and steady, just like him.”
  • Sloane’s friend, Livie, is upset that her boyfriend broke up with her. Livie says, “But we were together for almost two months. We made out tons of times. . . That counts for something, right?”
  • According to rumors, Jason has “slept with half the girls in the school.”
  • Jason said he left a party because “I found my date making out with him [the host] in his bedroom?” Another time, he agreed to go to a party with Lauren, but “when I got there, she and her friends were already drunk. . . she kept trying to take me to her room so we could be ‘alone.’ She said she wanted to ring in the new year by doing something special and she wanted me to be her first.”
  • When a girl disappears, some people say that she’s “hooking up with a guy and she’s “holed up in a motel room somewhere.”
  • Even though Sawyer knew Sloane didn’t like him, he kissed her.
  • While on the senior trip, Livie implies she’s going to a boy’s room to have sex. Livie says she can ask the guy if “he has any lonely friends.” Sloane tells her, “I don’t want some random trip hookup, Livie.”
  • Sawyer and Livie “slept together.”
  • Once Jason knows who Sloane really is, they kiss. Sloane “grabbed a fistful of his shirt, pulling him the rest of the way to me. . . So when I finally pulled away from him, breathless and dizzy from the amazing softness of his lips and the feeling of his hands against my skin. . .” After this, they kiss several times, but the kisses aren’t described.
  • After months, Jason and Sloane are reunited. “And then Jason is kissing me. His kisses are urgent at first, insistent like he’s trying to erase the last eight months. Then they slowly turn soft and sweet and gentle. . .”

Violence

  • Sloane was told her father committed suicide, but later she finds out he was murdered. The death is not described.
  • When a boy gives Sloane an unwanted kiss, she “yanked my knee up as hard as I could until it landed between Ben’s legs. He groaned and doubled over, and I shoved him with both hands. . . I watched him hit the ground.”
  • Sloane has a series of flashbacks. She saw two men kill a man. “The older man slumped against the warehouse at their feet. His blond curly hair was matted with blood and his face was swollen and bruised.” The flashback is described over two pages.
  • While at a birthday party, the girl’s father walks behind Sloane and scares her. “Without thinking, I crouched down and swung my leg around in an arc just like Mark taught, sweeping a man’s legs out from under him. He crashed onto his back with a loud oof . . .”
  • Sawyer gets angry at Jason. “Sawyer planted his hands on Jason’s chest and shoved with all his drunken might. Jason stumbled backward, but caught himself before he fell.” Sloane gets between them and stops the fight.
  • Sawyer taunts Jason and Sloane “grabbed Sawyer’s wrist with my right hand, pulled his arm across my chest, and flipped him over my shoulder in one impossibly fast movement. He hit the ground with a loud smack. . . Then he lunged at me. Faster than I could react, Jason jumped in front of Sawyer and punched him so hard his teeth clicked together as his head snapped back. . . He was out cold.”
  • When the “bad guy” shows up at Sloane’s school, she runs home only to find a man’s body. The man’s eyes “were dull and empty and I couldn’t look at them.”
  • Marc’s family is full of gangsters. He says, “For my tenth birthday, my uncle Gino taught me the best places to cut a person so it would hurt like hell but they wouldn’t bleed out before they confessed.”
  • A rival gangster, Reuben, killed Marc’s little sister. Reuben “told us where we could find her body. He even mocked the way she’d begged for her life.”
  • When Marc threatens Jason with a gun, Sloane “shot him.”

 Drugs and Alcohol

  • While talking about the senior trip, someone tells Sloane, “people smuggle alcohol along and party in their hotel rooms.”
  • In the past, Sawyer got drunk and “got pissed someone beat [him] at cards and punched a hole in the drywall in [his] basement.”
  • While at a party a girl is drugged. The doctors “think someone must’ve slipped something in her drink. . . No injuries or evidence of sexual assault or anything.”
  • At prom, Sawyer gets so drunk that he can’t stand up.

Language

  • Profanity is used frequently. Profanity includes ass, crap, damn, hell, holy hell, pissed, and shit. For example, a boy tells Sloane, “You’re getting ready to tell me we shouldn’t be friends, right? That you don’t want to be dragged into all of my crap.”
  • Christ, Jesus, oh Lord, God, and good God are used as exclamations occasionally. For example, when someone makes a sexual innuendo, Sloane says, “Oh my God! You did not just turn Harry Potter into something dirty.”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • Occasionally, Sloane prays for something. For example, when Sloane sees someone from her past, she prays that her brown eyes “would be enough to throw him off.”
  • When Sloane and her friends sneak out of school, they go to a carousel. When the cops show up, Sloane introduces everyone. Sloane “prayed, prayed, he didn’t know the characters’ names from The Goonies.”

 

Charlie Thorne and the Last Equation

Decades ago, Albert Einstein devised an equation that could benefit all life on earth—or destroy it. Fearing what would happen if the equation fell into the wrong hands, he hid it away.

But now, a diabolical group known as the Furies are closing in on its location. In desperation, a team of CIA agents drags Charlie into the hunt, needing her brilliance to find it first—even though this means placing her life in grave danger.

In this adventure that spans the globe, Charlie must crack a complex code created by Einstein himself, survive in a world where no one can be trusted, and fight to keep the last equation safe once and for all.

Charlie Thorne and the Last Equation starts with an epic chase scene and continues the fast-paced adventure until the very end. The story is told from Charlie’s point of view, which makes her relatable despite the fact that she is a genius. Even though she is intelligent, Charlie doesn’t always know what to do. But when it comes to difficult situations, Charlie can visualize numbers in her head, which allows her to solve complicated problems. This talent comes in handy when she uses a cipher to reveal Einstein’s message.

Charlie wants to keep Einstein’s equation out of the hands of terrorists and hostile governments, but she’s not sure the U.S. government can be trusted. Charlie is cynical when it comes to the U.S. government. She says, “America’s priorities are pretty darn clear: The first thing we do with any major discovery is try to kill people with it.”

Charlie Thorne and the Last Equation deals with some mature topics including religious extremism, death, and Charlie’s complicated family life. The intense fight scenes, life-or-death chases, and the death of several characters may upset sensitive readers. In addition, the complicated plot is best suited for strong readers. However, readers who are ready for more mature content will have a hard time putting the book down because of the action and mystery.

Charlie’s journey takes readers on a suspenseful trip that will keep readers guessing until the very end. Charlie Thorne and the Last Equation will entertain mystery fans. At the end of Charlie’s adventure, she realizes that “all the talent in the world doesn’t mean a thing if you squander it.” The conclusion wraps up all of the story threads and also leaves readers wanting to know what will happen next. Readers will be eager to pick up the next book in the series, Charlie Thorne and the Lost City.

Sexual Content

  • Charlie teases her brother Dante, saying, “Jeez, you might know a whole lot about terrorist cells, but you don’t know much about women. That was a full-on ‘I wish Dante would say to heck with the regulations and just kiss me’ look.”
  • Dante tells Charlie to go to bed, but she will have to share the bed with his partner agent Milana. Charlie says, “You’re sure you wouldn’t rather be in there with her? You could do a little smooching before bed.”

 Violence

  • At Einstein’s request, his friend Ernst began burning Einstein’s papers. Ernst “continued feverishly stroking the flames, even as he heard the men break down the front door and shove Helen aside, even as they burst into the room and pulled their guns and screamed at him to stop, right up until their leaders clubbed him from behind, crumpling him to the floor.”
  • Charlie wants to steal the pool guy’s truck. When he refuses to give her the key, Charlie “lashed out a leg and swept the pool guy’s legs out from under him. . . He slipped and landed flat on his back.” Charlie shoves the guy into the hot tub and then takes off.
  • The KGB captures an American spy, who “cowardly offered secrets in return for his life. The old man and his fellow agents listened as the American spilled his guts—and then they killed him anyhow.”
  • The narration states, “The world’s most infamous serial killers had all been unimpressive losers who had been unsuccessful at just about everything except murdering helpless people.”
  • A terrorist steals one of Einstein’s books. When “the young archivist instinctively moved to protect it. . . he [Marko] punched the archivist in the face, then drilled a fist into his stomach as he reeled backwards. The archivist went down, whacking his head on a table. . .”
  • Charlie tries to get Einstein’s book back. She grabs a skateboard and jumped on a railing. “Then she rode down quickly grinding along the rail, bearing down on Marko . . Charlie bounced off the railing, hitting Marko with the full force of her body. The two of them tumbled across the asphalt.”
  • When Marko recovers, he “lowered his shoulder and rammed into her [Charlie]. . .He knocked the wind out of her while sending her falling backward into the trunk of a parked car. The trunk caught her. . . sending a lightning bolt of pain up her spine.”
  • Marko tries to escape Charlie but she uses the skateboard to trip him. “He flew forward, the rage on his face now giving way to surprise. . . Marko plowed headfirst into a lamppost, hitting so hard that the sound rang across the parking lot. . .She grabbed a handful of his hair, and with a surge of adrenaline and rage she’d never known she had, she slammed his head back into the lamppost again.” One of Marko’s companions kills him and then tries to kill Charlie. The chase scene is described over six pages.
  • In order to escape Dante, Charlie “drove her knee into her brother’s crotch.” Dante runs after her. “Charlie was thrown several feet by their combined momentum and crashed into a kiosk selling fresh fruit.” Dante wrestles her to the ground and drags her to a safe house.
  • When entering the safe house, the terrorist attacks Dante and Charlie. Dante is “beaten down and a gun was pressed against her [Milana’s] head.” One of the terrorists “kicked Dante in the stomach so hard it made Dante curl into a ball.” In order to escape the terrorist, Charlie“grabbed the mug and smashed it on Alexei’s temple, sending him reeling. Then she threw it at Vladimir, hitting him in the face.” As Charlie and Milana run, Charlie can hear the sound of fighting and guns being fired.
  • As Charlie and Milana try to escape, Dante “fired down, directly through the floor. There was a scream of pain from below, and then Dante dove away as more bullets tore upward through the floor. . .” The fight with the terrorists is described over 20 pages.
  • The terrorists kill a CIA agent. A terrorist says, “The brown man? He’s dead. We tossed him in the bathroom.”
  • When Charlie and Milana run from the terrorists, Charlie runs into a fruit stand. “The owner grabbed her arm roughly and raised a hand to strike her . . .” Milana stops the man and “wrenched the man’s arm so hard that he howled in pain, releasing Charlie.”
  • When the terrorists catch up to Charlie and Milana, Charlie threw chili powder into a man’s eyes. “Oleg roared in pain and stumbled forward blindly. Milana spun around and drove a knee into his crotch, folding the man like a hinge.” Charlie throws boiling water in a terrorist’s face. The scene is described over two pages. Both Charlie and Milana escape.
  • The CIA looks at the security video from the safe house. An “unknown figure . . . shot both of the agents before they could even react.”
  • While leaving a church, “three of the pilgrims pounced on her [Milana], knocking her to the ground. . .” Charlie was hit and “her legs were swept out from under her, her face was slammed into the cobblestones, and a gun was pressed against the back of her head.” Then the Mossad arrested them.
  • In order to free Milana and Charlie from the Mossad, Dante shoots one man “in the shoulder, spinning him and dropping him to the ground.” The Mossad lets the two go free, but then there is a high-speed chase.
  • In a multi-chapter conclusion, Alexei, a rogue CIA agent, the Mossad, and Charlie’s group race to get Einstein’s work. The rouge agent shoots and kills a man sitting in a car. Agents shoot at each other and someone points a gun at Charlie’s head.
  • Milana tries to catch Charlie, but “bullets stitched the earth around her, and she felt a sting as one caught her thigh. . . The bullet had only nicked her, although it still hurt like heck.”
  • The rogue CIA agent, John, catches up to Charlie. Charlie punches John. “The punch caught him off guard, but he rolled with it and then came in low. He drove his fist into Charlie’s solar plexus, then caught her with another blow that floored her.” A bullet hits a propane tank and there is a strong explosion. “The explosion roared over her [Charlie] and blasted John off his feet, slamming him into a tree with such force that his bones snapped. . . His spine had been broken when he had been thrown into the tree. . . John felt a sudden rush of heat and smelled something burning close by. . . Within seconds, the flames leapt up all around him. John screamed, but no one heard him.”
  • While trying to flee Jerusalem, Milana and Dante have to get by the security guards. “The CIA agents caught the poor security agents by surprise, rendering them unconscious within seconds.” Then the terrorists show up and open fire. “The CIA agents emptied their guns. One after the other the Furies screamed in pain and dropped. Alexei was the last to go.” When one of the Furies shoots toward a fuel tanker and “emptied his clip. . . The tanker exploded. A ball of fire raced toward the plane. . .” Charlie, Milana, and Dante escape. Three people die. The scene is described over seven pages.

 Drugs and Alcohol

  • When Albert Einstein was gravely ill, his doctor gave him morphine.
  • Alexei goes into a bar and talks to a man who has been drinking. “At first Alexei thought the [man’s] story might be the ravings of an alcoholic.”
  • Einstein’s friend believed he had failed Einstein. A few months after Einstein’s death, his friend died in an alcohol-related death.
  • Several men who are part of a group of terrorists have been in jail for drunk driving. One of the men spent time in jail because of public intoxication.
  • After a fight with a terrorist, Charlie takes ibuprofen for the pain.
  • The terrorist discovers a man works for the CIA and, “The Furies, drunk and vengeful, had shown no mercy. . .the Furies were brutal.” The CIA agent’s body was unrecognizable.

Language

  • The story has a lot of name calling including: creep, idiot, jerk, slimeball, and stupid punk. For example, Charlie calls a pool guy a “sexist jerk.”
  • Crap is used four times. For example, Charlie drove her friend’s “crappy car.”
  • Charlie tells a CIA agent, “I nearly killed myself trying to save your stupid butt. What kind of idiot jumps in front a moving truck?”
  • God is used as an exclamation once.
  • Damn is used once.

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • Alexei is planning on bombing a large city “teeming with people of inferior races. . . He would destroy them all. The day was close. Alexei knew it. God had willed it.”
  • Alexei believes that immigrants are “rats” and his job is to wipe them out. “God had chosen him to do it.”
  • While trying to escape the terrorists, Charlie was “praying her math was right.”
  • Charlie “wasn’t religious . . . And now, here she was sitting inside one of the most important churches on earth. It occurred to her that maybe she should take that as a sign and pray for Dante.”
  • Einstein “didn’t believe God played dice with the universe.”
  • Charlie thinks about God and Einstein. “Einstein had been a religious man, but he had claimed the God he favored was that of Baruch Spinoza, who had declared, ‘God is in the details, the beauty, the math of the world.’”
  • While looking for Charlie, Alexei, “Prayed to God that he would get to Charlie Thorne before the Mossad.” When Alexei finds Charlie, he thinks, “God smiled on him again.”

 

The Ballgame With No One At Bat

Egg’s sixth-grade class is going on a field trip to see the River City River Rats baseball game. Even though Egg doesn’t know a lot about baseball, he is excited to see the minor league baseball team play. From the fans to the concessions, Egg is ready to snap pictures at the stadium.

The class is surprised when the game is delayed because of a theft in the stadium. But Egg’s friends decide to use the time to look for clues. Who could have stolen the cash register from the concession stand? Is it one of the class’s chaperones? Egg and his friends are determined to look for clues and find the culprit.

As the title suggests, the story doesn’t show any baseball action. Instead, the action comes from Egg and his friends looking for clues, following suspects, and asking questions. Even though the game delay is unrealistic, the kids are able to solve the crime because Egg’s friend, Sam, uses her powers of observation. During their time at the stadium, several characters talk about the unhealthy junk food that is sold at the concession stand. One girl chastises her father for eating junk food, and the teacher admits to being “a junk food junkie!” The story’s message about making healthy snack choices is told in an over-the-top and humorous way.

The Ballgame With No One At Bat has beautiful full-colored illustrations that show Egg and his friends interacting with the suspects. Egg’s photographs are also included in the illustrations, which appear every 3 to 7 pages. In addition, some of the story quotes appear in oversized white letters on a black background. The graphic elements, large text, and illustrations break up the text into manageable parts. The book also includes A Detective’s Dictionary with some of the words used in the story.

Mystery-loving readers will be pulled into The Ballgame With No One At Bat by the beautiful illustrations and the high-interest topic. The story ends with an essay that Egg wrote about baseball superstitions. The easy-to-read format and easy vocabulary make The Ballgame With No One At Bat accessible to proficient readers who are ready for chapter books. Readers interested in a more developed mystery with baseball history should check out the Ballpark Mysteries Series by David A. Kelly

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • None

 Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • Anton calls Egg and his friends dorks several times. For example, when someone stands up to Anton, he says, “Okay, dork protector. I’ll leave the four dorks alone so they can cry.”
  • When a boy overhears the conversation between Egg and Anton, the boy says, “Don’t listen to him. That guy’s a jerk.”
  • Anton calls a classmate a beanpole.
  • Egg thinks that Anton is “being a selfish dweeb.”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

Payback

After a serious betrayal from one of their former friends, the clones of Project Osiris are on the run again. Now separated into pairs, Eli and Tori and Amber and Malik are fighting to survive in the real world.

Amber and Malik track down the one person they think can help them prove the existence of Project Osiris, the notorious mob boss Gus Alabaster, also known as Malik’s DNA donor. But as Malik gets pulled into the criminal world—tantalized by hints of a real family—his actions put him and Amber in greater danger.

Eli and Tori get sucked into even bigger conspiracies as they hunt down Project Osiris’s most closely guarded secrets—including the question of who Eli’s DNA comes from? With a surprising new ally and another cross-country adventure, the four will have to work together to overcome the worst parts of themselves if they are going to end Project Osiris once and for all.

Payback, the fast-paced final installment in the Mastermind Series, shows what happened to all the other Osiris clones. The beginning of the book focuses on Malik, Tori, Amber, and Eli. Malik and Amber spend time with the criminal that Malik was cloned from; until Malik finally realizes that he is not the same as the criminal who shares his DNA. On the other hand, Eli makes a surprising discovery about the person he was cloned from.

While Payback has several surprising twists, some of the plot is redundant and the events don’t shed much light on the characters. Despite this, there is enough action and suspense to keep readers interested. However, because of the backstory, readers must read the Mastermind books in order in order to enjoy Payback.

The books’ narrative repeatedly talks about how the characters were excellent at criminal behavior because their DNA came from criminal masterminds. However, the conclusion contradicts these statements by claiming that the characters’ DNA does not determine their behavior. The conclusion also leaves many questions unanswered, which may frustrate readers. Instead of having a solid conclusion, the book ends without tying up all of the plot threads.

One surprising aspect of the Masterminds Series is the unexpected pockets of humor. Even though the characters are often in danger and running from their enemies, readers will find themselves laughing out loud because of the characters’ interactions. While the series has some flaws, the unique premise, the interesting characters, and the plot twists will keep readers turning the pages. Readers looking for another fast-paced adventure should add the Wizard for Hire Series by Obert Skye to their reading list.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • While helping someone load groceries into their car, someone tries to nab Tori. Tori “reaches into the grocery bag, pulls out a glass jar of pickles, and swings it at her attacker, catching him full in the face. He staggers back, dazed, his sunglasses askew.” Tori is able to escape.
  • Amber begins working at a soup kitchen. A police officer comes in looking for a man who is eating there. When the policeman shoves the man, Amber gets angry. “The big tray of mashed potatoes is in my hands before I even realize what I’m doing. I heave it over the plastic sneeze guard, raining the entire load down on the advancing cop.” Then she runs away.
  • Eli thinks he is a clone of the Crossword Killer who killed nine people. “The lives he took were not in pursuit of any goal, regardless of how horrible or lawless. He killed for the sake of killing.”
  • Someone binds Tori to a chair. Eli tries to fight her attackers. “I pick up the nearest object—a floor lamp—and swing it at them. . . The bigger one grabs it and hauls me in like a fish on a line . . . Powerful arms imprison me, and soon I find myself duct-taped too, my arms locked behind my back.”
  • An adult tells Eli and his friends about a younger brother that went to jail for “petty theft. He was killed by another inmate.”
  • While the kids were trying to steal a boat, a fisherman tries to stop them. “. . . A metal toolbox swings up and around, catching him on the side of the head with a sickening thunk. He drops like a stone. . .”
  • Malik tries to get Robbie, another Osiris clone, to go with him. Robbie refuses, and Malik tries to “tackle him and hold him underwater for a few seconds. . . I pull him, choking and gasping, out of the drink.” Robbie freaks out and “he pounds his fists against my [Malik] chest and face.”
  • The Purples try to nab the kids. As the Purples get closer “the metal pole of a large beach umbrella swings out of nowhere, catching the two Purples full in the face. Both men drop to the beach, unconscious.”
  • C.J. Rackoff also tries to stop the kids, but Malik rams “his head full force into Rackoff’s jaw.”
  • Eli’s “father” points a pistol at him. Right before he is about to shoot, “Hector slams into my one-time father from the side, jarring his gun arm. With a sharp crack, the shot goes off.” The bullet hits a huge aquarium, and a rush of water and fish come pouring out. Afterward, “the ginormous manta ray [takes] up half the lobby floor. That’s when I notice a pair of feet sticking out from under it.”
  • During the struggle, Hector is injured. “Hammerstrom’s [Eli’s father’s] bullet must have grazed him, because he’s got an angry red line stretching from the corner of his mouth to his left ear.”

 Drugs and Alcohol

  • The kids worry that Dr. Bruder from Project Osiris will give them a drug. Dr. Bruder has “fancy pills designed to make us kids forget things Osiris doesn’t want us to remember.”

Language

  • There is minimal name calling, such as idiot, jerk, morons, nitwit, slimeball, doofus, loser, and bonehead.
  • Both “oh my God” and “OMG” are used as an exclamation one time.

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • While trying to steal clothes, Tori sneaks onto a balcony. On an adjacent balcony a woman comes out and Tori prays “that the woman goes back inside before it occurs to her to glance to the right.”
  • Eli’s father tries to kill him. When he’s uninjured, one of the adults says, “thank God!”

Criminal Destiny

The clones of project Osiris are now free – but they’re being hunted. After their narrow escape from their “perfect” hometown, Eli, Tori, Amber, and Malik are finally in the real world and are determined to expose the leaders of the other world, Serenity. They decide to track down Tamara Dunleavy, the mysterious billionaire and founder of Project Osiris. Evading capture by breaking laws and sneaking into houses, hotels, buses, and cars—are they becoming the criminals they were destined to be?

What they learn will change everything and lead them straight back into the Plastic Works and the heart of the experiment in order to uncover the deadly criminals they’re cloned from—and find evidence that will convince the outside world to believe the truth. But the outside world isn’t exactly what they expected. Strangers aren’t just unfriendly, they’re dangerous. The wrong move could send them right back into the arms of Dr. Hammerstrom and leave them trapped in Serenity for good.

The story revolves around five characters—Eli, Malik, Hector, Tori, and Amber—and each chapter changes between these characters’ points of view. This allows the reader to understand each character’s thought process, which helps build their character. Each person struggles with the knowledge of being cloned from a criminal, but each one reacts to it differently and sometimes in surprising ways.

The story Criminal Intent has non-stop action as the kids discover how the real world works. As the kids try to navigate the real world, their misunderstandings lead to some hilarious comments. The kids truly believe that they need to break Rackoff, one of the criminals a kid is cloned from, out of prison in order to have a future. His escape is “a ticket for eleven clones to be able to prove who they are, and what’s been done to them. And maybe, just maybe, have a future.” Because of this belief, the kids are willing to commit crimes in exchange for his help.

While the conclusion is somewhat far-fetched, it also has several surprises and ends with a cliff-hanger. The kids are so busy evading the Purples, the police, and other people, that they do not have time to learn anything about Project Osiris. Unfortunately, the kids’ only plan is to find help from one of the criminals that they were cloned from. While Criminal Intent has humor and action, the kids have no real idea how they are going to have a future separate from the scientists from Project Osiris, which includes their parents. Instead of solving any problems, this action-packed story sets up an exciting third book, Payback.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • The Purple People Eaters try to capture the kids. When a Purple tries to grab Tori, Malik “barrels out from a group of students and makes a bull run at him. Malik crashes headfirst into the Purple’s midsection. . . the element of surprise knocks him on his butt.”
  • As the kids try to escape, a Purple grabs Malik. “Secret Agent Man gets Malik in a headlock. And the next thing he knows, his own car is coming at him, chewing up turf. The rear door swings open, catching him in the side of the head.” The kids escape without seriously injuring anyone. The scene is described over three pages.
  • While in Denver, the kids see a man being mugged in an alleyway. “Scruffy has the suit guy up against the wall and is holding the knife to his back. . .” Amber jumps in to help. “Scruffy wheels and now the knife is pointing at Amber. . . She starts lecturing the crook in what sounds eerily like her mother’s teacher voice.” The confused crook runs off.
  • The kids see a man digging through their backpacks. Amber goes after the guy. She jumps over a table and her “front foot gets tangled with his two fleeing ones. We both go down . . . there’s a thwack as his head hits the base of the tree.” The man is knocked unconscious and the kids take off.
  • A group of teens is lounging around the kids’ car. “Amber reaches out, grabs the leader’s leg just above the boot, and gives a mighty yank. He comes flying off the hood and lands in a heap on the pavement on the parking lot.” When a teen tries to grab Amber, “Malik’s fist shoots out like a battering ram, catching the kid full in the nose.” The teenagers back off and leave. The scene is described over two pages.
  • The kids’ research who they were cloned from. One of the men was sentenced to “over three hundred years behind bars. . . He was stabbed to death by another inmate last year.”
  • Late at night, Tori sees a man enter the hotel room. She grabs a metal wastebasket. “I’m out of bed, across the room, and swinging my weapon at the shadowy figure.” The person turns out to be her friend, Eli. His head is bleeding, but not hurt badly.
  • While trying to help someone escape from prison, the kids steal a postal service truck. Malik threatens the driver with a crowbar. “Malik drops the crowbar and enfolds the postal worker in a wrestling hug. George struggles against him, but Malik is just as big as he is, and strong. . .” Eli uses a maneuver he learned on the internet to make George pass out.
  • When the Purples find the kids, someone grabs Eli “strangling [him] with [his] own collar.” Eli gets the syringe and “wielding it like a knife, I get to my knees and stab it into my enemy’s thigh. He stops dead, letting out a gasp of pain that’s instantly familiar.” The man “collapses to the ground out cold.”
  • Bryan, a Purple, grabs  Tori and Eli rushes to help. “I come up behind him and stab the needle into the back of his shoulder. . . Bryan drops like a stone.”
  • Eli threatens a pilot with the syringe, so the pilot flies Eli and Tori away. When they get to their destination, Eli pricks the pilot “with the needle, careful to inject a small amount of tranquilizer into the back of his neck.” The escape scene is described over seven pages.

 Drugs and Alcohol

  • When the Purples find the kids, a doctor tries to tranquilize the kids with a “syringe filled with some kind of cloudy liquid.” Eli is able to get the syringe and he uses it on several people.

Language

  • Malik thinks about his friend Hector. “Poor stupid, pain-in-the-butt little Hector, who died during our escape from Happy Valley.” Later when Malik discovers Hector is alive, he says, “I wasted a lot of sad on your unworthy butt.”
  • There is some name calling, including pinheads, dimwit, moron, idiot, jerk, and stupid
  • While trying to steal a truck, the victim tells Malik, “you’re bat-poop crazy.”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

 

The Seals That Wouldn’t Swim

Catalina “Cat” Duran and her friends thought they were on a field trip to see the seals at the aquarium. So why has the seal show been canceled?

Cat and her friends are determined to find who seal-napped Polhaus and Dundy. They wonder if it is one of the chaperones on the field trip, an aquarium worker, or someone on the outside. The kids spy on the adults to find important clues. In the end, the kids discover the culprit and race to tell the security guard. Soon, Polhaus and Dundy are safely back in the aquarium.

The Seals That Wouldn’t Swim has beautiful full-colored illustrations that show Cat and her friends interacting with the suspects. The illustrations appear every 3 to 7 pages. In addition, some of the story quotes appear in oversized white letters on a black background. The graphic elements, large text, and illustrations break up the text into manageable parts. The book also includes A Detective’s Dictionary of some of the words used in the story. Despite this, readers may have difficulty remembering the large cast of culprits.

Even though the missing seals make an interesting mystery, the story doesn’t have much action. Cat and her friends spend most of their time eavesdropping. In the end, they are able to solve the mystery by rummaging through someone’s purse. Unfortunately, the seals only make a small appearance at the very end of the book. However, the story tackles the topic of animal cruelty in a child-friendly manner. The story ends with an essay that Cat wrote on animal rights, which introduces “the most famous and largest animal rights group,” PETA.

Mystery-loving readers will be pulled into The Seals That Wouldn’t Swim by the beautiful illustrations. They will also enjoy seeing a group of kids work together to help the seals. However, readers who expected to see some animal action will be disappointed. The easy-to-read format and easy vocabulary make The Seals That Wouldn’t Swim accessible to proficient readers who are ready for chapter books. For more mystery-solving fun, readers should check out the Hilde Cracks the Case Series by Hilde Lysiak.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • None

 Drugs and Alcohol

  • When Cat and her friends overhear the aquarium workers talking about someone giving the seals a tranquilizer, Sam says, “So, someone slipped the seals a mickey.” One of the kids doesn’t understand what the phrase means, so someone explains, “Slipped them a mickey. I’m pretty sure she means someone gave them a drug to make them sleep.”

Language

  • An adult says, “Darn it.”
  • When Cat and her friends sit down at a table, one of their classmates says, “We’re sitting with the dorks.”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

Masterminds #1

Eli Frieden has never left Serenity, New Mexico…why would he ever want to? Then one day, he bikes to the edge of the city limits and something so crazy and unexpected happens, it changes everything.

Eli convinces his friends to help him investigate further, and soon it becomes clear that nothing is as it seems in Serenity. The clues mount to reveal a shocking discovery, connecting their ideal, crime-free community to some of the greatest criminal masterminds ever known. The kids realize they can trust no one — least of all their own parents.

Masterminds has a slow start as it introduces the many characters and the town of Serenity. However, the story also has some heart-stopping moments, which all revolve around the kids trying to figure out the secret that all of the adults have been hiding. Many of the story’s events and explanations are far-fetched. Because of the unbelievable nature of the plot, readers will have to suspend their disbelief in order to enjoy the story.

The story revolves around five characters—Eli, Malik, Hector, Tori, and Amber—and each chapter changes between these characters’ points of view. The constantly shifting point of view is confusing, especially since the characters’ voices are all similar to each other. However, the changing point of view allows readers to understand some of the individual choices that the characters make. Despite this, when the kids discover the answer to the mystery, some of the characters’ reactions still seem extreme and inconsistent.

Readers who enjoy conspiracy theories and mysteries will enjoy Masterminds. The story has a unique premise and will leave readers debating the scientific question of nature vs. nurture. While not all of the events are believable, the suspense and mystery make Masterminds an interesting story. The conclusion doesn’t wrap up all of the story’s threads, but leaves many unanswered questions which will be explored in the next book, Criminal Destiny. While Masterminds has some slow moments, Criminal Destiny picks up the pace in an exciting sequel. If you’re a mystery fan that would prefer a more logical mystery, the Theodore Boone Series by John Grisham would be a better choice.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • While trying to get out of town, a guard grabs Malik. Eli swings “his shovel around and I catch Alexander the Grape between the shoulder blades. He drops like a stone. . .” When another guard named Bryan comes after them, Eli tries to drive away. “There’s a thump on my running board. An indigo-sleeved arm reaches for me. The hand grabs my hair. It hurts.” One of the kids hits Bryan in the head with a hoe and he falls down.
  • Eli’s friends jump from a speeding truck before the truck goes over the edge of a mountain. They are not sure if Hector also jumped or died when the truck went over.
  • The kids catch a ride in a train car. When the cars stop, workers see the kids. When a worker grabs Tori, “Malik springs into action. He snatches up a full Gatorade bottle and bounces it with deadly accuracy off the side of the man’s jaw. The blow knocks him backward into the wall, and he releases Tori.” The kids run. Malik gets stuck under a pallet. Amber “leaps into the cab of the forklift, dislodging the driver.”

 Drugs and Alcohol

  • As Eli tries to leave town, he gets sick and has to stay home for two weeks. During his time at home, Eli is given pills. He thinks the pills are supposed to make him forget what happened.

Language

  • There is some name calling including, loser, idiot, moron and stupid. The name calling happens infrequently.
  • After reading a note from Randy, Malik says, “Hardaway was always a wing nut. . .What a doofus.”
  • Eli thinks his dad is a doofus.
  • Eli calls Harold “stupid.”
  • “Oh my God” is used as an exclamation once.
  • When Eli discovers he has been cloned from a criminal, he hopes his DNA didn’t come from a bonehead.
  • The kids call some of the factory workers the “Purple People Eaters.” Someone makes names for them like “Alexander the Grape.”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • During a thunderstorm, Malik is “praying that it would be over.”
  • When there is a plumbing emergency at Eli’s house, he prays that Hector’s dad can fix it.
  • Eli and his friends discover a scientific research project called Osiris. “Osiris is the Egyptian god of the afterlife.”

InvestiGators Take the Plunge

Investigators Brash and Mango go undercover in order to intercept a rocket that carries the stolen code for the Combinotron—a device that can stick any two things together. Instead of destroying the code, the investigators accidentally download the code into a robot that has been programmed to hug people. After a freak accident, the robot is able to travel through electricity. And every time the robot hugs someone, that person combines with whatever they are touching.

When Crackerdile learns about the Combinotron, he is determined to steal the code. In his current state—being part cracker and part alligator—Crackerdile is in danger of being dissolved or eaten. Crackerdile hopes to use the Combinotron to merge with metal. Will Crackerdile be able to steal the code, or can Brash and Mango thwart him off?

Investigators Take the Plunge is an imaginative graphic novel that is laugh-out-loud funny. The combination of human and animal characters blend to mix into a ridiculous story that uses wordplay to add humor. Even though some of the humor revolves around Brash’s need to go to the bathroom, the bathroom humor is never gross. As Brash and Mango work the case, they use fun spy gadgets, compete against a team of badger agents, flood the sewers, and are responsible for unleashing an evil villain.

The imaginative story comes alive in brightly colored artwork that shows the characters’ wide range of emotions. The text is large and uses different font sizes, which help emphasize the characters’ emotions as well as important aspects of the story. Similar to superhero comics, the story contains onomatopoeias such as crash, bwonk, and foosh. Another positive aspect is that the human scientists are a diverse group of characters who have a wide range of skin tones.

The illustrations and the unique storyline with Brash and Mango will appeal to even the most reluctant readers. Each page has 3 to 11 sentences per page. The sentences range from one word to more complex sentences. The varied sentence lengths add to the humor while keeping the story accessible to all readers.

Investigators Take the Plunge will appeal to many readers because honestly, who doesn’t want to see two alligator investigators wreak havoc? The story is unique, full of slapstick humor, and contains a non-frightening villain. Readers who enjoy humorous graphic novels that border on the ridiculous should add Mac B. Kid Spy by Mac Barnett and Two Dogs in a Trench Coat by Julie Falatko to their reading list.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • A doctor is upset when “the robot ghosts! It came out of my TB and then lunged at me! There was a flash of light and I must have passed out. When I came to, the Robot Ghost was gone, but I discovered I had. . .banana hands!”
  • A doctor is “combined with the salad I was eating for dinner” when “the Robot Ghost came out of my lamp and attacked me!”
  • When two members of the S.U.I.T—who are badgers—try to stop the Robot Ghost, the ghost zaps them and the badgers are turned into “badger badges.”

 Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • The villain’s mission is “the Total Annihilation of Idiot Law-doers!”
  • A scientist yells, “Get ya butt in here!”
  • Drat is used as an exclamation once.

Supernatural

  • A scientist changes “from mild-mannered brain surgeon Dr. Jake Hardbones into the Action News Now helicopter in the sky.”
  • The Combinotron is a device that can “stick any two things together!” The Combinotron’s code accidentally gets downloaded into a robot that likes to hug. When the robot hugs someone, the person is combined with whatever they are touching. The robot can move through electrical outlets.
  • After being hugged by a robot, a plumber combines with a snake, making the anaconda his arm.
  • The Crackerdile is an alligator that has been combined with a saltine cracker.

Spiritual Content

  • None

Remarkables

One minute, they’re laughing and having fun at the house next door. The next minute, they’re gone. Like magic. Marin can’t believe her eyes. Who are these teenagers, and how are they able to appear and disappear?

Marin spots the mysterious neighbors the first day after moving to a new house, in a new town. She wonders if she’s the only one who can see the teenagers, but then she meets a boy named Charley, who reluctantly reveals that he knows about them too. He calls them “Remarkables.”

Charley warns her to stay away from the Remarkables—and to stay away from him. Life hasn’t been kind to Charley, and Marin can’t stop thinking about something that happened in her old town. Could the Remarkables help? Or. . . is she supposed to help them? Maybe Marin and Charley can fix everything if they can work together long enough to figure out the mystery of the Remarkables.

Full of mystery, Remarkables is a story about family, friendship, and forgiveness. Readers will relate to the protagonist Marin, who is insecure and wonders if she will be able to make friends in her new town. Because of past friendship drama, Marin wonders if there is something wrong with her. However, by the end of the story, she realizes the importance of communication and forgiveness.

Haddix expertly weaves several plot lines into an easy-to-understand, engaging story. Marin’s family is funny, caring, and a bit overwhelmed with all the changes in their lives. When Marin meets Charley, she learns about a tragic accident that happened in the past and how it still impacts Charley’s present. This connects with an incident that happened to Marin before her move. The conclusion of the story merges all of these subplots and shows that “You can have a good future because the past is over. All you can do is learn from it.”

Remarkables will make readers consider the questions: If you could go back in time and change an event, what would it be? Both Marin and Charley consider the question, and they realize that changing the past could cause unintended consequences. When Marin looks at a past tragedy, she realizes the tragedy ended up inspiring others to do good in the world. The relatable characters, mystery, and message all combine to create a story that is entertaining and thought provoking. The story ends on a positive note as it highlights that despite a past mistake, the future still holds the promise of happiness.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • During a party at the neighbor’s, Charley’s dad put food in the oven and it began to smoke. He didn’t want the fire detector to go off so he removed the batteries. Later that week, a fire broke out and Charley’s friend died. The death is not described.

 Drugs and Alcohol

  • Charley and his brothers live with their grandmother because his parents are on drugs. His dad “started using drugs. And then my mom did, too. Because he made her unhappy, too. And they wouldn’t stop.”

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • Marin and Charlie see a group of teens. Charlie thinks the teens are time travelers from the past. Marin thinks the teens are from the future.
  • At one point, Marin wonders if “it was a message from God—a vision, like the kind Marin heard about in church.”
  • Charlie “decided that [a dead girl’s] psychic energy lingered in the place where she’d died. . . Her way of haunting people was to show them good things they needed to see.”

Spiritual Content

  • Marin goes to church with her family. When they go to a new church, Marin is afraid no one will like her. She prays, “Please, God. Please, please, please don’t let me start crying here in front of everyone. . .”
  • During church, the pastor starts “reading a Bible passage, one about Jesus being tempted in the desert. ‘So I’m going to hear about even Jesus messing up?’ Marin thought.”
  • Marin’s father prays that the baby begins to sleep through the night.
  • Marin and her friends were having a sleepover. The girls had a fight so Marin went to sleep in the guest room. While there, she prayed, “Please let someone come and I’ll apologize. Please.”
  • One of Marin’s friends was sick. When Marin asked, “Did she have cancer?” Her father replied, “Thank God, no.”
  • Marin’s father has a difficult time finding a job. He tells Marin, “I will quit whining about how my life isn’t going the way I planned it, and I will get back out of bed and try something new! And. . . I’ll accept that God is maybe trying to send me a sign that he needs me in a different place than I thought, and I’ll quit fighting that message. . .”

Valentine’s Day Secret

It’s Valentine’s Day, but things are not all hearts and flowers for Nancy! While she and her best friends, Bess and George, are making their own stuffed animals at Farmer Fan’s Barnyard Buddies, someone slips a mean valentine into Bess’s animal’s pocket. What’s worse than a mean valentine? Even worse, Bess thinks it came from George! Now the two are in the worst fight ever—and Nancy’s caught in the middle! How can she sew Bess and George’s friendship—not to mention the Clue Crew—back together?

Pink hot chocolate, dressed-up stuffed animals, and sharing cards all combine to make an interesting mystery. The friendship drama is integrated into the mystery, and the two topics combine to highlight the importance of forgiveness. While looking for clues, Nancy’s dog chews Colette’s new cow slippers. Nancy offers to save her allowance to buy Colette another pair. Even though Colette is upset, she forgives Nancy and says, “Dogs will be dogs. That’s why I like cows.” The story concludes when the culprit is discovered, and the three friends quickly forgive the valentine writer and each other.

Valentine’s Day Secret has many positive aspects that parents will appreciate. Like all children, Nancy and her two best friends squabble but eventually resolve their problems and remain best friends. In addition to using the powers of observation, the three friends are polite, ask permission before they jump into action, and show kindness to others.

Young mystery fans will not only enjoy the mystery but also the wordplay that appears in Valentine’s Day Secret. Readers will relate to Nancy, who is caught in the middle of her friends’ fight. Even though the three main characters are friends, they are unique individuals who have different interests. Black and white illustrations appear every 2 to 5 pages, which break up the text and help readers visualize the events in the plot. The last page of the book gives directions for making a charming Valentine pencil. This modern version of Nancy Drew will entertain today’s readers who will want to analyze the clues to see if they can determine who wrote the mean valentine.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • A girl grabs George’s stuffed cow and runs off with it.

 Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

Pony Problems

A new petting zoo has opened in River Heights. Nancy, George, and Bess can’t wait to check it out — especially since the zoo has the cutest Shetland pony named Buttons. And it looks like the Clue Crew won’t have to wait very long to get a glimpse of Buttons — he keeps escaping from his pen and showing up all over town!

Buttons is getting pretty famous for eating the flowers in everyone’s front lawns. As much as Nancy secretly wishes Buttons would turn up on her lawn, she knows it’s important to make sure he stays put. The only trouble is, no one knows how he’s getting out. Sounds like it’s time for the Clue Crew to saddle up and settle this pony problem.

Nancy Drew and the Clue Crew are determined to find out how Buttons keep escaping and they plan on using their powers of observation to solve the mystery. As they investigate, their friend tells them interesting facts about Shetland ponies. The Clue Crew uses these facts and other clues to solve the mystery.

During their investigation, the Clue Crew also meets Amanda, who lives on the farm. At first, when Nancy tries to talk to Amanda, Amanda completely ignores her. This doesn’t deter Nancy and her friends. Finally, Amanda is honest and tells the girls that she misses her old home. Luckily, Amanda’s father agrees to take Amanda to visit her old friends. In the end, the Clue Crew become Amanda’s new friends and Amanda’s conflict is solved in a hopeful manner.

The Nancy Drew and the Clue Crew Series has main characters that young readers can emulate. The girls are obedient, friendly, and nice. For instance, when Mr. Drew tells the girls not to pet Buttons, “the girls are careful to keep their distance as Mr. Drew asked.” In addition, the girls are given a five-block range that they can roam, and they stay within their parent’s set perimeter.

Pony Problems has many elements that will entertain readers, including black and white illustrations that appear every 2 to 5 pages. The pictures break up the text and help readers visualize the events in the plot. The last page of the book gives directions for making a craft pony as well.

Buttons’ behavior will make readers laugh and readers will enjoy solving the mystery. While readers will be drawn into the story because of the pony, parents will approve of the characters’ good behavior. Pony Problems is a wholesome story that will entertain both mystery fans and horse lovers.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • None

 Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • Nancy tells George, “Your brother is a nut.”
  • George says, “My brother can be such a spaz sometimes.”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

 

The Case of the Secret Tunnel

When one of the boarders gets married, girl detective Maisie Hitchins is disappointed that her grandmother found a boring-looking man to replace the lady. Fred Grange claims to work as a clerk for a biscuit company, but he’s out and about on the London streets at odd hours, and Maisie soon discovers a list of stolen paintings hidden in his room. Maisie is determined to unmask him as a thief, but the truth is far more complicated—and dangerous. Before long, Maisie and her dog are led into a web of mystery lurking in the London Underground. Can Maisie solve the mystery before the thief strikes again?

Maisie is curious, daring, and has big dreams of being a detective. She uses her powers of observation to solve the mystery. During Maisie’s investigation, she finds many clues and the end of the story explains what Maisie learned from the clues. The plot is easy to understand and the conclusion doesn’t leave any loose threads or end in a cliffhanger. Some readers may need help understanding some of the vocabulary since Maisie and the other characters use old-fashioned vocabulary such as tuppence, wittering, deportment, and hobnobbing.

For the most part, Maisie wants to do what is right. However, she does sneak out of the house and isn’t always truthful. When Gran thinks Maisie is going across the street to see her friend, Maisie really goes to investigate the theft. Maisie justifies the lie because “detectives must bend the truth sometimes.” Another aspect that may upset parents is that the police officers are portrayed as incompetent. For example, Maisie easily finds clues that the police officer missed, and a boarder says police are “a useless lot.” Even though the police officer plays an important role in saving Maisie from the thief, he was incapable of solving the mystery.

The Case of the Secret Tunnel focuses on Maisie’s investigation which leads her on an interesting adventure. Black and white pictures that focus on the characters’ actions appear every two to four pages. The boarders and Maisie’s dog only make a slight appearance and their presence is missed. However, the story is fast-paced and will appeal to young mystery lovers. While the vocabulary may be difficult for some readers, the short chapters and non-scary plot make The Case of the Secret Tunnel a good bedtime story. Readers looking for a good mystery with another curious and brave girl as the main characters should read Kitty and the Moonlight Rescue by Paula Harrison.

Sexual Content

  • Alice thinks her father, who is a widower, is smitten with her governess.

Violence

  • An art thief tries to grab Maisie, but “Eddie snapped at his trouser leg, throwing him off balance and giving Maisie time to dart away.” Maisie runs, but the thief catches her, and “a huge hand covered her mouth. . . Eddie barked madly as Maisie kicked and struggled and tried to break free. But the man was holding her too tightly and began to pull her back down the alley.” Maisie is saved by the police.
  • A boarder finds Maisie snooping in his room. “Maisie tried to back away, but Mr. Grange caught her arm and she panicked.” After the two talk, Mr. Grange lets Maisie go.

 Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • Drat is used twice. For example, someone says “dratted boys.”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

Winterborne Home for Vengeance and Valor #1

For as long as April could remember, the key has hung around her neck. As an orphan, she has no one to ask what the key belongs to, but she knows it can help her find her mother. While at a museum, April sees the Winterborne family crest and is surprised that it is the same crest that is on her key. Later that night, she sneaks into the museum and accidently starts a fire. When she awakes, she’s in the hospital and a strange woman is sitting by her bed.

The woman takes April to live in a big, creepy mansion with other orphans. April is convinced that she isn’t like the other orphans because her mother will come back for her. But now, April is convinced that the clues to finding her mother are inside the mansion. As she looks for clues, April realizes that the Winterborne House is hiding more than one secret. April and her friends are going to have to work together to unravel the riddle of a missing heir, a creepy legend, and a mysterious key before the only home they’ve ever known is lost to them forever.

Even though danger lurks behind every corner, April is determined to figure out why Gabriel Winterborne (the missing heir) has suddenly returned to the mansion, and why he is hiding from everyone he knows. April’s determination and grit are admirable, but she has a tendency to get into trouble. April doesn’t know who she can trust, which adds to the story’s suspense. Even though the other orphans eventually help April, they are not well-developed. However, each member of the group is interesting and unique.

Winterborne Home for Vengeance and Valor will appeal to both mystery and action fans. The fast pace, constant danger, and interesting characters will have readers trying to fit all of the pieces into the puzzle. The plot isn’t unique—the creepy mansion, the bitter uncle, and April’s key are all predictable.  In addition, the conclusion leaves a list of unanswered questions. Although the story sets the scene for a sequel, the conclusion is frustrating because none of the main plot points are solved.

Readers who love the Gallagher Girl Series may be disappointed by Winterborne Home for Vengeance and Valor because it lacks a unique plot and humor. Despite this, Winterborne Home for Vengeance and Valor’s mystery and suspense will appeal to a wide range of readers. The easy-to-read story has plenty of intense action, questionable characters, and spooky scenes that will have readers reading late into the night.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • April was spying when she sees two men. “She turned and started to run, but unfortunately for April, she ran right into a very hard, very broad, very smelly chest.” The man pushes her toward a boat “and April wanted to run, but when she looked back, she saw the gun.”
  • When the men caught April, “Gabriel dropped onto the big man with the gun. . . he yelled as he dodged and kicked, swerved and stabbed. . . One by one, the men fell or stumbled or ran back to the boat.”
  • When the men in the boat try to leave, Gabriel “went for the man behind the controls first, and the boat slowed when Gabriel threw him across the deck, sending him crashing into the crates that went tumbling like a house of cards.” One of the men is able to get Gabriel’s sword and stabs Gabriel, who “stumbled and looked down, almost insulted to see his own sword sticking out of his body. . .” The scene with the men is described over four pages.
  • Tim shows April a series of scars, and implies that his father abused him.
  • When Gabriel was a kid, the boat that his family was on blew up “because bombs and boats don’t mix.” When Gabriel survives the explosion, his uncle tries to kill him repeatedly.
  • On his twenty-first birthday, Gabriel’s uncle hired someone to kill him. The hired killer “hit me on the back of the head and knocked me to the ground. . .” The man shot Gabriel, who fells into the water. “When I came up for air, I heard shouting and sirens, and I knew he was probably gone.” After he is shot, Gabriel disappears and some believe he is dead.
  • April sneaks into a house and is caught. “So April kicked. And lunged. And pushed. And ran. . . She tried to scramble back, but Evert was already grabbing her by the arms and jerking her to her feet. . .” April’s friends help her. “What followed was a whirl of thunder and punches and kicks. And some hair pulling. And a little tripping.”
  • As April and her friends run, Evert is able to grab April. “She threw her head back, jamming the back of her skull into his nose. She heard him scream and felt his blood run down the back of her neck, warmer than the rain.” The chase scene is described over eight pages.
  • When Evert sneaks into the Winterborne Home, the kids attack him. Evert “tried to duck, but he was too late. He tried to run, but he was too slow. A half dozen copper pots were already zooming straight for his head. He stumbled. . . Ropes wrapped around his ankles. A net fell over his head.” Evert is able to use a knife to cut himself down.
  • Evert knocks April to the ground. “April’s head banged off of the hard stone. Her vision blurred. . . Then Evert pulled her to her feet, her back to his chest, a knife at her throat.” April is able to break free.

 Drugs and Alcohol

  • When Gabriel is injured, April gets him back to the house. When Sadie sees him, she asks, “Is he drunk?”
  • In the middle of the night, April “didn’t care about the noise” because she assumed everyone was in bed, except the butler “who was probably in the library with his nightly glass of port.”
  • When Gabriel is injured, one of the kids pretends to be an adult and asks a doctor to prescribe an antibiotic.

Language

  • A man calls someone scum.
  • Darn is used three times.
  • April thinks that Tim is a jerk.
  • Evert calls someone a coward.
  • April calls Evert a “greedy moron.”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • When Gabriel falls into the ocean, April begins praying. April and her friends are able to get Gabriel back to the house, and get him into bed. “All April did was hold Mr. Winterborne’s hand and pray. . . No matter how many times April prayed for him to wake up and yell at her . . . his eyes stayed closed.”

The Parker Inheritance

When Candice finds a letter, she isn’t sure she should read it. It’s addressed to her grandmother, after all, who left Lambert in a cloud of shame. The letter describes a young African American woman named Siobhan Washington, an injustice that happened decades ago, a mystery involving the letter writer, and the fortune that awaits the person who solves the puzzle.

With the help of Brandon Jones, the quiet boy across the street, she begins to decipher the clues in the letter. The challenge will lead them deep into Lambert’s history—full of ugly deeds, forgotten heroes, and one great love—and deeper into their own family’s unspoken secrets. Can they find the fortune and fulfill the letter’s promise before the answers slip into the past yet again?

The Parker Inheritance is an ambitious story that tackles too many themes, including racism, oppression, love, friendship, bullying, sexual orientation, as well as family dynamics. The story uses flashbacks to delve into racism during the 1950s. Instead of being just a bunch of facts, the flashbacks will have an emotional impact on the reader. While most of the content is appropriate for middle-grade readers, the story does show some brutality as a group of white men attack a black boy.

While The Parker Inheritance is interesting, the complicated plot and the large cast of characters may be overwhelming for some readers. The story flips between the current day and the past as told by many characters. In the present day, Candice and Brandon research as they try to solve the clues. While the story has some mystery, most of the clues are revealed through flashbacks. However, the riddles are interesting, and following Candice’s and Brandon’s thought process is enjoyable.

One of the best aspects of The Parker Inheritance is the message that people can change, and “a mistake isn’t a failure. It’s just an opportunity to try again.” The characters’ personalities are multifaceted, which highlights the complicated nature of humans who often make choices that lead to both positive and negative consequences. For example, Candice’s grandmother was fired from her job, and some of the townspeople thought she was crazy. While this caused Candice’s grandmother to leave town, it also allowed Candice to become close to her grandmother.

In the story, a white boy’s father tells him, “You’ll never understand what it means to be a Negro. You’ll never face the discrimination they see every day. You’ll never struggle the way they do.” However, The Parker Inheritance allows readers to see the effects of racism both in the past and in the present. After reading the story, readers will hopefully reevaluate their own actions and be more accepting of people’s differences.

Sexual Content

  • Candice thinks that a group of boys is bullying Brandon because he “liked boys instead of girls.” Candice thinks, “It wasn’t a big deal—a few of the kids in her neighborhood had gay parents and there were two gay teachers at her school. But she didn’t know anyone who was gay.”
  • Candice overhears a conversation between her divorced parents. Candice wonders, “Had her dad asked if her mom was dating because he was seeing someone as well? And since when did he think it was okay to live with someone before getting married?” Later, Candice finds out that her father is dating another man.
  • Brandon’s grandfather kissed his girlfriend. While Brandon is uncomfortable, his grandfather “kissed Ms. Kathy again, this time longer.”
  • Siobhan and her boyfriend kiss at the park. After talking, “he kissed her again, and they both forgot about tennis and soda pop and everything else in the world.”
  • Brandon asked a boy who was bullying him, “Speaking of girlfriends, is Deacon Hawke still seeing your mom? Does your dad still go to therapy because of it?”
  • Brandon’s friend Quincey is gay.

Violence

  • Brandon is being bullied by a group of boys, and the ringleader is Milo. When Brandon shows up at Candice’s house, his “shirt was covered with leaves and grass, and two red scratches lined his face.” Brandon says the boys are “kids from school. They started picking on me a month ago.”
  • A group of men wielding baseball bats attacked Dub. After the attack, Dub “was slumped over in the recliner, his left arm in a sling. A white towel, wet with blood, had been wrapped around his head. Dub’s jaw was swollen, his nose was clearly broken, and his face was covered with scrapes and cuts… his front two teeth were missing.”
  • A group of men leaves a threatening message for Siobhan’s father. “The baby doll’s white skin had been painted the color of midnight, with thick cherry-red lipstick smeared over its small mouth. The doll was naked, with horrible words scratched into its plastic skin. A noose hung around the doll’s neck.”
  • Reggie runs from a group of men who are carrying baseball bats. A man with a knife grabbed Reggie. “He swiped at Reggie, tearing a gash in Reggie’s side… Reggie pinned the man’s hand to his side while stabbing at the man’s face with a mop handle. The stick, with its jagged, sharp end, sank into his attacker’s face. Into his eye socket. The man screamed.” Reggie fell, and two men “began to strike him with their bats.” Someone breaks up the fight, and Reggie is forced to leave town. The fight is described over two pages.
  • A tennis coach says his uncle “liked to knock me around when he was drunk, which was all the time.”
  • After Brandon says mean things about Milo’s mother, Milo “cocked back his arm like it was in slow motion. Brandon easily leaned away from the wild swing. And, then Milo was off balance, Brandon crushed his fist into Milo’s stomach… Milo’s fist exploded against Brandon’s face. He fell, his arms billowing out. His back and head bounced against the sidewalk with a loud crack.” Brandon is knocked unconscious and is taken to the hospital. The fight is described over two pages.

 Drugs and Alcohol

  • Candice’s mom takes a bottle of wine to the neighbor.
  • One of the adults “finished off his scotch. It tingled as it slid down his throat.”
  • Candice’s mom uses “cooking wine. It wasn’t very strong at all, not like real wine, but Candice still felt a little sophisticated whenever her mother used it.”
  • After Dub is attacked, he is given morphine.
  • When Dub’s daughter, Siobhan, helps him return to his seat, “she could smell the alcohol on his breath.” Dub thinks that “it was easy for him to be bold when he was propped up by liquor and bravado.”

Language

  • Lord is used as an exclamation four times. God is used as an exclamation twice. “Oh my God” is used as an exclamation three times.
  • Candice thinks the app Mental Twister is “crappy.”
  • When Brandon sees the bullies, he says, “crap.”
  • Damn is used three times. When Dub doesn’t answer his friend’s question, the friend says, “Dammit, Dub!”
  • Hell is used once.
  • Someone calls a boy a “half-bred mutt.”
  • Dub tells a boy who likes his daughter, “A poor, high-yellow, country-dumb Negro like you will never be good enough for Lil’ Dub.”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • When a landowner shows up at Enoch’s house, his mother “mouthed a prayer to herself.”
  • Candice goes to church, and “the pastor talked about hope. About faith. About staying on the right path, even when you can’t see the Promised Land.”
  • During a tennis game, Siobhan “closed her eyes and offered up a prayer.”

The Case of the Phantom Cat

In book three of Holly Webb’s The Mysteries of Maisie Hitchins, twelve-year-old Maisie and her dog, Eddie, are invited to join Maisie’s friend, Alice, on a trip to the country. But there’s something strange about the manor where they’re staying. Odd noises, horrid smells, and spectral sightings abound. Alice is terrified, but Maisie is skeptical. She doesn’t really believe in ghosts. Does she? There must be another explanation for the odd happenings, and Maisie plans to use her detecting skills to find out just what it is!

Maisie and Alice are friends despite being from different social classes. While Alice goes to French lessons, Maisie is dusting, cleaning, and running errands. The story hints that Maisie isn’t a proper friend for Alice because of their social class. Readers may wonder why the governess, Mrs. Sidebothan is rude to Maisie and expects her to help the servants clean. Mrs. Sidebothan is snooty and lazy which allows the girls to make fun of her. For example, Maisie “comforted herself that at least she didn’t have a name that sounded exactly like Side Bottom. And the bottom to match.”

The mystery revolves around strange noises, a bad smell, and a ghost-like cat. The story is spooky without being scary and the girls show bravery when they investigate the strange happenings. In the end, Maisie is able to discover a plausible reason for each thing that was attributed to ghosts. Readers will enjoy seeing Maisie and Alice band together to solve the mystery.

Even though the mystery is solved in a satisfactory way, The Case of the Phantom Cat has an abrupt ending that leaves the readers with plenty of questions. Despite this, readers will enjoy exploring a strange house with secret passages and how Maisie’s dog, Eddie, helps solve the mystery. While the content is appropriate for younger readers, they may need help with the difficult vocabulary. The characters use words and phrases that fit with the old-fashioned time period, such as guts for garters, insolent, hogwash, and stickler.

The story ends with reading comprehension questions as well as information about the time period, such as explaining how Calves’-foot jelly is made. Even though The Case of the Phantom Cat is the third book in the series, the books do not need to be read in order. Readers who want a little ghostly fun will enjoy The Case of the Phantom Cat. With eight short chapters and cute black and white illustrations, The Case of the Phantom Cat gives readers a chance to see if they can piece together the mystery’s clues themselves.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • None

 Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • Alice says “oh drat” once.

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

The Case of the Stolen Sixpence

Twelve-year-old Maisie is a noticing sort of person. That’s why she is convinced she would make an excellent detective if she ever got the chance! But instead of detecting, she spends her days polishing the banisters at her grandmother’s boarding house or fetching fish for the lodgers’ dinner. Maisie is willing to bet that her idol, the great detective Gilbert Carrington, never fetches his own fish.

Maisie’s chance comes when she notices a wriggling sack discarded in an alley—with a half-drowned puppy inside! Who would try to get rid of a sweet little dog? The mystery becomes her very first case. When Maisie’s friend George is accused of stealing coins from the butcher shop where he works, she finds herself with a proper crime to solve. While she spends less time peeling potatoes and more time searching for evidence, the clues pile up—and so do Gran’s questions about where she’s always running off to. Can Maisie find the culprit in her new canine assistant’s would-be drowning, clear George’s name, and keep up with her chores?

When Maisie finds a half-drowned dog, Eddie, Maisie has to convince Gran to allow her to keep the dog. With the help of one of the boarders, Maisie shows Gran that Eddie is useful to have around. Readers will giggle as Maisie and the boarder work together and come up with a creative solution that allows Eddie to stay.

While Eddie often gets into some humorous trouble, he also leads Maisie to befriend George. When George gets fired, Maisie promises to prove that he isn’t a thief. With a boarder’s help, Maisie disguises herself so she can investigate. While Maisie sneaks around looking for clues, she uses her powers of observation to solve the mystery. The mystery is solved in an entertaining way that leads Maisie into some interesting situations.

Maisie is spunky, observant, and willing to don a disguise to solve a mystery. Maisie’s grandmother, the maid, and the other boarders are not well-developed, but they add interest and suspense to the story.

The detective story has an easy-to-follow plot. However, some readers may need help understanding some of the vocabulary since Maisie and the other characters use old-fashioned vocabulary such as scullery, sniggering, dithered, and reproachful

The Case of the Stolen Sixpence has an interesting mystery, a determined main character, and a mischievous dog. Black and white pictures will help readers visualize the story’s action, and they also break up the text into manageable blocks. The advanced vocabulary and sentence structure make The Case of the Stolen Sixpence best for proficient readers. However, the story would be fun to read aloud to younger readers. Mystery lovers who aren’t ready for Maisie’s mysteries should grab a magnifying glass and the Hilde Cracks the Case Series by Hilde Lysiak. Proficient readers who desire more illustrated mysteries will want to travel back in time with the Time Jumpers Series by Wendy Mass.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • Maisie admires a detective, Gilbert Carrington, because he “managed to solve a murder once just from an ear sent by the penny post in a small brown paper parcel.”
  • Maisie finds a puppy in a sack. She thinks that someone was trying to drown the puppy by putting him in a sack and throwing him in a river.
  • A boy tries to kick Maisie’s dog.
  • When Maisie asked a boy named Reg some questions, he “put one meaty hand out and shoved Maisie at the door. She banged into the wooden frame, and clutched her shoulder…Reg tried to kick the little dog away, cursing, and Maisie screamed…”

 Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • One of the boarders at Maisie’s house is named Sidebotham. “Maisie couldn’t help sniggering whenever the governess’s name was mentioned. It sounded exactly like Sidebottom, and Miss Sidebotham’s rear end was rather enormous.”
  • When Maisie asks a boy about George, he sneered, “Sweet on him, was yer? Get off, nasty little beggar.”
  • “Drat,” is used three times. For example, someone calls George a “dratted boy.”
  • A man calls Maisie a “stupid little brat!”
  • Someone tells Maisie, “Sally’s mother. She’s a right old witch.”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

Notorious

Keenan has lived all over the world, but nowhere quite as strange as Centerlight Island, which is split between the United States and Canada. The only thing weirder than Centerlight itself is his neighbor Zarabeth, a.k.a. ZeeBee. ZeeBee is obsessed with the island’s history as a Prohibition-era smuggling route. She’s also convinced that her beloved dog, Barney, was murdered—something Keenan finds pretty hard to believe.

Just about everyone on Centerlight is a suspect because everyone hated Barney, a huge dog—part mastiff, part rottweiler—notorious for terrorizing the community. Accompanied by a mild-mannered new dog who is practically Barney’s opposite, ZeeBee enlists Keenan’s help to solve the mystery.

As Keenan and ZeeBee start to unravel the clues, they uncover a shocking conspiracy that dates back to Centerlight’s gangster past. The good news is that Keenan may have found the best friend he’s ever had. The bad news is that the stakes are sky-high. And now someone is after them…

Centerlight’s history is full of gangster lore and hidden treasure legends that Zeebee is excited to share with her new friend Keenan. Middle grade readers will relate to both characters because they are interesting, flawed, and struggle with typical teenage problems. Most of the chapters alternate between ZeeBee’s and Keenan’s points of view. However, some of the chapters are told from other characters’ points of view, which makes it necessary to read the chapter titles. The changing points of view and the large cast of characters may confuse some readers.

Notorious blends mystery, adventure, and suspense into a story that is hard to put down. The story contains just enough gangster lore and teenage drama to hook the reader. Keenan thinks that ZeeBee’s stories are exaggerated, while some of the local kids think that ZeeBee is crazy. ZeeBee struggles with the fact that even though she’s always lived on Centerlight, she doesn’t feel as if she belongs. All of these conflicting plots are interconnected and form a fabulously fun tale that contains many surprises.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • ZeeBee is obsessed with the town’s prohibition past. When she gives Keenan a tour of the island, she takes him to a cliff. ZeeBee says, “They call it Ripley’s Point because that’s where the gangster Meyer Lansky dumped Reuben Ripley’s body when they caught him helping himself to some of the booze shipments to sell for his own life… You used to be able to see a red stain on that sharp pointed one [rock], but it’s faded over the years.”
  • ZeeBee tells Keenan about a fourth of July when “this crew out of Detroit” was trying to “muscle in on Capone’s business here in Centerlight… Capone’s guys tossed a lit match into the fireworks… There was a lot of noise, so nobody noticed a few extra booms, pops, and bangs in there. But when it was all over, the entire Detroit crew was scattered around the park, dead.”
  • ZeeBee and Keenan are out in the forest at night when two men approach them. ZeeBee’s dog Barney “leaps on the bewildered giant, burying his teeth in the already scarred forearm.” The two men threaten the kids, and Keenan twirls “around into the familiar tae kwon do stance, and my leg launches out into the kick I haven’t been able to execute since I got sick. My whole body tenses… Whack! The sole of my sneaker smacks into the heavy piece of gold, ramming it into the side of Bryce’s head… Bryce’s eyes roll back and he crumples, unconscious, in the dirt.” Keenan injures his foot. The police show up and arrest the bad guys.

 Drugs and Alcohol

  • Keenan finds dead animals in the forest. “There must be twenty-five or thirty of them—all small animals. This is a graveyard.” Keenan thinks the animals ate poisoned meat.
  • The local fro-yo shop makes rum raisin frozen yogurt.

Language

  • There is some name-calling, such as jerk, idiot, and moron. For example, ZeeBee gets upset when Keenan begins hanging out with some boys from school. She tells him, “You’re worse than Ronnie and those idiots! They’re just brainless. You’re a sleaze!”
  • When Keenan goes to visit an elderly man, ZeeBee wonders, “So why is Keenan visiting this jackass?”
  • ZeeBee is upset that Keenan went to a party. The kids broke into a lighthouse, and ZeeBee’s father went to break it up. ZeeBee thinks, “But Dad wouldn’t be much of a border officer if he didn’t have the brains to reconstruct a crime scene. He passed every single one of those boneheads as they biked away from the lighthouse.”
  • Keenan goes to talk to his friend’s father. Later, the father tells his son, “I don’t have time to waste on some twelve-year-old nutjob.”

Supernatural

  • None

 

Spiritual Content

  • None

Spin

Spin centers around the murder of Paris Secord, an up-and-coming musician whose stage name was DJ ParSec. After finding fame and fortune on SoundCloud and YouTube, Paris begins to clash with some of the friends who helped her on her way to the top. When Paris is found dead on top of her signature turntables, her childhood best friend Kya and social media guru Fatimah (“Fuse”) find themselves suspects in the investigation. To clear their name, they set out to solve the murder themselves.

Kya and Fuse are the two main narrators of the story, which switches between their first-person perspectives. As Kya and Fuse delve deeper into Paris’s past, they must come to terms with the bitter fallings-out they had with Paris before she died. While Kya and Fuse start as enemies, they soon bond in their shared efforts to bring justice to Paris. As they investigate, the two encounter a conspiracy involving crazed fans who will do anything to prove themselves loyal members of the ParSec Nation. As Kya and Fuse unravel the mystery, some chapters flash back to Paris’s perspective, which reveals crucial details and reveals how she coped with fame.

 Spin is a fast-paced mystery that introduces readers to music industry concepts, such as ill-intentioned managers and nosy journalists. The story honestly portrays contemporary music culture and rabid fandom. While some of this portrayal comes across as well-researched and genuine, other parts feel forced. Readers might find the narrative’s dialects and buzzwords unnatural. For example, the book often shows tweets from rabid fans, but the style and syntax of the tweets is disingenuous and awkward.

Spin succeeds in its earnest portrayal of class tensions. Kya, Fuse, and Paris all must deal with their families’ financial situations and how their circumstances have shaped their worldviews. For example, Paris set up a bank account for her newfound wealth while trying to keep her grandmother from being evicted. “I learned quickly,” Paris says, “that black-folks rich and rich-rich aren’t the same thing.”

Spin delivers no central lesson about racial injustice. However, Spin is a diverse story set across a backdrop that shows readers how black music and culture evolve. From seeing Paris in the studio to seeing her fans’ blogs and bedrooms, readers will get a close-up look of how people of color influence and lead in the music scene. Readers will also see the anxieties Kya and Fuse experience while dealing with the police, because they are wary that, as people of color, they may become victims of police brutality.

Overall, Spin feels fairly one-dimensional, and readers may guess the ending before the murderer is revealed. The story is strongest in its theme of friendship, and readers will enjoy seeing Kya and Fuse bond as they begin to heal from Paris’s death. Equally important is the way art and culture bring people together, even as fame pushes artists to their breaking points.

Sexual Content

  • An internet troll asks Fuse, “If I hooked jumper cables to a car battery and clamped them onto your fingers and toes…would you blow?”
  • In a flashback, Paris narrates how she meets her boyfriend Shameik, who was “a CUTE-cute boy from my grade. Suddenly him invading my personal space wasn’t such a big deal.”
  • Paris’s boyfriend Shameik “kissed my neck again. It tickled, but I didn’t giggle because I liked acting as if those kisses didn’t affect me so he’d keep trying.”
  • Shameik and Fuse kissed once. It isn’t a big deal to Paris and is never described in detail, but the kiss keeps being brought up.
  • A character says, “If you made me leave so [Shameik and Fuse] could make out, I’m going to need some gas money.”

Violence

  • On the night of Paris’s murder, Kya punches Fuse in the face. “Her punch connected with my left eye. A solid POP! A white explosion of pain that washed out the room for a hot second.”
  • While questioning Fuse about the murder, a police officer “holds his hands at chest level, fingers curled, ready to grab” Fuse. Another cop grabs Fuse “so all I could do was kick, then he lifted me so those kicks only hit air.”
  • Fuse remembers finding Paris’s body. “That sheet of sticky, dark blood over half of ParSec’s [Paris’s] face. How she’d been a rag doll, arms spread wide, across the turntables…Her eyes bulged, the right one deep red where white should be, like something in that side of her head had exploded.”
  • A ParSec fan at school shoves Kya into a locker.
  • Fuse says, “Beyoncé could start the Purge with a tweet if she wanted.” (The Purge is a film about an anarchic period of unhinged murder and violence; the saying “The Purge” has become shorthand for such an event.)
  • Dedicated ParSec fans kidnap Kya and Fuse, zip-tie their hands and ankles together, and put them in the back of a van. Kya’s “turned—too late—to see two [people] rushing at me, duct tape stretched and ready. The first strip pressed hard against my lips while one of my assailants wrapped me [Kya] in a bear hug, pinning my arms.” During the attack a person in a mask “slammed a palm into my [Fuse’s] chest, pushing me back against the van wall.”
  • While they are captive in the van, Fuse is “angry enough to tear a chunk out of Kya” and aims “a two-heeled kick towards Kya’s chest.”
  • Someone tells Kya, “You should calm down. You’ll bust a blood vessel.” Kya responds, “I’ll bust your blood vessels!”
  • Devoted ParSec fans threaten to cut off Kya’s pinkie with garden shears. Later, they claim they were joking.
  • When they find the murderer, a group of ParSec fans deliver him to the police, “tied, gagged, and slightly bruised.” The fans have cut off his pinkie. The murderer’s hand “was heavily bandaged. A splotch of red seeped through.”
  • Fuse threatens Paris’s manager with a stun gun, but never uses it.
  • Fuse’s mother had the stun gun because “these days she preferred pepper spray and the spiked keychain her self-defense teacher gave her.”
  • When confronting a suspect, Fuse expects Kya “to kick the door in, snap this woman’s neck like Jessica Jones, and tear [her] out the house through a load-bearing wall.”
  • Paris’s narration reveals that her murder was an accident. She recounts, “His forearm grazed my chin, and I bit into his denim jacket sleeve. There were layers between my teeth and his flesh…I bit down with all the force in my jaws. He howled, tried to fling me off. He succeeded… The stand my laptop sat on was made of heavy aluminum… the corners were sharp… My temple connected with all the force generated from me and [the murderer]’s combined pain. A solid thunk, then my legs wouldn’t work.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • A popular rapper smells “strongly of weed and cologne.”
  • Paris’s boyfriend, Shameik, finds beer bottles in Paris’s apartment and says, “Who was over here drinking beer?” Paris admits to sharing beers with a popular rap group. Shameik says, “My girlfriend’s alone with some drunk old guys, and I’m not supposed to be concerned?”

Language

  • “God,” “crap,” and “Jesus” are used infrequently.
  • “God!” and “Jesus!” are used as an exclamation occasionally.
  • Fuse says that ParSec fans view Paris as “their god.”
  • Paris says that Kanye West is “one of the gods.”
  • Paris’s grandmother sometimes says, “Lord.”
  • Paris says, “I promptly lost my ish [sic]” when she gets 8,000 plays on her SoundCloud.
  • Paris’s manager calls Fuse a “strumpet.”
  • Fuse says, “Screw it,” once.

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • Kya’s mother thanks God for Kya’s safety.
  • Kya attends Paris’s funeral and observes that “The Fifth Street Baptist Church choir should’ve been here. That was [Paris’s grandmother]’s church…where Paris got dragged every Sunday before she could call shots. There was no ‘Amazing Grace,’ no ‘His Eye Is on the Sparrow.’”
  • A music journalist finding a lead looks “like someone told him Christmas Eve got rescheduled to today.”

by Caroline Galdi

Max: Best Friend. Hero. Marine.

When Justin finds out his older brother, Kyle, has been killed overseas, Justin is devastated. Kyle was a marine, a hero trying to live up to his father’s reputation, yet in an instant his life was over. Now, Kyle’s only connection to Justin is Max, Kyle’s former canine partner and a discharged K-9 marine.

When Max was at Kyle’s side, he was meant to sniff out explosives, search for enemy soldiers and weapons, and keep Kyle and his unit alive. Max, just like Kyle, was trained for war. He was trained to be a hero. While Max’s presence doesn’t make it easy for Justin and his parents to grieve, they soon discover that without a home, Max will be put down. With no home to place Max in, Kyle’s partner is placed in Justin’s care.

After Kyle’s death, it isn’t easy for Justin and his family to see Max alive and well. It isn’t easy for Max to move on from his days on the frontlines. Most people misunderstand Max, believing he is too aggressive. Max isn’t meant to be a pet. He is meant to be a hero. Justin is the only one who understands Max is also grieving for Kyle. Both Justin and Max find it difficult to adjust to each other. Soon the two bond over Kyle’s death, supporting each other and giving each other a purpose.

When Tyler, Kyle’s best friend, is discharged from the marines, Justin begins to ask questions. Justin and Max work together to figure out what really happened to Kyle. Can they find the truth and still protect Justin’s family from the dangerous people Tyler is working with?

Shotz’s novel about a war dog coming home to his handler’s family is a wonderfully wholesome story. Justin and his family are well-written characters that deal with the guilt, shame, and sadness that accompanies a loved one’s death. Max serves as the means to which Justin’s family can work out their emotions surrounding Kyle’s death, as well as the means to which everyone comes together in the end. Max is also a stand in for Kyle; since Kyle is gone, Max helps Justin protect his family and sniff out Tyler’s true intentions, just as Kyle would have done.

Max: Best Friend. Hero. Marine. shows that heroes come in many forms. Kyle is considered a hero because he followed in his father’s footsteps and joined the marines. Justin struggles with his father’s pressure to live up to his brother’s legend. Justin’s father, who was discharged early on from the marines because of a leg injury, struggles to connect with Justin because Justin doesn’t want to be a marine. However, Justin proves himself to be as much of a hero as Kyle. At the end of the story, Justin earns his dad’s trust and lives up to Kyle’s memory.

Unlike Kyle, Tyler chose to lie and deceive his best friend’s family in order to smuggle weapons across the border. Tyler will eliminate anyone that stands in his way. The story emphasizes that someone doesn’t need to go into the military to be a hero, and that not all marines are heroes.

Max: Best Friend. Hero. Marine. is fast-paced, and the suspense builds from the moment Justin’s family is told Kyle has died. The believable twists will keep readers turning the page until they reach the heartwarming conclusion. Max: Best Friend. Hero. Marine. is a must-read because of the realistic characters and wonderful storytelling. For more heroic dog stories, try the G.I. Dogs Series by Laurie Calkhoven.

Sexual Content

  • When Justin meets Carmen, “her dark eyes were still zeroed in on him, making his cheeks feel kind of hot.” Justin thinks Carmen is pretty.
  • When two of Justin’s friends are in his backyard, “they looked up to see Justin framed in his window, shirtless.”
  • When Carmen is invited over to Justin’s house for dinner, Justin feels awkward. “Then again, Justin had never brought a girl home for dinner.”
  • After triumphing over Tyler, Carmen and Chuy meet up with Justin. Then, Carmen “stepped forward and planted her lips on his. Justin was so startled that he didn’t know what to do at first. Then he quickly came to his senses and kissed her back.”

Violence

  • At the beginning of the novel, Justin is playing a military-themed video game. In the game, the “virtual army let out a series of grunts and pumped their fists in the air or fell to the ground.” The game makes Justin think of his brother, Kyle, a soldier overseas. “Sometimes Justin tried to picture Kyle as one of these guys, but it was just too weird. He couldn’t imagine his brother shooting anyone.”
  • Chuy, Justin’s friend, has a cousin named Emilio. Emilio is “pretty hard-core—possibly even in a gang—and he wasn’t going to be happy when he learned that Chuy had misplaced his new  (video) game.”
  • Kyle is never seen in the present day because he dies fighting in Afghanistan. When a solider comes to Justin’s house, “Justin knew for sure: His brother was dead. Kyle was dead.”
  • In a flashback, Justin thinks about the time Kyle picked him up from school. Justin had gotten into a fight. “He didn’t know how to tell Kyle that he’d gotten in a fight over a stupid bike. Or that he’d been sucker-punched. Or that he’d managed not to hit back, because he didn’t think it was worth it.”
  • During another flashback, Justin remembers Tyler, Kyle’s friend, speaking to his parents over video call. “‘We’re making trouble, Mrs. W.,’ Tyler said, ‘For the bad guys, that is.’”
  • When Justin confronts his dad about Kyle, he says, “Being a man and enlisting and getting killed, like Kyle? Or being a man and getting my leg shot up, like you? Tell me what I’m supposed to learn from either of those things.” Later, Justin tells his dad, “‘You’d like me to get myself killed,’ Justin said, holding his dad’s ‘Wouldn’t you?’”
  • Justin’s mom gets a call about Max, Kyle’s dog. She tells the family, “Sergeant Reyes called. They’re going to kill Max.”
  • Tyler tells Justin’s dad that Max is the reason Kyle was killed. Justin sees “his father was standing in front of Max’s crate, his gun drawn and pointed at Max’s”
  • When Justin is hunted by a pair of rottweilers, Max fights one of the dogs. “The two dogs rolled around in the dirt, a frenzy of growls and bites and scratches, battling each other fiercely.” Justin found Max injured later.
  • Justin watches as his dad, Ray, is about to be attacked by Stack, a sheriff deputy and Tyler’s accomplice. “What his dad couldn’t see—which Justin and Max both could see—was that Stack was running at Justin’s dad from behind, holding a giant rock in his fleshy hands, raised high in the air. He was about to slam it down onto Justin’s dad’s” Max saves Ray, “Stack stumbled, and Max flew over Ray and crashed into Stack’s chest, knocking him to the ground.”
  • During the final battle with Tyler’s gang, Justin sees “his dad, who pointed a gun straight at the windshield and fired. The truck swerved and crashed into the side of the hill. The back of the truck exploded in a burst of flame, and suddenly a thousand gunshots pinged around the ravine. The ammunition in Tyler’s truck had ignited.” No one is injured or hurt in the explosion.

Drugs and Alcohol

  • Tyler is given pain medication for a shrapnel injury. Tyler says, “But they got me on so many painkillers, I hardly notice it.”
  • When Tyler comes over to talk to Justin’s dad, “Justin was surprised to see his dad limp over to the mini-fridge under his desk and take out two beers. It was early for him to start drinking.”
  • When Tyler asks Justin’s dad for a favor, Justin’s dad took “another swig of beer, as if for courage.”

Language

  • During a flashback, Justin remembers a time when he and his parents were talking to Kyle over video chat. Justin says, “Kyle’s so awesome even his frickin’ dog is a hero.”
  • When going to see Max at the military kennel, Justin thinks, “He was one pissed-off dog, that was for sure.”
  • When Justin thinks about his dad, he thinks, “His dad cared more about a stupid dog that had once belonged to Kyle than he did about his own living, breathing son.”
  • Someone tells Justin, “Yo, you look like crap.”
  • Before Kyle and Tyler became soldiers, Tyler used to tease Justin. Tyler “would make fun of Justin—calling him a serious loser or computer nerd.”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • Kyle’s funeral is at a church. At the church, Justin’s “Mother’s sobs carried up and over the singing of the choir.”

by Jonathan Planman

Archimancy

Cordelia Liu wasn’t happy to leave California. As soon as she stepped into Shadow School, she knew things were going to be different. Still, she didn’t expect the school grounds to be filled with ghosts.

Cordelia soon realizes she’s not the only one who can see the ghosts; her new friend Benji can too. Together with super-smart Agnes, the trio are determined to find out why the ghosts are there and whether there’s a way to set them free.

But the school was created with more sinister intentions, and someone is willing to go to extreme lengths to ensure that the ghosts remain trapped forever. Cordelia and her friends don’t know who they can trust. Do they need to fear the living, the dead, or both?

Shadow School isn’t just another ghost story. White creates a unique setting that is spooky without being overly frightening. Cordelia and her friends are somewhat stereotypical, but readers will still enjoy the brainy Angus, the sullen cute Benji, and the curious Cordelia. As Cordelia and her friends help the ghosts leave Shadow School, readers may be slightly disappointed that the ghosts’ stories lack detail. Instead of delving into the ghosts’ personal stories, the ghosts are quickly dispatched.

Even though Cordelia solves each problem quickly, readers will still enjoy the mystery behind Shadow School as well as the character’s interactions. Since Cordelia is a new student at Shadow School, she struggles to make friends. Throughout the story, Cordelia learns the importance of forgiveness as well as the importance of being friends with people who are different than her.

Cordelia is far from a perfect character, but her flaws make her relatable. She has awkward moments with her parents, she isn’t sure who she can trust, and she doesn’t always know what to do. Cordelia thinks about ignoring the ghosts, but decides to continue helping them because “easy choices were seldom the right ones.”

Shadow School has just the right amount of mystery, friendship, and frightening scenes to keep middle school readers engaged. Readers will have to use context clues to decipher difficult vocabulary, such as pealegume, tessellating, assuage, and spile. Told from Cordelia’s point of view, Shadow School gives readers an exciting peek into a paranormal world. Readers who enjoy Shadow School will also enjoy Nightbooks, another spooky story written by J.A. White.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • While eating lunch, a food fight starts. “A plate of lasagna smacked” a boy in the face and “a piece of stringy cheese dangled from his nose as he searched for the culprit. . . Trays flew through the air, raining down lasagna, pizza, bagels, fries, sticky beverages, and the occasional healthy salad. There were no hurricane-forced gales, no apparent cause for the objects to be moving on their own. . . The table next to Cordelia was rumbling like a volcano about to erupt. She pulled Grant to safety as it slid across the room, right where they had been standing a moment before.” As the kids run out of the cafeteria, Cordelia sees a ghost. The chaos is described over three pages.
  • Cordelia hears a ghost whistle a lullaby and “Cordelia felt her limbs grow sluggish and saw the boy. . . could barely stay awake. His eyes fluttered, and he tottered uneasily from side to side before falling through the wall.” As Cordelia watches the ghost grab a tool with “a long pincer on one end, black and jagged like the claw of a prehistoric crustacean . . . the green-eyed ghost dug the pincer into the back of the hipster and pressed a trigger at the opposite end. The edges of the pincer closed. The green-eyed ghost pulled backward, and the hipster seemed to leap out of himself, though the version gripped by the pincer quickly deflated and hung like a suit of clothes.” Cordelia figures out that the ghosts fade away because someone snatched parts of them.
  • When Cordelia and her friend try to take blueprints out of a hidden office, a ghost sees them. The ghost named Elijah “raised his arm and point[ed] to the left, where the bronze compass that had been sitting on the table now hovered in the air, its rusty but still serviceable point extended in their direction. As Cordelia watched, the compass was joined by a utility knife and two pairs of scissors, while a row of sharpened pencils took position to their right.” A boy ghost “came out of nowhere, plowing shoulder-first into the back of Elijah’s legs and knocking him over.” Because of the boy ghost, Cordelia and her friend are able to escape. The scene is described over three pages.
  • Cordelia and her friends plan to trap the evil ghost in a ghost box. When one of the evil ghosts (Lenny) tries to grab Cordelia, “the hiker reached out and wrapped her arms around him. Lenny tried to shake her off, but the hiker dragged him backward with a fierce look of determination. Within a few moments, his entire body was inside the ghost box with her.”
  • As Cordelia goes down a hall, “the lockers to either side of her began to rumble and shake. . . Locks burst open and shot across the hall at dangerous speed. Cordelia heard one whiz past her ear while another clipped her wrist, sending a lightning bolt of pain all the way to her elbow. She broke into a run.” School supplies begin hitting Cordelia, then “the world went black.”
  • An evil ghost named Geist tries to get rid of Cordelia. When he catches her, “Cordelia suddenly rose two feet into the air and drifted toward the cart. She tried to fight it, but Geist was too powerful.” Cordelia’s friends save her and they capture Geist. “Cordelia grabbed a tool of her own and got to work, fastening the claw to Geist’s hip. The ghost snatcher spun in her direction, his green eyes glowing with malevolence, but there was nothing he could do. . .One, Geist was gone. Two, each one of their snatching tools now held a sad, deflated sac of skin.

Drugs and Alcohol

  • Cordelia googled “Good Spirits” and instead of getting information on ghosts, the search “took her to a list of stores that sold alcohol.”
  • Agnes makes brownies and shares them with adults. Then she tells them, “I added crème de menthe. That’s alcohol!”

Language

  • Heck is used twice.
  • Cordelia says a boy is “a jerk.”
  • While telling a story Agnes says, “some idiot dumped a few northern snakeheads into a pond in Maryland. . .”

Supernatural

  • Some of the characters can see ghosts. The number of ghosts is “always changing. New ones arrive. Old ones fade away.” One of the characters explains, “Ghosts stay in one small area. A bench, like Newspaper Man. Or the gym, like the boy. There’s a doctor wearing green scrubs who mostly sticks to the supply closet, but sometimes she rushes down the hallway with her hands up in the air. It always happens real quick, like she’s just been called into surgery.”
  • Cordelia puts glasses near the Newspaper Man. When he puts them on, he “flipped to the next page and propped his feet up on the table. All the frustration left his body. . . A black triangle the size of a welcome mat appeared in the air above him, hovering a few inches below the ceiling. . . The triangle grew until it was half the size of the room. . . It slid open from the bottom, like a garage door, revealing a gentle, flickering light that brought to mind a cozy fireplace on a cold winter’s night.” The man enters the triangle and disappears.
  • Cordelia puts blush by a woman who continues to look in the mirror. When the woman picks it up, “the black triangle appeared a few moments later.” When the door slid open this time, Cordelia saw a room with “bright, pulsating light of a party.”
  • The ghosts that disappear “don’t seem so happy about it. Almost like they’re sick. . .”
  • Cordelia and her friends discuss what a poltergeist is. Someone explains, “It’s a special kind of ghost that can move objects around.”
  • The kids find the blueprints to make a box that traps ghosts. The owner of the school “believed that if he studied these [haunted] houses and tracked the similarities between them, he could use this knowledge to build a haunted house on purpose. He called this process archimancy.”
  • Ghosts have special goggles that let them see the living.
  • When an evil ghost whistles a tune, “the music wrapped itself around [Cordelia], squeezing the tension from her muscles and soothing all her worries. Cordelia know she should run, especially when she saw Whistler climb the first few rungs of the ladder, but moving required a huge amount of energy that she no longer possessed.” The Whistler grabs Agnes’ cheeks and “she instantly began to shiver. . . Agnes’s lips began to turn blue.” Someone blows a whistle and the “shrill sound was deafening in the small, round, overpowering Whistler’s song.” The kids are able to escape.
  • When an evil ghost, the Whistler, touches an object, a red triangle appears. “Instead of hovering in the air like its black siblings, the triangle lay flat on the floor, gleaming like a poisonous candy apple. It slid open. Puffs of smoky darkness polluted the room. . . Cordelia heard factory sounds: the pump of pistons, rumble of heavy machinery, roar of a furnace. And screams. There were lots of screams.” The Whistler falls into the triangle and the triangle vanishes.

Spiritual Content

  • None

Kitty and the Moonlight Rescue

Every night, Kitty’s mom goes on an exciting adventure. Kitty’s mom has superpowers—she can see in the dark and talk to cats! She uses her superpowers to help those in need. Kitty knows that she also has catlike superpowers, but she isn’t ready to go on adventures yet.

One night, a friendly black cat named Figaro comes to Kitty’s window. Figaro and all the other cats are frightened by a terrible noise that’s coming from the clock tower. Kitty’s mom has already left and only Kitty can help. Kitty doesn’t like the night’s shadows. She isn’t sure that she’s ready to help, but Figaro believes in Kitty and her superpowers. With Figaro’s help, Kitty steps out into the darkness for an exciting moonlight adventure.

Cat lovers and adventure fans will love the new series Kitty. On her first adventure, Kitty reluctantly helps Figaro. During the adventure, Figaro encourages Kitty with kind words. However, that doesn’t always ease Kitty’s fear. Several times in the adventure, her mother’s words come back to her: “You’re braver than you think.” When she remembers her mother’s encouraging words, she is able to face her challenges.

Anyone who has ever been afraid of trying something new will relate to Kitty. Kitty and the Moonlight Rescue shows Kitty overcoming her fear to help several cats who are also afraid of something. However, with Kitty and Figaro’s help, both cats are able to overcome their fears. The rescued cats also make new friends. The story has just the right amount of cuteness, adventure, and suspense for younger readers.

Kitty and the Moonlight Rescue tackles the subject of fear in a kid-friendly manner. The fast-paced plot will keep readers flipping the pages until the very end. Each page has illustrations ranging from cat prints to detailed illustrations of Kitty and her activities. The illustrations are black and white with a pop of orange. Although most of the vocabulary is easy, younger readers may need help with some of the words. Some of the vocabulary is more advanced, such as gracefully, venturing, mysterious, and lingered.

Another positive aspect is Kitty’s family relationships. Even though Kitty’s parents play a small role in the story, both are portrayed in a positive light. After Kitty’s adventure, she sits down and has a picnic breakfast with her family. During the meal, Kitty tells her family about her adventures. The story also shows how it is always easier to be brave when you have someone with you.

Kitty and the Moonlight Rescue is a fun story for those who are ready for chapter books. The bright pictures and large text will keep the reader’s attention. Kitty’s adventures show her sneaking out of the house, walking across buildings’ roofs, and climbing a tall tower. In the end, Kitty is able to make new friends and solve the mystery. Kitty and the Moonlight Rescue is a purr-fect story for young readers who love animals. Cat lovers will want to add the Purrmaids Series by Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen to their reading list.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • None

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • Kitty’s mom “could see in the dark, climb walls, and balance on rooftops. Her superpower senses meant she could always tell when trouble was near. Best of all, she could talk to cats and share their secrets!”
  • When Kitty went on her adventure, she “let go of the chimney and felt her super balance kick in.” Kitty also has super hearing, night vision, and she can talk to cats.

Spiritual Content

  • None

The Sonic Breach

Tom gets to take all sorts of cool classes at the Swift Academy of Science and Technology, but robotics may be the one excites him the most. His teacher is holding a battling robot tournament, and Tom and his friends have to build a machine that will come out on top.

With the final battle coming up, Tom and his friends need as much time as possible to refine their masterpiece. But the rest of their teachers have been giving so many pop quizzes that they can barely focus in class, never mind concentrate on the tournament. Naturally, everyone is frustrated with the trend. . . until a mysterious new phone app appears. If students get pop quizzes during first period, they can warn everyone else about it by getting their phones to emit a high-pitched sound—a mosquito alarm—that adults can’t hear.

Tom is unsure about the whole thing, but it technically isn’t cheating, right? But when someone changes the app to break all the rules, the ethics aren’t debatable anymore. The longer the perpetrator remains unknown, the more harshly teachers treat all the students, and the pressure won’t stop until Tom and his friends track down the person behind the app takeover.

Like the first book in the series, The Sonic Breach incorporates mystery and technology. However, unlike The Drone Pursuit, The Sonic Breach doesn’t have as much interaction between Tom and his friends, which takes some of the enjoyment out of the story. Book two is also told from Tom’s point of view, and the story has an easy-to-read, conversational tone which allows the readers to understand Tom’s thinking process.

As Tom and his friends solve the mystery of who hacked the Pop Chop app, the readers will learn the importance of perseverance and helping others. At one point, Tom thinks, “Mistakes are ways to learn, overcome, and move forward. I would much rather have had our robot fail during a sparring match than during the final battle. This way we can learn from our design mistakes and make it better than it was before.”

The cover of The Sonic Breach shows two students battling their robots. However, the battle bots take backstage to the moral question of using a new app—Pop Chop. The story focuses on Tom’s moral dilemma: is using Pop Chop a form of cheating? Although the topic is relevant to students, readers may quickly become bored with the lack of action. In the end, Tom and his friends discover who hacked the Pop Chop app, but the mystery’s solution is unrealistic and comes too easily.

Readers looking for non-stop action and an in-depth mystery may want to leave The Sonic Breach on the shelf. However, readers who enjoyed the first Tom Swift book and are interested in technology will find The Sonic Breach entertaining. Tom Swift is an intelligent, likable character who models good communication skills. Plus, parents will appreciate the story’s positive relationships and messages.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • None

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • Tom and his friends build a robot that says the phrase, “Get to za Choppa.” The phrase comes from an Arnold Schwarznegger movie, and the kids at the school often repeat it. One of the students “was creative with his altered Arnold phrase, ‘Get to the crappa.’”
  • When a news crew shows up at the Swift Academy, the reporter walks over to the fencing team. A student wonders why the reporter is covering the fencing team when there “are two perfectly good robots over there beating the crap out of each other.”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

Top Secret Smackdown

Ravens have been stolen from the Tower of London! Mac B.’s top-secret mission? Travel to Iceland and retrieve the ravens. . . or Britain is ruined!

In Iceland, Mac discovers secret submarines, hungry polar bears, mysterious blueprints, and his old archnemesis! Is the KGB man behind this birdnapping? Can Mac get the ravens to safety? It’s time for an epic, top-secret smackdown between these two secret agents!

The third installment of the Mac B. series continues the punny fun. Mac learns more about the United Kingdom’s history as well as the difference between dolphins and porpoises. Mac discovers how a simple story can become an important legend. The queen of England orders Mac to travel to Iceland and solve the mystery. Even though the majority of the story focuses on the mystery of the missing ravens, Mac’s difficulties with his mother’s boyfriend also plays a part in the story.

The queen’s outlandish behavior will make readers giggle. Readers will enjoy the conclusion because it ties all of the events together in a unique way. Top Secret Smackdown mixes humorous puns, a mysterious enemy, and wrestling to create a fun story that will entertain even the most reluctant readers. Short sentences and simple vocabulary will help readers build confidence. Large purple and orange illustrations appear on almost every page, which helps readers envision the story’s events.

Mac tells his own story with humor and puts a spotlight on the absurd. Younger readers will love the adventure, intrigue, and interesting characters. Although Top Secret Smackdown can be read as a stand-alone book, for maximum enjoyment the books should be read in order. Readers who enjoy silly, illustrated stories may also want to read Two Dogs in a Trench Coat Series by Julie Falatko.

Sexual Content

  • The story implies that Mac’s mother’s boyfriend stays the night when he thinks, “usually on Saturday mornings, my mom’s boyfriend, Craig, was camped out in front of the TV watching WrestleFest.”

Violence

  • When Mac goes to Iceland, he looks for clues, and “someone hit me on the head with something very heavy and knocked me out.” When he woke up, Mac was tied to a chair.
  • The president of Iceland is telling Mac a story. She acts out part of the story when “she punched me lightly on my arm. When I tried to block it, she punched me harder in the ribs.”
  • The KGB man ties Mac to a chair. Mac breaks out of the ropes and pretends he is a wrestler on WrestlingFest. Mac “jumped onto the KGB Man’s back. He shook me off. . . I jumped on his back again. The KGB man stood up and threw me to the floor. He tore off his shirt.” During the scuffle, Mac throws a chair, accidentally sparked TNT, and “something exploded. The camera zapped. Its wires fried. The submarine was filling with water.”
  • When Mac escapes the sinking submarine, “there was another blast. . .pieces of metal came flying and knocked my legs out from under me.” Mac falls into the river but is saved.

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • The KGB man calls a group of people “fools.”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • When Mac is afraid that he might drown, he thinks about Father Thames. “Some people say there is a river god named Father Thames who lives in the waters that run through London. They say he has lived there for a long, long time.” Mac thought he saw Father Thames, but then he realized it was a dolphin.

 

 

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