Topic: Detective

Dig Too Deep

Liberty is an independent teenager. She cooks, cleans, maintains a perfect GPA, plays volleyball, and applies for scholarships all by herself. However, her seemingly perfect life is turned upside down after her political activist mother is arrested on suspicion of being involved in a Washington DC car bombing. Her perfect life and her hopes of attending Georgetown are trashed. When her mother is sent to prison, Liberty is sent to Ebbottsville, a small town in rural Appalachia, to live with her grandmother. Liberty lived in Ebbottsville when she was a child, but now the top of Tanner’s peak is gone and the town’s water is neon orange.

Out of her comfort zone and away from her best friend, Liberty has to live in poverty and help her ailing grandmother suffering from lung cancer. At school, she is mocked as the “new girl” and she has a hard time adjusting to rural life when everyone seems to instantly hate her. However, Liberty quickly learns that her grandmother’s condition may have been caused by the infamous Peabody mining company’s mountaintop mine. Liberty soon finds herself in a fight with an infamous mining tycoon who will stop at nothing to keep his grip on the community. Will Liberty beat Peabody or will he silence her forever?

Poor, run-down, and alone – Allgeyer paints the perfect picture of a troubled girl against an unstoppable corporation in Dig Too Deep. Liberty is a good example for young girls, encouraging them to have a strong moral center and to take a stand when they feel something is wrong or unfair no matter the risk. Liberty takes time away from her own personal goals to care of her sick grandmother, which highlights the importance of loving with all of your heart. Liberty also shows forgiveness when she accepts her mother back into her life.

Dig Too Deep raises questions about modern-day mining practices and shows some harsh consequences of corrupt mining. The book brings environmental issues to young readers, encourages them to think about others, and research other environmental problems affecting our world.

Dig Too Deep has a quick and suspenseful plot with a perfect mix of teenage angst and real-world problems. Readers will not be able to put the book down because of the nonstop suspense. Liberty is a relatable character that readers will root for as she fights a corrupt mining organization. However, Allgeyer does push the extremes of young adult fiction and due to its intense sexual content, violence, and language, this book is best for older readers. Nonetheless, Dig Too Deep is a great book for those looking for a strong female character or for a book that discusses modern-day environmental issues.

Sexual Content

  • Liberty and Cole go to a party and sit by a bonfire where they kiss before being interrupted by Cole’s friend, Dobber. Liberty describes the kiss. “When our lips touch, warmth shoots through my body. I don’t feel the wind. I don’t feel the fire – just Cole’s lips and his tongue, teasing mine. His hands slide up, and I tense, thinking he’s going to grab my boob, but he touches my face instead, the back of my neck, pulling me into him.”
  • Liberty thinks Cole’s “kisses are absolutely the best thing about this place – all soft, warm, and Tic-Tac-y.”
  • Cole invites Liberty over to his house where things get spicy after he spills beer on her lap. After she throws her pants in the dryer and puts on some gym shorts, Liberty “can feel the heat of his body on my skin, his angles, hollows, and points. He’s doing that thing again, that feels so good – but also scary. I’m way, way outside my comfort zone.” This scene takes place over six pages where Liberty becomes partially undressed. Liberty is not comfortable or ready for sex, and they do not have sex. She leaves after her pants are dried.
  • Dobber and Liberty kiss two times in the novel. Once, when trying to avoid suspicion from Peabody, Dobber “leans toward me, puts one hand on the side of my face. . . and the other over my mouth. Then he kisses his hand.”

Violence

  • Cole explains that Dobber’s dad has an ankle bracelet on because he “attacked a guy in town” and “tried to strangle him. It took four men to pull him off.”
  • Liberty’s mother was arrested on suspicion of being involved in a New York car bombing. Liberty says that her mom can “blow up whatever she wants to.”
  • Cole refuses to let her go until she promises she will stay out of the mine’s business, so Liberty makes her free hand into a fist, and punches “Cole square in the face.” Liberty breaks her finger and Cole is bleeding out of his eye.
  • Liberty finds out what a rope dog is when she sees “Patient old Goldie hanging from a noose.”
  • Peabody’s men are hunting Dobber and his dad down with guns. “They’re not after Liberty. They’re after you. Dobber…” Cole stares him in the eye. “They have guns.” Dobber and his dad hide in Liberty’s house and Peabody’s men never find them.
  • After extorting Peabody, Dobber punches him in the face. “Peabody’s head snaps back before I realize Dobber punched him.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • At a party, Liberty watches as “Three girls sitting at a picnic table pass around a bottle of pink wine.”
  • When Cole invites Liberty to his house, he offers her a beer. Liberty takes “the can Cole hands me and he pops the top, misting me with Wittbrau Light.”
  • When Liberty asks Dobber’s dad questions about the mine, “Mr. Dobber opens the refrigerator and pulls out a beer.” He even offers one to Liberty, who refuses.
  • Dobber’s dad is an alcoholic and meth addict—Dobber tells Liberty that “the first day was the worst. I had to strap him down. But he ain’t had no drugs or alcohol in four days.” Dobber insists that his dad is changing and getting clean because of Liberty’s fight against the mine.

Language

  • Profanity is used in the extreme and is on almost every page. Profanity includes: ass, fuck, motherfuck, shit, hell, bitch, Oh my God, goddam bastard, and donkey balls.
  • Liberty’s cab driver won’t drive her all the way up to her house. She pays “him seven dollars, call him chickenshit under my breath, and haul my backpack and suitcases a quarter mile up the hill.”
  • Granny describes Liberty’s father. “Worthless piece o’ work ran his sorry ass out of town the same night Jess told him the news.”
  • On their way to the party, Cole looks over at Liberty and says “Shit, you’re probably freezing.” Then he hands her a blanket.
  • Dobber’s father calls Dobber a jackass.
  • Cole jokingly says he wants Dobber to go far far away and Dobber replies “Did I ask you, butthead?”
  • A girl warns Liberty about Cole. The girl says “He’ll shit on you just like he shit on every other girl he’s dated.” Liberty thinks the girl is a “bitch.”
  • Liberty calls her Granny an old bat and Granny mumbles “Old bat, my ass.”
  • At lunch, Dobber calls Peabody a ‘special kind of shit’ and Cole thinks that’s “bullcrap.”
  • “Oh my God,” Liberty exclaims when Cole tries to convince her the water is safe to drink.
  • After Granny is diagnosed with stage four lymphoma, Liberty thinks, “But my world’s far from perfect, and my one parent went AWOL, taking all my money and, with it, our only chance to escape this fucking toxic mountain.”
  • “What the hell?” Cole exclaims after Liberty punches him.
  • Dobber’s dad flips Liberty off when she leaves his house.
  • Dobber calls Mr. Peabody a “Mother fucker” when he sees him at the commissioner’s meeting.
  • After her speech to the commissioner did not go so well, Liberty says, “That bastard has the whole commission under his thumb!”
  • Dobber says his dad’s cancer, “sucks donkey balls.”
  • “Goddam Peabody” is a common expression used by Granny and Liberty. Liberty later adds to it, saying, “Fuck you, Peabody.”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • For Liberty’s first meal in her grandmother’s home, she has to say grace. “God is great. God is good. Let us thank him for our food. By his hands, we are fed. Give us Lord, our daily bread. Amen.”
  • Throughout the book, Liberty goes to church. Liberty describes church saying, “But I like it. Even the sermon, which always lasted forever when I was little, flies by, and before I know it, the preacher is announcing the final song.”
  • Granny tries to calm Liberty during her X-rays, saying “Whatever happens to me, the good Lord says if you build your house on solid rock, you gon’ be okay.”
  • Liberty and her Granny are very poor and have to live off food stamps. She describes grocery shopping as recreating “the miracle of the loaves and fishes at Kroger today.”
  • After she is diagnosed with cancer and she starts experiencing intense pain, Granny “reaches for her Bible. As I close the door, she’s opening the book to random pages and reading whatever her finger lands on. I hope whatever she finds brings her some comfort.”

by Matthew Perkey

Pretend She’s Here

Emily can’t believe that her best friend Lizzie is gone. Every day she misses Lizzie now that she’s dead and her family has moved away. When Lizzy’s parents and her sister come back to town to visit Lizzie’s grave, Emily is happy to see them. Emily thinks that they are the only people who can understand her pain.

Emily doesn’t think twice about getting into the vehicle with them. After all, they are her second family. But soon, Emily realizes that Lizzie’s parents aren’t in town for a quick visit. Instead, they have come on a desperate attempt to bring Lizzie back to life. Soon Emily is trapped by the desperate parents, and she’s afraid there is no escape.

Pretend She’s Here is a unique story that has a major creep factor to keep the pages turning. The story focuses on Emily, who is kidnapped at the beginning of the book. Much of the story is told through Emily’s memory, which unfortunately eliminates much of the suspense. Emily’s large Catholic family is difficult to keep track of, and the many flashbacks of the seven siblings become confusing. There are simply too many characters to keep track of and many of them do not have a distinct personality.

Lizzie’s mom, Mrs. Porter, clearly wants to turn Emily into a replacement for Lizzie. The fact that Mrs. Porter’s family goes along with the plot allows the reader to see how desperate Mrs. Porter has become. However, Mr. Porter fades into the background, and readers will miss seeing how he fits into the family dynamic. The ending of the story is also a bit frustrating because Emily has so many chances to tell people who she really is, and yet she stays silent. At one point, she faints and is taken to the doctor, who sees many clues that Emily is in a desperate situation, but the doctor doesn’t act on her suspicions. Even though the author manages to make this unlikely scenario with the doctor believable, the ending of the book stretches the imagination too far.

Pretend She’s Here isn’t just a frightening kidnapping story; it also has themes of alcoholism, grief, friendship, and the power of forgiveness. While some readers may enjoy the kidnapping story, others may be frightened by it, especially because Emily is taken by someone who she considered her second family. Readers looking for a frightening story that examines the desperation that grief can cause will enjoy Pretend She’s Here. However, readers who are easily frightened should leave this book on the shelf.

Sexual Content

  • Emily’s friend says that she sees “stars” when she kisses her boyfriend.
  • Emily thinks back to her sister who would go up to the church steeple with her boyfriend “to kiss.”
  • Emily thinks about Casey and imagines “the feeling of his lips on mine.”
  • While at school, Emily sees Casey, and “all I wanted was for him to kiss me right there, that exact moment.”
  • While sledding, Emily and Casey’s sled crashes. They started laughing. “Then all at once the laughter stopped, I looked into his eyes, and he kissed me. The world fell out from under me, and I was floating in space, held up by Casey’s arms. . . His lips were soft and the kiss was hot, and I forgot I had a body and a life—and I was part of Casey and he was part of me.”

Violence

  • Emily is kidnapped and her hands are bound behind her back. She tries to escape. Emily “crouched as if about to bar, then used my legs as springs and smashed into Mrs. Porter, knocking her down, making her cry out. I turned and ran as fast as I could into the trees.”
  • In order to get Emily to behave, Mrs. Porter videotapes herself walking with Emily’s mom. Emily sees, “Mrs. Porter’s red plaid jacket and then, in her other hand, a knife with a thick, sharp silver blade. She made a jabbing motion.” After she watches the video, Emily “slapped her in the face as hard as I could, fumbled for the phone. Cloe (Mrs. Porter’s daughter) charged at me, clawed the phone out of my hand. We kept fighting for it, but then she shoved me.”
  • Emily sees her family and tries to get out of the car, but “Mrs. Porter wriggled between the two front seats and pulled my hair so hard my head smashed the headrest. She slapped my face. . . Mrs. Porter had now wriggled her way into the back seat beside me. Fingers still tangled in my hair, she tightened her grip, shaking my head, making every nerve in my scalp scream with pain.” Emily stops struggling when Mrs. Porter tells her, “I’ll kill your mother here and now.”
  • Mrs. Porter stops Emily from leaving. “I started to jump up. But she clawed my wrist, nails digging into my skin, pulling me back down. . . Then I saw the other hand. Her fingers were closed around the knife with the silver blade. . .” Mrs. Porter tries to kill Emily, but Emily “fought her. I hit her as hard as I could, heard my fist crack her cheekbone. I tried to kick her, but she’d leapt up from the bed, gripping my wrist, and my foot missed. She was waving the knife, stabbing the air, but I kept ducking, trying to pull away.” Mrs. Porter stabs Emily, who is rushed to the hospital in critical condition.

Drugs and Alcohol

  • Someone kidnaps Emily and gives her drugs so she will sleep. “A bottle clinked. I turned my head, saw her lift a small vial in front of her face, insert a syringe into the rubber cap to withdraw liquid, and lightly pump the plunger so a tiny clear stream squirted into the air. . . I felt the needle prick, then a slow ache in my bicep. Almost instantly, I felt light-headed.” Emily falls asleep.
  • Emily’s mother is an alcoholic, and Emily thinks back to a time when her mother missed her play because she was drunk. Emily’s mother, “had been sober over a year now. Since the last horrible fight that had sent her to rehab. . .” Emily thinks about her mom not being at the play, and when she got home, “I found my mother passed out in bed. The fumes left no doubt that there’d been alcohol involved.”
  • Casey’s mom was prescribed oxycodone. She became addicted and died of an overdose. Casey says, “One day she took too many. She never woke up.”
  • A doctor gives Mrs. Porter a prescription for Xanax.
  • While Emily is in the hospital, she is given Morphine which puts her in a “sick, sleepy twilight state.” She is also given opioids.

Language

  • Oh god is used as an exclamation twice; oh my God and OMG are used as an exclamation once.
  • Damn is used once.

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • Emily’s family is Catholic and attends church. Emily thinks about all of her siblings’ names and how they were “Catholic to the max. My mom had gone to St. Joseph’s College; my dad had gone to Holy Cross.” She and her siblings were given saint’s names and were baptized. Emily thinks, “even though we skipped Mass a lot, we did our best. We believed in the sacraments and had all made our first communion and confirmations.”
  • Emily’s mother says, “By the grace of God, I haven’t picked up a drink since.”
  • Casey, who was blind, tells Emily about his mother. “. . . She never stopped hoping I’d be able to see better someday. . .I had the best doctors, but her real faith was in St. Anthony.”
  • When Emily is in the hospital, she thinks about her mother. “I prayed you wouldn’t drink. I just wanted everything to be okay.”
  • While Emily was missing her mother, she “tried to pray, but I felt there was no one listening. I couldn’t hear God talking back to me. The priest from All Souls Church came, but I told your father not to let him in.”

Spy Runner

Jake McCauley is proud to be an American. He’s proud of his country because America is a country where liberty, justice, and truth prevail. Everyone must do their part to keep America free from communists. Everyone—his classmates, his teachers, and the adults around him—are on the lookout for communist and Russian spies.

But Jake has another reason to fear Russia. His father went missing 12 years ago during World War II. Jake is convinced that the Russians took his dad to a secret facility. Every morning, when his class says the pledge of allegiance, Jake secretly says another pledge— “I pledge to save my dad from the Russians and bring him home so my dad and mom and I can be a regular family like we’re supposed to be in America.”

From the very first page, Spy Runner captures the reader’s attention and takes them on a heart-stopping, action-packed journey where no one can be trusted—not even those closest to Jake. When Jake’s mom takes in a Russian boarder, Jake is determined to prove the man is a spy. Jake uses all the knowledge he’s gained from the Spy Runner comic books to stalk his target and accidentally finds himself caught up in a world of intrigue—a world he doesn’t understand. Soon the Russian spy, G-men, and a fat man with gold teeth are all hot on Jake’s trail. Jake must face unexpected enemies, men who are willing to kill, and even his own classmates.

Through Jake’s eyes, readers will gain a new understanding of the Cold War and the paranoia that surrounded communism. As Jake is persecuted by his own classmates, he comes to understand that anyone can be considered a communist; even those who have the audacity to discuss the constitution. Although Spy Runner shows the atmosphere of the time, the story is light on historical details that would help younger readers fully understand the Cold War. Though a highly entertaining story, Yelchin’s story parallels the current political climate and highlights the dangers of having a divided country.

Spy Runner moves quickly, and throughout Jake’s journey, he is beaten, battered, and almost killed several times. Jake continues to run from the adults who are trying to help him—mostly because he believes everything that he has read in spy comics and he had no idea who to trust. Younger readers will relate to Jake’s inability to know what to do, and his desire to do what is right. Spy Runner is an action-packed story that has more suspense than violence and will keep readers guessing until the very end. Because the story details the paranoia and propaganda of the cold war, Spy Runner is best suited for middle-grade readers.

 Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • After a Russian man moves into Jake’s house, his classmates think Jake is a “dirty communist” and beat him up. “Duane was on his back, flailing his arms, and Jake straddling his chest, leaned away so as not to be hit in the face. . . Duane yanked his hand from Jake and when he let it go, Duane’s fist bounced back, whacking himself hard on the nose.” During the fight, “Jake thrashed under the blows of the boys’ sharp fists and knees and elbows. . . The boys scattered, leaving Jake rolled into a quivering ball in the aisle.”
  • When the Russian man, Shubin, leans back in a rocking chair, Jake “slid his foot below the rocker blade nearer to him, and gave it a slight push upward. He missed seeing Shubin go down because he was shooting back to where he sat before, but he did hear the crash.
  • Men in a Buick chase Jake. When Jake hides in an alley, someone “yanked him toward the wall. A large hand slapped over his mouth, stifling his scream. The Buick burst into the alley. The person squashed Jake against his body and stepped into the shadows. The Buick roared by.”
  • Jake snatches an envelope from a man named Bull. “Then all at once a sharp pain shot through Jake’s chest. Somehow he was not standing anymore but lying on the sidewalk, and Bull was looming over him, and the envelope was under his arm again.” The contents of the envelope fall out and both Jake and Bull tried to pick them up. “Bull’s left hand did something to Jake again. Sharp pain shooting through Jake’s chest made him blackout, and when he opened his eyes, he was ten feet way from Bull, flat on his back, wedged between the trash can and the lamppost.”
  • While his friend is in a parade, Jake tries to get his attention, but “a trombone slide bashed him from behind and he dropped the baton and went down. . .” A float almost runs over him, but he isn’t injured.
  • After a man overhears Shubin talking about the constitution, the man “accidentally” shoves a hot bowl of beans into his lap.
  • Someone smacks Jake over the head and kidnaps him. When Jake wakes up, “The left side of his face was throbbing with pain. He tried to rub at his temple, but could not lift his arms. A thick rope twined around his arms, chest, thighs, and shins, bounding them to the folding chair.” When agents arrive, shots are fired, and “Jake’s eyes darted from the window toward Bull’s thick, stubby fingers, bleeding from the shattered glass, and watched in horror as they closed around [Jake’s] neck. Bull’s thumbs kneaded the front of Jake’s throat, feeling for something, found it, and began pressing down on his windpipe, first lightly then harder and harder.” There are more gunshots before the agents are able to free Jake.
  • Jake causes the car he’s riding in to crash. “The Cadillac careened across the center lane. . . The windshield buckled, sagged inward, and exploded into a million sparking fragments. Another vehicle smashed into the Cadillac from the rear. The Cadillac spun in place, flinging shards of glass in all directions.” When help arrives, Jake sees the man’s body being passed through the gaping windshield.”
  • While at his house, Bull breaks in. “Startled, Jake peered at the enormous white potbelly sagging over the handle of a gun stuck behind the trousers’ belt. Before he could scream, Bull snatched Jake by the shirtfront, yanked him into the room, whooshed him round, and squashed his neck in the crook of his arm. . . Jake thrashed wildly in Bull’s iron grip. A flash. A loud blast. The ceiling globe exploded. Bull crushed Jake’s neck harder. . . Choking, Jake grasped Bull’s forearm with both hands, trying to push the gun away from his mother. The gun went off again.” As others try to help Jake, “rapid gunfire popped from several directions. A bullet whizzed by and slugged into the wall above Jake’s head, spraying plaster in all directions.” Bull is eventually handcuffed and taken away. No one is seriously injured. The scene takes place over five pages.

Drugs and Alcohol

  • When Jake is kidnapped, he sees “drained beer bottles” in the place he is being held.
  • A person tells Jake about a conversation he had with Jake’s father “over a cold beer.”

Language

  • Heck is used three times; damn, darn, and crap are all used once.
  • Jake’s mom and a man were carrying a trunk. When the trunk slips out of Jake’s mom’s hand, the man says, “What the hell?”
  • Jake thinks the Russian man is “clearly a jerk.” Later, the Russian says that some of the kids that hit Jake were “jerks.”
  • Jake calls his friend a fool.
  • When Jake’s mom sees Jake injured, she asks, “My God, who did this to you?”
  • A man tells Jake, “aircrafts are better than people. Better than those morons who are supposed to protect them, that’s for damn sure.”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

 

Fragments of the Lost

People blame Jessa for her boyfriend Caleb’s death, but most of them don’t know about the breakup. Instead, they focus on the day he died. The last time Jessa saw Caleb was standing in the bleachers during a track meet. When her good luck dragonfly necklace broke, she ran to him, handed him the necklace. And then he left.

Jessa knows that the teens at school aren’t the only ones who blame her for Caleb’s death. His mother thinks the accident was Jessa’s fault. But when Caleb’s mother asks Jessa to pack up his things, Jessa agrees. She’s hoping that it will help her work through her grief, take away her guilt, and lessen her depression.

But as Jessa begins to box up the pieces of Caleb’s life, every item she touches brings back memories. As the memories flood over her, she thinks that maybe she didn’t know Caleb at all. Each fragment of his life reveals a new clue that propels Jessa to search for the truth about Caleb’s accident. Can she put the pieces together to reveal what really happened on the day he died?

Fragments of the Lost, which is told from Jessa’s point of view, gives a unique perspective on the life of a person. As Jessa reflects on Caleb, her memories are mixed with other people’s memories of Caleb. Each person, each object, each memory shows a different fragment of Caleb, which adds mystery. The story is broken into two parts, with the second part ramping up the action. Although the ending of the story is action-packed, the beginning of the story is character-driven and readers must emotionally connect to Jessa or they will not enjoy the story.

The main part of the story is about Caleb’s death; however, Fragments of the Lost also gives a glimpse into Jessa’s home life, where she often feels overshadowed by her older brother. As Jessa recounts the past, she learns valuable lessons about love, life, and the importance of being honest with others. Although the story has mystery, the clues fall into place too easily which allows the readers to correctly guess what will happen next. This will not make the story less enjoyable for those who enjoy character-driven stories such as E. Lockhart’s We Were Liars. Fragments of the Lost will leave readers wondering what fragments they leave behind.  

Sexual Content

  • Jessa and her boyfriend kiss. The first time they kiss, Caleb “stepped even closer, so his body brushed up against mine. I could feel his breath, the tremble of his hand, smell the salt and sunscreen and summer air as he leaned in to kiss me. I kissed him back, my hands sliding around his waist. . .”
  • After a dance, Caleb and Jessa sit in the car. “My fingers on the buttons of his white button-down shirt. His hands on my bare shoulders when he kissed me.” Nothing else happens. Jessa and Caleb kiss 4 more times, but it is not described.
  • Once Mia’s sister walked into Caleb’s room and saw Jessa and Caleb. Caleb “was easing my shirt over the sunburn when the door opened. . . I yanked my shirt back down.”
  • The story implies that Jessa and Caleb had sex. Someone finds condoms hidden in Caleb’s room.
  • Someone catches Caleb in Jessa’s room when “Caleb wasn’t supposed to be in my room. We were only doing homework. And okay, his hand was on the small of my back, under my shirt, but still. Homework.”
  • Jessa wonders if Caleb talks about their sex life. “I had always thought Caleb was like me, keeping those details to himself. But suddenly I wasn’t sure, and I couldn’t stand the thought—that I might be a secret, to be shared.”
  • As part of school spirit week, someone wrote on the school flag and “they’d added a line in black marker about their opponent. Specifically referring to how badly, and what, they sucked.”
  • While at school, Caleb and Jessa sneak into the “locker room to fool around in the ten minutes before their pregame warm-up.”
  • Jessa kisses a boy that is not her boyfriend. When he “finally lowers his lips to my own, I think I have never felt something so real.” Jessa contrasts how the two boys kiss. One boy’s “kisses more tentative, unsure. My first thought down by the riverbank, when he finally lowered his lips to mine, was frustration that he was pulling away and stepping back, until something tipped and he pulled me closer, our clothes cold and clinging to our skin, my body trembling against his. . . where Caleb was all anticipation and surprise.”
  • Jessa kisses Mas. “I close the gap between us, and I kiss him. I feel him smiling in the second before he kisses me back. His hand at the side of my face, his fingers in my hair.”

Violence

  • Caleb and his step-father had a fight. Caleb said, “Sean was hurting me. He was choking me.” Caleb’s mother pushes a man out the window, and he falls to his death.
  • While in a forest, Caleb’s mother finds Jessa and pushes her over a waterfall.

Drugs and Alcohol

  • When Caleb doesn’t answer Jessa’s calls she wonders if he had a hangover.
  • At a graduation party, “an ice bucket of cheap beer” went missing. The teens play beer games with it.

Language

  • Badass is used once.
  • Ass and damn are used twice. Jessa’s friends Hailey “could transform from ‘girl in a dress with red lipstick’ to ‘girl who can kick your ass in red lipstick’ in the time it took to slip on running shoes.”
  • Crap is used occasionally.
  • Oh God and oh my God are occasionally used as an exclamation. Jesus is used as an exclamation once.
  • Hell is used four times. For example, when someone grabs a paper out of Jessa’s hands, she gets a paper cut and says, “What the hell?”
  • “Dick move” is used twice. Jessa thinks about telling someone something “just to watch him squirm, but that would be a dick move too, so I don’t.”
  • A girl calls someone a jerk.

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

 

 

Game

In this second installment, the basic setup of the story has not changed. It is Jasper hunting a serial killer, this time the Hat-Dog killer who has been terrorizing New York. Jasper is brought on as a consultant by the NYPD. Outside of that story arc Jasper also has to deal with the fact that his famous serial killer dad, Billy Dent, has escaped from prison and is now on the loose!

Seventeen-year-old Jazz, the son of the world’s most prolific serial killer, is called to New York. The NYPD needs Jazz’s help finding the Hat-Dog killer, who has been terrorizing New York. Along with finding the killer, Jazz also must help find his father, Billy Dent, who has escaped from prison.

Jazz brings his girlfriend Connie to help with the case. Soon, Connie is receiving mysterious information about Jazz. Connie drags in Jazz’s friend, Howie. All three teens are trying to help find the killer. To solve the murders, Jazz must work with a hardened New York cop and an FBI agent seeking revenge on Billy Dent. By the end of the novel, Jazz and his friends have only just begun unraveling the mystery of his father, the killing game, and everything involved with the killings in New York.

Game keeps readers’ attention better than the first book in the series, I Hunt Killers. The engaging story gives the perspective of the people tracking the killers as well as the perspectives of the killers themselves. Even with all this information, it’s still a mystery as to what’s going on. Lyga keeps giving almost enough clues to figure out the mystery, but readers just can’t piece it all together.

Unlike the first book, we get a slightly expanded POV cast. Jasper’s girlfriend Connie and his best friend Howie are also featured and have a few mysteries of their own to deal with in their hometown.

One of the novel’s most gripping elements is the number of twists that keep arriving. Similar to the first book, it’s difficult to predict what’s going to happen because of the insanity of it all. Jazz is dealing with serial killers, and their minds are nearly impossible to understand. Each event that unfolds seems like it’s as bad as it gets, but another gruesome murder or unforeseen twist always comes up.

Game features relatable characters; Connie and Howie both face problems with their parents and peers that normal teenagers would go through as well. The novel is an exciting, engaging read with an excessive amount of profane language and gore. The mystery will keep readers interested as they try to understand the clues. Readers will want to use caution since Game is a gory, brutal story told in a fittingly brutal way.

Sexual Content

  • Jazz has recurring sexual dreams throughout the novel that include sentences like, “his fingers glide over the warm, supple flesh. . . his skin on hers. . .”
  • When they were talking, Jazz “kissed the back of [Connie’s] neck.”
  • Connie considers Jazz a, “sexy, brooding boyfriend who didn’t realize exactly how sexy and brooding he was.”
  • Billy has a career of, “raping, torturing, and murdering mostly young women.”
  • Howie orders, “dirty movies on pay-per-view.”
  • Howie thinks that his hemophilia means that girls are, “much less willing to get naked and sweaty with him in the way nature prescribed.”
  • When they are alone in a hotel room, Hughes urges Jazz and Connie to “use protection.”
  • When Connie and Jazz are in bed together, she tells him, “We’re just gonna get real close and mess up one of the beds, is all.”
  • One of the serial killers, “rapes the women, makes up for it by castrating the men.”
  • Jazz wishes, “he’d thought to bring condoms.”
  • Jazz thinks about Billy’s voice, “urging him to sucker Connie’s legs apart and slide between them.”
  • When Jazz and Connie are sleeping together, “he kissed her and she kissed back just as urgently and fumbled with the drawstring on his pajama bottoms and reached for him there. . .” Jazz doesn’t allow it to escalate any further.
  • Connie tells Jazz that she “brought condoms” and “knew [they’d] be alone here.”
  • Connie thinks, “they were ready for the next step, and once she knew that, she was desperate for it.”
  • Connie calls their time in bed together, “a late-night/early morning grope-fest.”
  • Jazz remembers how he and Connie were, “reaching for each other. Familiar touches gone explosively unfamiliar, explosively craved.”
  • Jazz opens his email to find, “spam and porn links from Howie.”
  • Jazz tells Connie, “Your boobs are pretty big.”
  • Howie says he will “sleep with” and “knock up” Samantha.
  • Connie theorizes about a serial killer. “Maybe tough chicks make his little pee-pee hard.”
  • Connie asks that Howie, “stop thinking with the contents of [his] jock strap for a second.”
  • Connie also asks that they, “just stipulate that [Howie] made a killer double entendre with ‘rubbed off.’”
  • Howie makes an innuendo. “Because you know what they say about guys with big feet.”
  • A serial killer has his “underpants dropped to his ankles” and “his turgid junk gripped in one hand and waving proudly.”
  • Hughes tells Jazz, “no one had to clean up [the killer’s] grungy spooge.”
  • Billy asks if Connie likes to “go all ghetto in bed” with Jazz.
  • “Jazz did wonder about Morales’s breasts.”
  • Jazz wonders, “Would it be terribly stereotypical – as a guy and as a potential future serial killer – to steal a pair of used panties?”
  • Howie thinks about, “Billy Dent doing his own sister.”

Violence

  • The book opens with a killer who “decided on the left hip” and “began to carve” a woman he took captive.
  • There are numerous descriptions of violent events, including a killer who, “had removed the eyelids first” and “opened [Jerome’s] gut.”
  • In addition to the actions of killers, gruesome descriptions of dead bodies are provided, including the image of a serial killer reaching into, “a blood-slippery mass of intestines from the thing’s [victim’s] open cavity” and a body “slit open from breastbone to waist, the gaping wound of her gut revealing the shiny-slick loops of intestines.”
  • Howie, a hemophiliac, recounts a time when kids were, “poking bruises into [his] arms.”
  • When a police officer enters their house, Jazz’s grandmother yells at Jazz to “gut him!”
  • Jazz has memories and dreams that involve, “the knife meeting the flesh. . . then parting it.”
  • Descriptions of crime scenes include things like “lots of mutilation” and “maiming,” as well as more specific details like “disemboweling.”
  • Jazz compares serial killers to Jeffrey Dahmer- “drilling holes in the heads of corpses in an attempt to make sex zombies.”
  • A victim has, “her throat slit with a precision Jazz couldn’t help but admire.”
  • Multiple victims’ “genitals had been excised.”
  • “A crude dog had been carved into [a victim’s] shoulder.”
  • “Slashing wounds gave way to multiple stab wounds, choking, and – later – disembowelment.”
  • When comparing two rape scenes between a “hat” killer and a “dog” killer, an “ME found less vaginal tearing and few bruises than the hat.”
  • A serial killer “killed,” “gutted,” and “de-eyed” one of his victims.
  • An ME describes how a victim has “been enucleated,” which he explains, “means her eyes were taken out.”
  • An ME recalls a story where “some toes were missing and we found them in the victim’s throat.”
  • A killer “leaves their [his victims] guts in a KFC bucket.”
  • Jazz is shot, and there is a descriptive scene where “blood had matted around the wound,” and pours bleach “right on the wound… to clean it.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • Jazz says that Billy inhaled “a pot smoker’s hearty toke.”

Language

  • There is a large amount of profanity in the novel, including: dumbass, hell, damned, bastard, jackass, freaking, mofo, crap, smartass, poop, dyke, bastard, fucking, pissed, hardass, bitch, BS, goddamn, moron, and sumbitch.
  • “We have every terrorist in the world gunning for this city . . . You want to know how many of them have succeeded? I’ll give you a hint: It starts with Z and ends with a fucking zero.”
  • Connie says, “Jesus, Whiz. Talking to you is better than yoga sometimes.”
  • Connie threatens Jazz by saying, “I’ll kick your ass so hard you’ll poop from the front.”
  • Jazz offers to let Howie, “tattoo [his] freakin’ ass.”
  • Hughes says that Morales is “a dyke, you know.”
  • Howie thinks of himself as a “stupid, joking, horny, useless bleeder.”
  • One of the serial killers refers to women as “whoresluts.”
  • As he attempts to heal a bullet wound, Jazz yells, “Oh, Jesus Christ!”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • Samantha claims, “There isn’t a hell in the universe hot enough for [her] brother.”
  • Whiz reminds Connie not to take “the Lord’s name in vain.”

by Dylan Chilcoat

 

Blue Water Hues

Paramedic Ashley Grant moved to a Caribbean island hoping for a laid-back life. When Ashley responds to a fire at a beach resort, she recognizes the victim. The victim’s cousin, Darlene, pleads for help. But there are people who don’t want the two women asking questions. As Ashley learns more about the murder, she becomes a target herself. Will Ashley be able to learn the truth or will she be silenced forever?

 Blue Water Hues is a solid mystery that takes the reader into the heart of Ashley’s investigation. Darleen takes Ashley around the small Caribbean island where Ashley finds plenty of people to question. The fast-paced story keeps the reader guessing until the very end. Many of the characters are fearful, and they do not want Ashley digging into the murder. This fear adds suspense and leaves the reader guessing until the very end.

 Blue Water Hues is part of Orca Publishers Rapid Reads collection. Readers who do not have a lot of time will find the story’s straightforward plot, easy vocabulary, and interesting characters the perfect fit. Since the story is only 160 pages, the characters are not well developed. However, the mystery drives the story and will keep the reader entertained.

Sexual Content

  • A customer was angry that it rained during his vacation but still had to pay the hotel bill. He posted a “review that said the maids were servicing customers in guests’ beds.”

Violence

  • A woman is murdered, but her death is not described.
  • A man is shot in the chest and his chest, “was drenched in blood.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • Ashley goes to a house where, “men stood on the porch, drinking from cans of beer.”
  • Ashley goes to a restaurant where “four men . . . had a pile of beer bottles collecting in front of them.”
  • Ashley goes out to dinner and has a glass of wine. A man at a table next to Ashley complains about the wine.
  • A group of people goes out to dinner and a man orders a beer.

Language

  • Heck is used twice.
  • Someone says a man is, “a mean son of a bitch.”
  • Someone asks, “What the hell is going on with her, man?”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • The town only has one ambulance, and the drivers, “pray it doesn’t break down.”
  • An ambulance worker is going to be late for a date. He tells his partner, “My date doesn’t mind waiting. She knows I’m doing the Lord’s work.”

 

Big Trouble

Friday has found a home at her exclusive boarding school, but she’s unprepared for her father being a guest professor. However, her father isn’t the only new arrival. A Norwegian princess has just arrived, just when a thief called the Pimpernel is causing chaos across campus. Can Friday avoid her father, rein in a royal brat, and discover who the Pimpernel is?

The third installment of the Friday Barnes Mystery Series will entertain readers with its page-turning mystery and the reappearance of some lovable characters. Although Melanie’s best friend and possible love interest Ian reappears, new and interesting characters are added. Many of the characters are portrayed in an exaggerated, stereotypical way, which adds to the story’s humor. For example, when Friday catches a girl eavesdropping, the girl replies, “. . .we’re preteen girls. We’re supposed to have a cavalier disregard for the sensitivities of our peers.”

Melanie’s brother, Binky, makes an appearance and wants to know how to attract a girl. His interactions with Friday are heartfelt. Middle school readers will relate to his dilemma. Binky adds a welcome dose of romance to the story.

Like the previous books, Friday focuses on several smaller mysteries that end up all coming together for a big reveal at the end. Even though the story’s ending is mostly predictable, readers will still enjoy discovering how Friday used her power of observation to solve the mysteries. Friday doesn’t shy away from using large vocabulary words or feel like she needs to hide the fact that she is smart.

Black and white illustrations appear every 4 to 8 pages. The illustrations help bring the quirky characters to life and show some of the story’s action. Although the Friday Barns Series does not need illustrations to get readers to turn the pages, they add a nice touch and are often humorous.

Although Big Trouble can be read as a stand-alone book, readers will enjoy the story more if the previous books in the series have been read. Big Trouble will keep readers entertained with new mysteries and new characters. Friday’s curious personality and search for the truth will captivate readers and keep them turning the pages.

Sexual Content

  • When Friday says she doesn’t think Ian is a thief, Melanie asks, “Because you love him even more than you love Marie Curie?”
  • A magazine prints a picture with the heading, “Secret Smooching at Swanky School’ and a grainy black-and-white photograph of Princess Ingrid kissing a boy. Melanie is upset that the boy was Ian and yells, “How dare he kiss another girl just because she’s beautiful, rich, and royal.”
  • While looking at the picture of the princess and Ian kissing, Friday notices his messed up hair. “Maybe Ingrid ran her hand through his hair,” said Friday. “That is something kissing people are known to do.”
  • When Ian tries to explain that he wasn’t kissing the princess, Friday doesn’t believe his story. Ian replies, “What interest would I have in being chivalrous? It would be more to my advantage if everyone thought I was the type of guy who made out with European royalty on a polo field.”
  • One of the boys decides to wear clothes to show off his muscles. He hopes to attract a girl by being “eye candy.”

Violence

  • Friday’s uncle, “accidentally hit the lady who sang the national anthem.” He says the lady, “burst onto the ice with a bunch of spectators to try to punch our goalkeeper . . . He’d just let in a home goal, so they were feeling emotional. Fists started flying, and my fist just happened to connect with her nose.”
  • A dog “launched himself at Uncle Bernie’s bottom.” He is not seriously hurt by the resulting bite.
  • One of the characters talked about how during a race someone tried to stop people from winning by putting down banana peels. It didn’t work, and “the winner punched Rajiv in the nose and kept running.”
  • During the race, a boy “whipped off his size 14 shoe and threw it at Patel. It hit him neatly on the ankle, causing him to trip and slam into a vending machine.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • Friday’s father calls someone a buffoon.
  • Melanie calls Ian a rat.
  • Friday says that a thief is “an idiot with a get-rich-quick scheme.”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

 

 

Under Suspicion

When the police show up at Highcrest Academy, Friday isn’t expecting them to take her to the police station. She has to clear her name with the help of a vagrant she meets. Life is no easier once she gets back to school, as she quickly jumps in to investigate a quiche back-off scandal as well as discover why holes are being dug everywhere.

The second installment of the Friday Barnes mystery has many of the same characters. Friday’s best friend Melanie spends all of her time sleeping, skipping out on classes, and obsessing over Friday’s love interests. Melanie’s nemesis Ian is willing to do anything to earn a scholarship, even framing Friday for a crime she didn’t commit. Many of the characters are portrayed as rich kids who are willing to do anything, including lie and cheat, to win. Besides the cast of characters from the first series, cute boy Christopher makes an appearance, which gives Melanie another boy to tease Friday about.

Throughout the story, Friday focuses on several smaller mysteries that end up all coming together for a big reveal at the end of the story. Throughout the story, Friday uses her power of observation to solve mysteries. Although Friday is socially awkward, she is clearly a genius who isn’t afraid to show that she is smart. Friday understands her weaknesses, which include social interactions. Even though the girls at the school ignore her, she is still willing to help them when they are in need.

Black and white illustrations appear every 4 to 8 pages. The illustrations help bring the quirky characters to life as well as show some of the action in the story. Although the Friday Barnes Series does not need illustrations to get readers to turn the pages, they add a nice touch and are often humorous.

Unlike many children’s books, the Friday Barnes Series doesn’t shy away from larger vocabulary words. Friday is a genius, and her vocabulary includes words like laboriously, repugnant, extrapolate, and fastidious. Even though readers may not understand all of Friday’s references and words, this doesn’t take away from the book’s enjoyment. Friday’s curious personality jumps off the page. Even though the reader knows that she will solve every case, there are plenty of surprises. Friday Barnes Under Suspicion is the perfect mix of dry humor, action, and suspense.

Sexual Content

  • When Friday and Ian are arguing, Melanie says, “You should write down some of this witty banter so you can read the transcripts to your grandchildren one day.” Another person replies, “I didn’t know Barnes and Waincott were planning to start a family.”
  • In order to get Friday to run, a boy grabs her hand. “Friday was surprised. No boy had ever held her hand before. It didn’t tingle like in the romance novels, but it did feel nice in an inexplicable, visceral way.”

Violence

  • The school gardener is found unconscious. He was hit in the head with a tool “but only because someone took the tool and swung it at him. . .”
  • Someone threatens to break Friday’s arm. He says, “I know that if I used my knee as a fulcrum and your forearm as a lever, I could snap your elbow like a dry twig.” He then uses a zip tie to secure her on the top of a lawn mower grass catcher.
  • Someone soaks Friday’s hat in gasoline and “produced a lighter from his pocket and set Friday’s hat alight.” Then the person, “threw the flaming hat through the broken window, then calmly walked back to where Friday was tied up.” The fire alarm went off and the school was evacuated.
  • When someone swung a spade towards Friday’s head, Ian tackles the person. “Ian had knocked him over and they were wrestling among the rosebushes.” The person brandishes gardening sheers at Friday and Ian. When the person goes to flee, Malcom, “burst out from the bushes at the edge of the forest and came sprinting down the slope towards the lawn mower. . . Malcom pivoted himself up and raised his fist to deliver a blow.” Friday yells at Malcom, who stops himself from hitting the person.
  • Malcom tells a story about someone who, “tried to trick an eighty-five-year-old lady. . . Little did he realize she was a retired professional wrestler. She hit him over the head with her walking frame, then held him in a leg lock until the police arrived.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • Twice, someone calls Friday an Idiot.

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

The Impossible Crime

Mac is an ordinary kid who likes to play video games. While at the arcade, the Queen of England’s corgi appears with a note stating, “pick up the phone.” The Queen of England needs Mac’s help. Someone is planning on stealing the Crown Jewels. With the help of beefeater Holcroft, Max tries to keep the Crown Jewels safe. But when they disappear from a locked room, Mac must use all of his knowledge to discover not only who did it, but why.

The Impossible Crime uses humor, riddles, and corgis to teach readers about English history. The fast-paced plot has several of the same interesting characters as Mac Undercover, but isn’t as outrageously funny as Mac Undercover. However, readers will enjoy the silliness of the story, the dialogue between Mac and the Queen, and the surprise ending. As the story unfolds, readers will learn historical facts, geography, and different meanings of words. Each new fact is integrated into the story in a seamless manner, which makes learning fun.

Mac tells his own story with humor and uses lists and reputation to help readers follow the mystery. The Impossible Crime will entertain even the most reluctant readers for many reasons. Short sentences and simple vocabulary will help readers build confidence. Every page contains large black, green, and orange illustrations that add to the humor of the story. The illustrations and text work together to provide clues, create humor, and keep the reader interested to the very end. The Impossible Crime is a fun, easy-to-read book that is a great choice for any reader. It is also a perfect book for parents to read aloud to their children; the short dialogue is a great opportunity to use different voices for the characters.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • In 1671, Colonel Blood tried to steal England’s crown jewels. When Edward took Colonel Blood to see the jewels, “Colonel Blood threw the cloak over Edwards’s head! The men tied up the god Keeper like a sheep in a sack. Then they hit him with mallets. . . Then they stabbed him.’”
  • Holcroft goes after Mac with an axe. “He turned to me and brandished his axe. . . I backed into a corner of the library as Holcroft slowly came towards me.” Mac orders Holcroft to put the axe down and he does.

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • Mac asks a man, “what the heck are you doing?”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

 

Fire! Fire!

When a shop burns down on Orange Street in Selinsgrove, nine-year-old Hilde follows the smoke. Hilde discovers that Mrs. Brown thinks her candles started the fire. She’s so upset that she won’t leave the house. Without Mrs. Brown, the town’s pet parade will be canceled. Can Hilde find a hot tip that will lead her to the true cause of the fire?

This fast-paced mystery comes to life with illustrations on every page. Like the previous books, Hilde uses real-life skills, models questioning skills, and shows the importance of being observant. In this story, Hilde also explains the importance of treating witnesses with tenderness and respect. She clearly cares more about people’s feelings than getting the scoop.

Younger readers will enjoy reading about the interesting characters, injured birds, and a fun pet parade. Besides investigating the fire, another mystery is added when the store owner’s parakeet disappears. The satisfying conclusion of the story is wonderfully illustrated. Readers will fall in love with the pets who are dressed up for the parade.

Short paragraphs, simple word choice, and black-and-white illustrations that appear on every page will keep younger readers engaged. Even though some characters reappear in each book, each story can be understood without reading previous books. Like the previous books, questions and activities appear at the end of the book. Readers will want to follow the clues and see if they can solve the mystery along with Hilde. Fire! Fire! is an engaging story that animal and mystery lovers will enjoy.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • None

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • The “mean-agers” are a group of teenagers “known for their rotten attitudes.” When a bird poops on Hilde’s shirt, one of the mean-agers tells her, “It looks like we aren’t the only ones who think you make a better toilet than a reporter.”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

Bear on the Loose!

Nine-year-old Hilde is determined to find a story for her newspaper. When she hears sirens, she follows the sound and discovers there may be a bear on the loose in Selinsgrove. Hilde knows people love animal stories, and she’s ready to hunt down the facts. Hilde and her sister, Izzy, follow the tracks into the forest. When Hilde gets tangled in a prickler bush, and then sees a black blur run by, Izzy is ready to call it quits. Can the two sisters find the bear before someone gets hurt?

A fast-paced mystery designed for younger readers, Bear on the Loose! integrates new vocabulary into the story. Hilde’s reporter’s notebook contains illustrations as well as repeated key facts. Throughout the story, Hilde shows the importance of being observant and models questioning skills. When two younger children say they saw a bear, Hilde questions the kids and finds out that they hid when they heard a growl. She tells the kids, “I report facts. The fact is that you heard a growling noise. But it is also a fact that you did not see a bear.”

Several people warn Hilde and her sister to avoid the bear. However, the two girls follow the bear tracks into the forest, and then use berries to tempt the bear into coming into their yard. They eventually call a wildlife officer to come capture the bear, but the story doesn’t focus on the real danger associated with wild animals.

Short paragraphs, simple word choice, and black-and-white illustrations that appear on every page will keep younger readers engaged. The Lysiak family has many positive interactions, and the two sisters work together toward a common goal. Another positive aspect of the story are the questions and activities that appear at the end of the book. Readers will want to follow the clues and see if they can solve the mystery along with Hilde. Bear on the Loose! is an excellent story that has the added benefit of teaching younger readers skills they will use in their daily life.

Sexual Content
• None

Violence
• None

Drugs and Alcohol
• None

Language
• The “mean-agers” are a group of teenagers “known for their rotten attitudes.” When two of the boys appear, Izzy is worried that they are angry with them. When Izzy tries to explain, one boy says, “Don’t pee your pants.”

Supernatural
• None

Spiritual Content
• None

Addison Cooke and the Treasure of the Incas

Twelve-year-old Addison longs for adventure, but his aunt and uncle, both respected curators at the New York Museum of Archaeology, always leave Addison home when they travel the world to find hidden treasures. When Addison’s aunt and uncle discover an ancient Incan key that leads to treasure, they are kidnaped by the evil Russian Professor Ragar.

Addison convinces his sister, Molly, and two of his friends to set off to South America on a mission to rescue his aunt and uncle. Once they arrive, they find adventure, danger, and booby-traps. Can Addison and his team find the treasure, outsmart Professor Ragar, and save his family?

This fast-paced adventure takes readers on an epic journey through South America. Addison, who is eccentric and optimistic, leads his friends into one dangerous situation after another. Although the group is often in danger and narrowly escapes death several times, the events are often humorous. Even though the group is young, they are able to figure out ancient clues, outsmart Professor Ragar, and escape mercenaries.

Full of mystery, suspense, and evil villains, adventure seekers will keep turning the pages of Addison and the Treasure of the Incas. Young readers will learn about the conquest of Pizarro as they follow the exciting travels of Addison. However, the story is not always historically accurate, and the path the kids take is geography inaccurate. Despite these inaccuracies, the story will pique middle graders’ interest in the Ancient Incan Society and increase their love of reading.

The publisher recommends this book for children as young as eight. Although younger children may enjoy the story, the length of the book and the complexity of the writing would make Addison and the Treasure of the Incas difficult for beginning and struggling readers.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • During the time of the Incas, Pizarro kidnapped Atahualpa. Atahualpa’s, “brother’s army attacked Pizarro before the ransom could be delivered. . . Pizarro burned Atahualpa alive at the stake.”
  • Professor Ragar and his mercenaries kidnap Uncle Nigel and his wife. “Immense men in dark suits crowded the room. They held Uncle Nigel pinned down, his face pressed against his desk.”
  • During the kidnapping, the mercenaries also try to seize Uncle Nigel’s niece and nephew. There is a chase. The two kids are cornered so they put an electrical cord into water. The mercenary “kicked his foot and the giant floodlight crashed into the water. Electricity jolted through the reflecting pool with a thunderous zap. Bodyguards collapsed like felled oaks, hitting the water in a sizzling, giggling mess.” The men are not seriously hurt, and the kids are able to escape.
  • Addison talks about the Spanish Inquisition, when non-Catholics were killed “often by burning them at the stake, like King Atahualpa. People would say they were Catholic to avoid being killed. So the Inquisition would torture them to find out who was telling the truth.”
  • The kids go into an ossuary and discover ancient trip wires. Eddie falls “into a vat of skulls, the mummy on top of him. . . The skull bin tilted, pulling an ancient trip wire, releasing a boulder. The falling stone yanked a rope through a pulley, sending a massive scythe blade whipping through the air.” While trying to get up, “Raj sprinted and Eddie followed, their feet dancing across the pile of bones. A massive blade sprung from the ground, splitting every bone in its path.” The boys are not injured.
  • When Professor Ragar and his men find the kids in the ossuary, there is a chase. One of the kids pulls a trip wire and a “steel scythe rocketed toward the surprised guard. Terrified, he leapt…striking his head on the rocky ground. The man lay crumpled in a heap of clattering foot bones.” Another man “slipped on a femur, and crashed down the mountain of bones. . . Boulders tumbled from the ceiling, pelting the guard on the head. The man sank to his knees, stunned senseless.”
  • When Professor Ragar tries to catch Addison, one of his men, “slashed with his knife. Addison crab-walked backwards on his hands, the knife barely missing his throat.” When Addison is caught, “Ragar wound up his open palm and slapped Addison across the face. Addison’s cheek stung, and his head rang for a few seconds.”
  • Zubov, one of Professor Ragar’s men, threatens to cut off Addison’s fingers. “Zubov began squeezing Addison’s windpipe. . . Zubov pressed his knife to Addison’s cheek.” One of Addison’s friends helps him.
  • While in the Amazon jungle, Molly is attacked by a giant spotted anaconda that “dropped onto Molly. The ten-foot constrictor wrapped its muscled body around her legs, then waist, and worked its way up her chest.” Someone pokes the anaconda with a flaming brand. “It hissed viciously, tightening its grip on Molly, and wrapped a coil around her throat.” The snake eventually releases Molly.
  • The kids are chased by tribesmen who shoot poison-tipped spears and darts at them.
  • Don Guzmán is rumored to kill people by putting them in a freezer.
  • Don Guzmán locks the kids in a room. In order to escape, Raj “took a running start and swung his plank hard into a man’s stomach. It connected with a satisfying smack, like a Jell-O mold chucked from a high window and meeting the pavement.” The group runs through a wedding where “Guadalupe lay pinned to the dining room table, Zubov’s hand clutching her throat. . . Zubov brushed the hair back from Guadalupe’s neck and ran the blade along the fold of her ear.” The kids are able to escape.
  • The kids, Ragar, and Zubov have a conflict during the wedding of Don Guzmán’s daughter. Zubov “gripped his stiletto and stabbed at Addison. Addison leapt back, but too late—the knife struck him square in the chest. He fell to the ground, stunned. . . “ Rager stops Zubov from killing Addison, because he doesn’t want to upset Don Guzmán. During their escape, Molly landed “a well-placed kick right in the guard’s stomach.”
  • As the kids are fleeing, they steal a limousine, but they are followed. Eddie smashes the limousine into a jeep and they are able to pull ahead. Eddie “plowed directly through a supermarket. The limousine smashed through the front window and into the cereal aisle. It crashed through frozen foods and baked goods before blasting out the rear wall of the store, onto a new street.”
  • When one of Ranger’s men try to enter a treasure vault, he triggers a booby trap and is impaled by “spikes like a shish kabob.” A second man “plummeted into the river a hundred feet below with a terrified splash. . . The man’s screams echoed until the trapdoor slid shut.”
  • Zubov tries to kill Molly by throwing knives at her. Molly, “wound up and kicked Zubov as hard as she could. This time, she aimed a few feet higher than his shin. . . Zubov turned purple and crumpled to his knees, winching.”
  • Ragar ties the kids up with rope, intending to burn them alive. “The flames snapped and jumped, devouring the kindling. Addison felt the growing heat inching closer to his toes . . . the raging flames touched Addison. The cuffs of his pants ignited, the blaze racing up his legs.” The group is able to escape.

Drugs and Alcohol

  • Addison sees a “weather-beaten man sipping a bottle of foul-smelling liquid from a brown paper bag.” The man offers Addison the bottle, but Addison declines saying, “Arnold Palmers are as strong as I go.”
  • While in South America, Addison and the others see “local women with gold hoops in their noses who drank corn wine from gourds . . .” Later, the kids see women “drinking white rum.”

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • While in South America, Addison sees women selling voodoo dolls.

Spiritual Content

  • The kids see a mural painted with angels and “dozens of Incan gods. Some gods were male and some female. Some were part jaguar, llama, or snake.”
  • The Incas considered King Atahualpa a god. “The Incan emperor was considered the child of the sun. Inti, the sun god, the most powerful Incan god.”

Mac Undercover

Mac Barnett is just an ordinary kid growing up in the 1980s. Then the phone rings. It’s the Queen of England. And she needs Mac’s help. The Crown Jewels have been stolen and the Queen of England wants Mac to find them. Mac, the newest secret agent, takes a trip to England, where he meets the Queen in the Tower of London. From there, Mac travels around the globe looking for the stolen treasure. Will the kid spy be able to find the treasure?

Mac Undercover will entertain even the most reluctant readers with its fast-paced plot, interesting characters, and funny historic facts. Short sentences and simple vocabulary will help readers build confidence. Readers will understand Mac’s disappointment when he’s not invited to a karate birthday party and laugh at his secret identities. Every page contains large blue and gold illustrations that add to the humor of the story. As the story unfolds, readers will learn historical facts, geography, and word origins. Each new fact is integrated into the story in a seamless manner, which makes learning fun.

Mac tells his own story with humor and puts a spotlight on the absurd. Younger readers will love the adventure, intrigue, and corgis. The only negative aspect of the story is that the French are portrayed in a stereotypical rude manner. Mac Undercover will leave readers in giggles and with some cool new knowledge.

Sexual Content

  • When Mac is exploring London, “two people with purple liberty spikes kissed against an ancient wall.”

Violence

  • The story includes historical facts such as how “Henry VIII kept many of his wives, friends, and relatives at the Tower of London, before he chopped off their heads.”
  • A KGB wanted to have a karate match with Mac. The KGB Man “twisted my arm behind my back and pushed my face into the carpet . . . The KGB Man placed me in a vicious headlock. His bicep was lodged against my windpipe. I could hardly breathe.” Mac ends the match by licking the KGB Man’s arm.

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

 

The Hide-and-Seek Ghost

Kaz is an ordinary ghost who hasn’t figured out how to glow. When the house that Kaz and his family live in is torn down, the wind scatters the ghosts and carries Kaz to a library. While at the library, Kaz meets Claire—a human who can see him. Together the two look for Kaz’s family and solve ghostly mysteries in the process.

One of Claire’s classmates, Eli, is known for his pranks. So when he asks Claire to help him rid his family home of a ghost, Claire isn’t sure if Eli really needs help or if he is just trying to pull another prank. Can Kaz and Claire discover if Eli’s home is really haunted?

The Hide-and-Seek Ghost brings Claire’s world and the ghost world to life with black-and-white illustrations that will help readers visualize the characters and actions. The plot focuses on an argument between Kaz’s parents and another ghost as well as the mystery of Eli’s haunted house. The multiple plots make the story choppy and may cause some confusion. Readers will enjoy following the clues to the mystery and looking at the many illustrations that show the characters’ emotions.

The ghosts in the story are not scary; however, there are several scenes where ghosts are separated from family when they leave a building and the wind blows them away. The idea of being accidentally separated from family and not being able to return may frighten some readers. A glossary of ghostly terms helps readers understand those that are used in the story.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • None

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • Many of the characters are ghosts who can choose to be seen and heard by “solids” and who can glow, shrink, expand, and walk through walls.

Spiritual Content

  • None

 

CRIME BITERS! It’s a Doggy Dog World

Jimmy Bishop has a story that he doesn’t think anyone will believe, not even his best friend Irwin. Abby, Jimmy’s new dog, is a crime-fighting vampire dog. It’s true.

The other crazy things that happen to Jimmy are just as true.

Jimmy Bishop is obsessed with Stop Police—a TV show about a vampire detective. He has an older sister who teases him, two parents, and a best friend. His life appears to be pretty normal, but trouble seems to follow him.

Jimmy wakes up with a strange blotch on his face just days before school starts. Then his father has a series of job interviews and his parents hire a strange babysitter who tries to feed him fried beets in pea sauce. Then a new girl moves next door. But the most exciting and strangest event of all is when Jimmy brings home Abby, a new dog.

Crime Bitters is full of suspense, humor, and adventure. As Jimmy’s day-to-day life unfolds the reader will be captivated by the realistic characters as well as the illustrations. The story is easy to read, fun, and full of interesting facts. For example: “Fact: There are a lot of great bald people in the world. But unfortunately, none of them are in this book.”

Because Jimmy tells his own story, the reader gets a glimpse of how it feels to be bullied, how even relationships with best friends be full of strife, and how talking to a girl can be the scariest thing of all.  Crime Bitters has a fast-paced plot that will keep younger readers enthralled.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • When the babysitter swats Abby on the nose, Abby goes into attack mode.  “She (Abby) crouched down, like you see on one of those nature shows, where the panther suddenly spots the defenseless gazelle . . . Then Abby jumped, right onto Mrs. Cragg’s shoulder.” Jimmy’s mother appears and grabs the dog.
  • When a man tries to take Abby, Mrs. Cragg’s tries to stop him. “Then, without another word, Mrs. Cragg suddenly ripped her own hair off her head . . . and wrapped it around Mr. Bratford’s eyes, like a blindfold.”
  • When the kids discover that Mr. Bratford is a thief, he chases them. “He pinched my cheek so hard that tears came to my eyes then put one of his pimply hands on Abby and started petting her fur. . . The next thing I knew, Mr. Bratford had picked me up by the shirt and was carrying me over to Mrs. Cragg.”
  • Abby attacks Mrs. Bratford, “In one split second, she jumped out of my arms, bared her teeth, leaped onto Mr. Bratford, and clamped her jaws around his neck . . . Mr. Bratford screamed and feel down. Abby clamped harder, and they started rolling around on the ground.”
  • Jimmy hits Mr. Bratford in the knees with a cane.

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • Abby is a “superhero crime-fighting vampire dog” that has fangs.

Spiritual Content

  • None

Endangered: A Death on a Deadline Mystery

Hayley isn’t a typical teenage girl. Rather than caring about prom or worrying about not getting her high school diploma, she spends her time working for her father’s newspaper.

While listening to a police scanner, she gets her first big scoop. Her hope is to discover whose blood is splattered all over a remote cabin. But instead of looking for clues, Hayley’s father forces her to participate in a research project to earn credits she needs to graduate high school.

Instead of investigating a possible murder, Hayley finds herself stuck on a boat doing research with only Ms. Cameron, a biology teacher, and Ernest, a social outcast, for company. Hayley and her group find the rare turtle they’re hunting for, but with it they find people illegally hunting it. When Hayley and Ernest try to protect the turtle, they find their lives are in danger. Now Hayley has two mysteries to deal with-and twice the danger.

Endangered: A Death on a Deadline Mystery is an enjoyable book. While the ending is no surprise, the story is engaging and interesting. Even though the bad guy is predictable, the ending is still satisfying and will make the reader smile.

Hayley is a loveable, realistic character the reader can bond with. Hayley has abandonment issues because her mother left her as a baby. She doesn’t do the “dating scene” because she’s not sure how to handle guys. She doesn’t have a normal family life. But when it comes to reporting, she is assertive and sure of herself.

Between the mystery, the hunt for an elusive turtle, and Hayley’s personal story, the book has a lot to love. Even though the story revolves around a possible death, the violence is not detailed or graphic. However, there are many references to drugs and alcohol that may be inappropriate for younger readers.

Sexual Content

  • Hayley is at work and wonders about her friends who attended prom. She was, “checking Facebook every ten minutes to see which of my friends were making out, breaking up, or getting hammered.”
  • When talking about a Herpetofaunal research project, Hayley thinks, “It sounded like a sexually transmitted disease.”
  • Hayley tells a boy she isn’t into the dating scene because, “You go to a club, or a party, and you’re out there dancing, and suddenly a guy you don’t even know comes up behind you and starts groping you. When did that become socially acceptable?” Later in the same scene, she says, “The point is, that’s what guys always say: ‘What’s the problem, baby? Why are you so uptight? It doesn’t mean anything.’ And then they expect you to have sex with them because, if it doesn’t mean anything, why should you say no. . . . And maybe it does mean something. The point is, why do guys think that they get to decide if it’s meaningful or not? When they’re not even the ones who are going to get pregnant if something goes wrong.”
  • When talking about when a girl really likes a guy, Hayley says, “Because then you sleep with him, and you put your heart into it, and half the time he doesn’t really care, he’s just using you.”
  • Hayley thinks about her father not being at home when she was little. “Dad was out chasing stories and whatever else grown men chase when they don’t have a wife at home . . . he never brought a girlfriend home. But he was late often enough. Let’s just say, it wouldn’t have surprised me.”
  • While Hayley is drinking at a bar, one of the men she is with leans toward her. “His hand, warm and heavy, landed on my thigh. I felt a throb go through my body—a throb I didn’t want to feel, not for Trevor. A burning sensation flushed from my legs through my pelvis, my breast, my neck, my lips…My body wanted to throw itself at Trevor-Forever.” Trevor kisses Hayley’s earlobe and then her lips. Drunk and upset, Hayley runs, grabs a cab, and goes home.
  • Ernest’s mother left him when he was eight. When Hayley sees Ernest’s father’s green lawn Hayley thinks, “Given the way his wife had left him for a life of probiotic lesbian farming, he probably felt sweet revenge every time he blasted a dandelion.”
  • When Alex’s thigh touches Hayley’s thigh, “a warmth spread through my leg that was more than just body heat.”
  • When Alex touches Hayley’s hand she thinks, “Every part of him I saw, I wanted to touch: the short, soft hairs at the nape of his neck, the stubble on the line of his jaw, the hair that fell in a fringe over his left eyebrow, the muscles that rippled in two long, smooth ridges down his back, on either side of his spine. I wanted to trace those ridges from the curve of his shoulders down to his hips…”
  • Alex kisses Hayley. “He cupped my cheek with his hand. His lips touched mine with a warmth that made my heart roll over and surrender.”

Violence

  • Hayley goes to the scene of a crime where “some cops had found a blood-splattered shack.” The story revolves around Haley trying solve the crime.
  • At one point Hayley thinks that the crime could have happened when a fight broke out because “someone was drunk or high or something.”
  • Hayley and Ernest get into a fight over a drill. They, “went tussling over the sand like a deranged parody of a teenage beach movie…I twisted my body to keep his pelvis away; the last thing I wanted was to feel Ernest’s groin pressed against mine.” Hayley then bites Ernest, who lets go of her.
  • Ernest and Hayley are scuba diving when they see a fishing boat trying to illegally catch a turtle. While Ernest is trying to cut the net to free the turtle, someone shoots at him. “Fragments of shot pelted through the froth. A red cloud tinted the water . . .His other arm dangled limp at his side, a ribbon of red streaming out from a spot a few inches below his shoulder.”
  • Hayley talks about covering stories about “near-fatal bar stabbings” and “drunk-driving accidents.” She said her father’s philosophy was that “if I saw the stupid tragedies that people got into with drugs and alcohol abuse, I’d be smart enough to avoid them.”
  • A woman describes how Tyler was killed. “I can hear Snake telling Gill how he just killed some kid down at the cabin…he just wanted to beat him up, teach him a lesson, and now the kid’s dead, and he needs to get rid of the body before the cops find out.”
  • An illegal exchange was taking place when two people accidently walk in. Snake is shot before he can kill anyone. “There on the flagstones beside the pickup truck, lay the drug dealer Snake. He was face-up on the ground and a dark stain spread over his chest. A handgun lay on the ground beside his outstretched arm as though it had been flung from his grasp as he fell.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • Part of the story revolves around Hayley’s emotional issues because her mother was a drunken party girl and she, “couldn’t wait to get back to the party scene once I was born.”
  • When Hayley talks to two boys who saw the scene of the crime, the boys tell her, “we were kinda drinking.”
  • Tyler Dervish wanted to be part of the popular crowd, so he decided to sell drugs. One of the cops asks if Tyler sold, “E? Oxy? Coke? Weed?”
  • Hayley talks about being in a band with a couple of friends. The band fell apart when her friends, “discovered the joys of getting trashed after our gigs on vodka and party drugs.”
  • A fisherman said his grandfather, “made more money running rum. Prohibition times, it was.” He then goes on to explain how his grandfather got away with selling liquor during that time period.
  • While on a boat, Hayley thinks, “the wrong wave and it would throw us at the rockface, like a drunk smashing a beer bottle against the wall in a bar fight.”
  • Hayley goes to a bar to meet a young cop and his friend. The guys have a pitcher of beer and Hayley has a mixed drink. When one of the guys starts flirting with her, she flirts back. “The alcohol had apparently cut off my rational mind from the instinctual part of my brain.”
  • Hayley’s friend says, “I need a joint.” Hayley replies, “You need to get off that shit.” Hayley notices this friend has a mark on her arm that could be from a drug needle.
  • When going to the bad side of town, Hayley sees, “used condoms lay in the dirt beneath them. There were probably needles in there, too, but I didn’t stop to check.”

Language

  • As Hayley is trying to get information from a young cop she gives him a smile like, “Hey, I get it, my editor’s just as hard-ass as your partner.”
  • An angry fisherman tells Hayley, “You write this in your goddamn newspaper.” Later on in the story, the same fisherman uses the word “goddamn” again.
  • After getting drunk and flirting with Trevor, Hayley thinks, “Why did I have to go and make an ass of myself last night?”
  • When two boys found the crime scene they were scared “shitless.”
  • A woman calls her boyfriend a “bastard.”
  • When a fisherman tells someone that a turtle shouldn’t be taken out of the ocean, the man replies, “God, another fucking tree-hugger.”
  • Snake tells someone, “You heard him lady. Get the fuck inside!”
  • Profanity is used throughout the book, occasionally in Hayley’s thoughts, but mostly when the characters are in a stressful situation. The profanity includes holy shit, hell, shit, bullshit, goddamn, and bastard.

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

How to Fall

Fraya is gone, but Jess is determined to discover how Fraya ended up dead at the bottom of a cliff. However, everyone just wants Jess to stop asking questions. After all, Fraya is dead and nothing will bring her back. Despite the obstacles, Jess is determined to follow the leads and find out if Fraya’s death was a suicide, like some believed, or if there was something more sinister at play.

How to Fall is an action-packed story that will have the reader on the edge of their seat to find out what will happen next. As Jess tries to unravel the secrets to Fraya’s death, she meets Ryan and Will. Both boys hate each other, and both want Jess as their own. This budding love triangle is expertly weaved into the story without taking over the mystery of Fraya.

Teens will relate to Jess because she is a likable character who isn’t afraid of the popular mean girls or being an outcast. Jess’s confidence in herself is refreshing in a character. Even though Jess is sure of herself, she doesn’t come across as smug. The romance and language are teen-appropriate and, although there is profanity, it is used sporadically. How to Fall is an enjoyable book that shows how bullying can quickly spiral out of control.

Sexual Content

  • Jess is going out with a boy, so she can find out what he knows about her cousin’s death.  Her friend tells her to wear “Skanky jeans” so the boy talks to her.
  • Someone started gossiping about Jess’s cousin Freya and telling people she was a “slut.”
  • At the end of the story, a boy kisses Jess. “I had spent days imagining what it would be like to kiss him, but I hadn’t even come close. He kissed me like it was the start of something, or the end, and I couldn’t work out which it was, but I didn’t want to ask.”
  • Someone tells Jess that a boy likes “dirty girls.”
  • Jess goes to a party with a boy and he kisses her. “He pressed his body against mine, and with the kiosk behind me I had nowhere to go, but I didn’t have enough air to complain.”
  • A policeman gives Jess a ride home. Before she can get out of the car, he grabs her arm.  “Slowly, deliberately, he stroked my wrist with his thumb, trialing it across the veins where the blood ran close to the surface. . .” He then wipes off her smeared lipstick. “Before I could stop him he drew his thumb along my lower lip, staring into my eyes the whole time.”

Violence

  • Natasha is upset that Jess has been spending time with Natasha’s ex-boyfriend. They argue and Natasha grabs Jess. “Before I could move, Natasha shot out a hand and grabbed a handful of my hair.” Natasha then tries to throw her over a cliff, but is stopped.
  • A character retells a story about when he and a friend were being bullied. Eventually, his friend was attacked and broke an arm.
  • A group of girls was bullying Freya. One day at school, “a whole group of girls cornered Freya and held her down so Natasha could cut off her ponytail.”
  • The story begins with Fraya running and falling off a cliff. As the story unfolds, the reader discovers that Fraya had been bullied, which eventually lead to her death.
  • Someone tries to kill Jess by throwing her off a cliff.

Drugs and Alcohol

  • A character retells a story about a boy that was “smoking dope.”

Language

  • Jess and another girl were arguing. The other girl tells Jess, “Don’t think you can do better than me at being a bitch.” Several times throughout the book someone is called a bitch.
  • Jess’s friend surprises her. Jess says, “God, Will, you scared the crap out of me.”
  • Someone tells Jess, “Don’t tell anyone, but I am shit-scared of heights.”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

Hide and Seek

Unapologetically curious—that’s Jess Tennant. So when her classmate, Gilly Poynter disappears, Jess decides she must investigate. With only Gilly’s diary as a clue, Jess finds out that Gilly’s home life wasn’t happy, and her social life was a mess. As Jess tries to find out what happened to Gilly, she discovers that the police and her boyfriend want her to keep clear of the case. But Jess is convinced that she can help find Gilly and unlock the secrets that want to remain hidden.

Although most of Hide and Seek revolves around the mystery of Gilly’s disappearance, it also delves into the complicated relationships between people. Jess’s boyfriend is back in town for Christmas break, but instead of spending time together, they are arguing. To add conflict to the story, Jess’s dad is in town trying to win over his ex-wife, which Jess is hoping doesn’t happen.

Jess Tennant is a charismatic character who has the reader running with her from the start. Hide and Seek contains mystery, suspense, and complicated relationships that keep the reader guessing. The characters in the book are complicated and real.

For teens who like mysteries, Hide and Seek tells a good story without adding graphic images of sex and violence. Instead, the author creates interesting characters that drive the action and keep the reader interesting.

Sexual Content

  • One of the characters is seen kissing his girlfriend. “She grabbed hold of him and kissed him back, pressing her body into his. One of his hands slid down her back, his fingers spreading, digging into her flesh.”
  • Jess’s boyfriend’s father lectures her on, “taking the appropriate precautions.” Jess is upset by the talk because, “it wasn’t even relevant, currently. We hadn’t. We hadn’t even talked about it.”
  • Jess kisses her boyfriend several times throughout the book. In one scene, “his mouth tasted of cinnamon and his hand was warm on my neck. His thumb stroked the skin just under my ear and I shut my eyes, lost in him.” Another time, Jess “found myself pinned against the wall. He kissed me, hard, and my heart took off, fluttering in my chest like a hummingbird.”
  • In her diary, Gilly described having sex with someone in the disabled toilet near the staff room. “We ended up on the floor . . . And it felt amazing. . . But the main thing is that it felt RIGHT.” Later it is revealed that the person Gilly had sex with was her history teacher.
  • When Jess was trying to figure out who Gill had sex with, another character goes through a list of possible people. Jess “thought of quite a large group she’d left out. The girls.”
  • Nessa talks about how her parents think she is a lesbian, but she hasn’t made up her mind yet. Later someone defends Nessa asking, “Why do you care if Nessa likes girls anyway? Why does it threaten you?”
  • The teacher kisses Gilly twice. He “turned his head and kissed her, his tongue probing her mouth.”

Violence

  • At a party, a group of girls confronts Gilly. One girl grabbed onto Gilly’s wrist. Then Gilly grips her glass so hard that it breaks. “Liquid started to seep between her fingers—wine mixed with oozing red blood that trickled down the backs of her hands and slid along her forearm, branching out as if her veins were suddenly, shockingly, on the outside of her body.”
  • Jess sees blood in Gilly’s trash can and assumes it was cutting. “I knew plenty of girls who did it, slashing their skin to ribbons in neat lines down arms or thighs, because physical pain was better than the emotional kind.”
  • A girl attacks another character. “Nessa grabbed him by the throat . . . Max was choking, his face red, and Nessa let go . . . I couldn’t tell if it was planned or not, but her knee collided with his nose. He jerked his head back, and a spray of blood splattered the fake snow . . .”
  • Two of the boys fight and the description lasts for several pages. “It wasn’t a pretty fight. It was punching and shoving and gouging eyes. It was a kick to the thigh that wrung a string of curses from Will.” Will’s father shows up and breaks up the fight.
  • Gilly and the teacher tie Jess to a latter and then lock her in a house that is about to be crushed by incoming waves.

Drugs and Alcohol

  • Jess goes to a party where alcohol is served.
  • Jess goes to talk to Gilly’s mother who was acting strange. “I didn’t know if she’d been drinking or if she’d taken something, but there was no way she was sober.” Later Jess discovers that Gilly’s mother had been drugged.
  • Jess used to live in North London, “where you could buy pretty much any drug you wanted just outside the train station.”
  • One of the character’s wife is ill. He tells Jess that she, “just stays in her room, popping pills and waiting for the end.”
  • Gilly wrote in her diary that she wished she were like everyone else, “getting drunk, having fun.”

Language

  • Hell is used several times. For example, when Jess thinks someone is spying on her, she asks, “What the hell are you doing?”
  • When Will’s father breaks up a fight, he asks, “Do you want to tell me why you and this idiot are hitting seven kinds of crap out of each other?”
  • When Jess is asking too many questions, she is told to “piss off.”
  • One of the characters calls someone a “twisted little dyke” and later someone refers to another character as a “dick.”
  • In her diary, Gilly uses, “Oh my God, OMFG, and F*****G.”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

 

Bet Your Life

Jess Tennant wants to stay out of trouble, but when Seb is found on the side of the road with serious injuries, she is pulled into the drama. At the request of Seb’s younger sister, Jess tries to find out what really happened to Seb, but the more Jess discovers, the more complicated Seb’s story becomes.

In Bet Your Life Jess enters the party world of the popular rich kids. However, she soon learns that the party scene isn’t glamourous, but dangerous. As Jess learns about Seb, she finds that most people think he had it coming and nobody wants the truth to come out.

Bet Your Life explores the topic of rape. Although the rapes are not described in detail, bits and pieces of the victims’ experiences are uncovered. One of the girls talks about how the police would not believe her story because she could not remember exactly what happened. Even though Jess knows that Seb was drugging girls, she decides not to tell anyone with the hope that being beat up and left for dead will cause him to change his ways.

Unlike the first book in the series, How to Fall, the second installment of the Jess tenant series contains more sexual content and the kissing scenes are described in more detail. The sexual content may be disturbing for some teens.

Sexual Content

  • Ryan unexpectedly kisses Jessie on the mouth. “My lips were parted and it was startlingly intimate, even if it was quick.”
  • Jess watches Will and thinks, “I wanted to run my hand across his broad shoulders and down his back. I wanted him to turn around and press his body against mine. I wanted to remind myself what it was like to kiss him. . .”
  • Will and Jess kiss several times.  In one scene, Will sneaks into Jess’s house and surprises her. “I slipped my arms around his neck and he stepped between my knees, closing the distance between us . . . and then we were kissing and it made the room spin as if we were on a carousel. . . he dropped kisses down my neck. He trailed his fingers along my spine and I felt it in the pit of my stomach . . . He pulled the material off my right shoulder and leaned in to kiss my collarbone.”
  • Jess discovers that a boy was drugging girls and then having sex with them.  In one scene, a girl wakes up and is unable to move. The boy strokes her face and then she passes out.  Jess finds the boy’s cell phone which has pictures of some of the victims. “The lighting in the picture was terrible, but I could see a girl lying on her back on a rumpled bed, one arm over her face. She was topless. I was also fairly sure she was unconscious.”
  • While looking at a boy’s cell phone, Jess discovers pictures of him and his step-mom. “. . . in the picture he’d taken of the two of them kissing. And he was pretty obviously naked too, so it didn’t take a genius to work out what was going on.”
  • A girl went to the police to report that she had been raped, but the officer said, “no jury would ever take me seriously, especially when I don’t’ know where it happened or even what happened.”
  • A boy tells Jess that he was drugging girls so he could have sex with them. When she said it was rape, he replied, “There were no consequences for her. She didn’t even know it had happened, and neither did anyone else. I wore a condom. I was respectful. I didn’t take pictures or video. I didn’t make fun of them.”

Violence

  • At a party, Ryan and Will fight, presumably over Jess. The fight takes place over several pages and neither is hurt badly. When Ryan is hit in the mouth and begins to bleed, the fight ends.
  • Someone drugs Jess, locks her in a pool house, and then sets it on fire. She is able to escape without being seriously injured. However, the person who set the fire ends up dying.

Drugs and Alcohol

  • Jess goes to a party where alcohol is served.

Language

  • When talking about a boy who was beat up, someone said, “There’s no justice in half killing someone because they’re a dick.”
  • Profanity is used rarely. Profanity used includes damn and ass.

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

Girl Detective

Friday has perfected the art of going unnoticed. She has spent her life learning how to blend into her surroundings. After receiving a monetary award for solving a crime, she decides to go to an exclusive boarding school to better her education. To her dismay, a series of unexpected events cause Friday to become the center of attention time and time again.

Soon Friday is busy solving the school’s mysteries, which include lost homework and stolen desserts. To add to the drama, Friday begins to unravel the secret behind the yeti that is haunting the school’s swamp.

Outrageous teachers, teen bullies, and a cute boy add to the plot of Friday Barnes Girl Detective and will intrigue readers. Friday is a delight because while she is amazingly smart, she is clueless when it comes to picking up on social cues. When Friday and her roommate work together to solve mysteries, their relationship will cause giggles.

Friday Barns Girl Detective is a humorous story that will captivate younger readers. A Yeti brings suspense to the story. A cute boy brings a light touch of romance that shows the confusion caused by girl-boy relationships. Although the story ties up all loose ends, there is a surprise at the end that will make readers want to pick up the next book.

Sexual Content

  • It is rumored that the gardener has a crush on a teacher. “. . . Diego the gardener, who was hiding in the bushes staring at Miss Harrow because he is so deeply in love with her but doesn’t speak English so he can’t tell her so.”
  • Friday sees a cute boy and has a surprising reaction. “I didn’t realize seeing someone so good-looking could have such a disconcerting effect on my respiratory system.”
  • A teacher flirts with the school secretary. “Miss Priddock giggled and smiled her own less practiced yet equally nauseating smile back.”

Violence

  • A car accidently hits Friday, but she is not seriously hurt. “. . . she heard screeching rubber and slipping breaks, and looked to see the SUV right before it slammed into her suitcase, which slammed into her, causing her to stumble and bang her head on an ornamental statue of Socrates.”
  • Binky is challenged to a fight. Binky doesn’t want to fight but feels as if he has to. During the fight, Binky, “leaped onto his left foot and swung his right foot forward to knock the other boy’s foot from underneath him.” The other boy’s knee is hurt, and he “appeared to be crying.”
  • While being chased by a Yeti Friday, “whipped her autographed baseball bat out of her backpack, held it high above her head, and did what the book on kendo had instructed. She screamed with a terrifying vehemence, “Hiiiiiyaaaahhhh!!!!!” Then the yeti stumbled and Friday discovers it was not a yeti after all, but a person in disguise.
  • Friday and another student were, “grabbed from behind and had sacks roughly shoved over their heads.” Then they are tied to chairs with plastic zip ties.

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • When someone steals clothes out of Friday’s room and hides them in the swamp, Melanie tells her, “You should trust in fate to lead you to your clothes . . . if you are meant to have them back, then you will find them.”

Spiritual Content

  • None

Audacity Jones To The Rescue

Audacity Jones doesn’t complain about being raised in Miss Maisie’s School for Wayward Girls.  Audacity’s life isn’t full of adventure, but she has friends and a clever cat named Miniver. When Audacity is sent to the Punishment Room, which is often, she finds plenty of books to fill her time.

When Commodore Crutchfield visits the school seeking an orphan, Audacity volunteers to go on a secret mission to Washington D.C. Soon, Audacity begins to question the Commodore’s intentions. As she tries to discover the Commodore’s true mission, she meets interesting new people that help her along the way.

Audacity is a plucky, optimistic heroine, who is full of adventure. When circumstances are bleak, Audacity keeps her wits and looks at the bright side of things. The story weaves the girls from Miss Maisie’s School into Audacity’s story, which highlights the friendships Audacity left behind.

The historical novel will give readers a glimpse of life in the 1800s as well as a peek inside President Grant’s life. Audacity Jones to the Rescue is an interesting story with unique characters that add to the book’s enjoyment. Although the story is easy to read, the detailed descriptions and lack of action at the beginning of the story may make it difficult for some readers to make it to the end of the book. However, the action and suspense pick up at the end of the story and leave the reader with a satisfying conclusion.

Sexual Content

  • None

 

Violence

  • Audie faints when turtles are being made into soup.
  • Dorothy, the niece of the president, is drugged and kidnapped. The kidnappers tie her hands but do not hurt her.

Drugs and Alcohol

  • When Audie is worried that Mrs. Finch will “be cross,” another character tells Audie not to worry because she has “poured her a lovely glass of sherry.”

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • One of the characters mentions a reverend who advises people to “pray but swing the hammer.”
  • A character wonders, “Why did God make girls anyway? Total waste of time as far as he could see.”

Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer

Theodore Boone is the son of two well-respected lawyers in the town of Strattenburg. He aspires to be a lawyer himself. In fact, he prides himself on providing legal advice to classmates, and even some adults. But when a murder is committed and the trial commences in the otherwise peaceful town, Theo discovers that there is a witness to the crime that no one knows about. But the witness, an illegal immigrant, is hesitant to come forward. Theo must decide how to carefully work around the delicate issue that could result in someone getting away with murder.

This pre-teen novel has a well-developed and interesting plot. While there is mention of a murder, there are few gory details, making it pre-teen friendly. There are many positive role models in the book, including lawyers, judges, policemen, and teachers. Theodore explains the basics of the judicial system in a way that young readers can easily understand. Although an illegal immigrant is one of the main characters in the book, there are very few political influences that affect his treatment. There are several references to drugs and alcohol, but in no instances are they glorified. Overall, this book is educational, exciting, and well-suited for pre-teens.

Sexual Content

  • Theodore lacks any romantic interest for his friend, April. “It wasn’t a romance; they were too young for that. Theo did not know of a single thirteen-year-old boy in his class who admitted to having a girlfriend. Just the opposite. They wanted nothing to do with them. And the girls felt the same way. Theo had been warned that things would change, and dramatically, but that seemed unlikely.”
  • Because girls and boys were split into different classes, there was flirting in the hallways. “There was some awkward flirting between the rooms as the boys mixed with the girls. During classes, they were ‘gender separated,’ according to a new policy adopted by the smart people in charge of educating all the children in town. The genders were free to mingle at all other times.”
  • Theo has a romantic interest in a woman who works as a court clerk. “Jenny, the beautiful, was waiting. ‘Well, hello, Theo,’ she said with a big smile as she looked up from her computer at the long counter. ‘Hello, Jenny,’ he said. She was very pretty and young and Theo was in love. He would marry Jenny tomorrow if he could, but his age and her husband complicated things. Plus, she was pregnant, and this bothered Theo, though he mentioned it to no one.”
  • The narrator mentions the prettiest, most popular girl in Theo’s class; “The most popular girl in the eighth grade was a curly-haired brunette named Hallie. She was very cute and outgoing and loved to flirt.”
  • When Hallie tells Theo to call her, Theo gives an excuse related to her flirtatiousness; ‘“Why don’t you call me sometime?’ she asked. Why? Now that was a good question. Probably because he assumed she was too busy talking to all the other boys. She changed boyfriends every month. He’d never even thought of calling her. ‘I’ll do that,’ he said. But he knew he wouldn’t. He wasn’t exactly looking for a girlfriend, and besides, April would be devastated if he began chasing a flirt like Hallie.”

 

Violence

  • Theo has a hatred for April’s parents because they treat April poorly. “He despised her parents for the way they treated her. He despised them for the chaos of their lives, for their neglect of April, for their cruelty to her.”
  • Murder is mentioned frequently throughout the book. ‘“About eighty percent of those indicted for murder eventually plead guilty, because they are in fact guilty. The other twenty percent go to trial, and ninety percent of those are found guilty. So, it’s rare for a murder defendant to be found not guilty.”’
  • Theo considers the likelihood that Mr. Duffy will commit another murder. “Why would the real killer be a security risk if he showed up to watch the trial? What’s he gonna do? Kill somebody else? In open court? In front of dozens of witnesses?”
  • Ike, Theo’s uncle, gives him details on how the murder was committed. “’He choked her?’ Theo had read every newspaper story about the murder and knew the cause of death. ‘That’s the theory. She died of strangulation. The prosecutor will claim that Mr. Duffy choked her, then ransacked the house, took her jewelry, tried to make it look as if she had walked in on a burglar.’”
  • In the prosecutor’s opening statement, he says how the body was found. “When the body was found, the front door of their home was unlocked and slightly open.”
  • In the prosecutor’s opening statement, he mentions what Mrs. Duffy’s dead body looked like. “The cause of death was strangulation. With the approval of Judge Gantry, Mr. Hogan stepped to a projector, hit a button, and a large color photo appeared on the screen opposite the jury. It showed Mrs. Duffy lying on the carpeted floor, well-dressed, seemingly untouched, her high-heeled shoes still on her feet… Apparently she was ready to leave the house when she was attacked and killed.”
  • The prosecutor gives further, more detailed information as to how Mrs. Duffy was killed. “An autopsy revealed the true cause of death. The person who killed Mrs. Duffy grabbed her from behind and pressed firmly on her carotid artery. Mr. Hogan placed his fingers on his own carotid artery, on the right side of his neck. ‘Ten seconds of firm pressure in just the right place and you lose consciousness,’ he said, then waited while everyone else waited to see if he might just collapse himself right there in open court. He did not. He continued, ‘Once Mrs. Duffy passed out, her killer kept pressing, firmer and firmer, and sixty seconds later she was dead. There are no signs of a struggle—no broken fingernails, no scratches, nothing. Why? Because Mrs. Duffy knew the man who killed her.”’
  • The narrator mentions Mrs. Duffy’s time of death. “The autopsy placed her time of death around eleven forty-five.”
  • The prosecutor reiterates that Mr. Duffy did in fact kill his wife. “The mere fact that a good lawyer kept saying that Mr. Duffy killed his wife made his theory sound believable.”
  • The prosecutor mentions Mrs. Duffy’s death once more at the end of his opening statement. ‘“This was a cold-blooded murder, ladies and gentlemen. Perfectly planned and carefully executed. Not a hitch. No witnesses, no evidence left behind. Nothing but a lovely young woman brutally chocked to death.’”
  • In pet court, someone demands to have a snake destroyed. ‘“Can’t you order it destroyed?’ ‘You want the death penalty for Herman?’ ‘Why not? There are children in our building.’ ‘Seems kind of harsh,’ Judge Yeck said. It was obvious he was not going to order the death of Herman.”
  • In pet court, Judge Yeck threatens to destroy all of the defendant’s pet snakes if they escape again. ‘“If Herman escapes again, or if your snakes are caught outside of your apartment, then I have no choice but to order them destroyed. All of them. Clear enough?'”
  • In pet court, tempers fly and a pet snake is threatened. “‘I swear I’ll kill him. Should’ve killed him this time, but I wasn’t thinking. And, I didn’t have an ax.'”
  • Theo thinks about the blood, or lack thereof, at the murder scene. “There was no blood at the scene, right? So there would be no traces of blood on the gloves.”
  • Theo thinks about hair possibly being the proof that he needs to prove Mr. Duffy’s guilt. “A strand of hair would be even more proof that her husband killed her.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • Mr. Boone smokes. “Mr. Boone smoked a pipe, and preferred to do so with the windows closed and the ceiling fan off so that their air was thick with the rich aroma of whatever flavored tobacco he happened to favor that day. The smoke didn’t bother Theo either, though he did worry about his father’s health.”
  • April’s parents were arrested on drug charges. “Both her parents had been arrested on drug charges, though neither had served time.”
  • Theo’s father mentions the consequences that would result from him missing school to watch the trial and makes a reference to alcohol. ‘“I will not bail you out of jail. You’ll sit there for days with common drunks and gang members.”’
  • Theo mentions how dangerous the neighborhood is where his friend’s brother lives. “The Quarry was a rough part of town where the lower income people lived. Strattenburg was a safe city, but there was an occasional shooting or a drug bust, and these always seemed to happen around The Quarry.”
  • Theo’s uncle has a drinking problem. “Ike drank too much, and this unfortunate habit made for slow mornings. Over the years, Theo had heard adults whispering about Ike’s drinking. Elsa had once asked Vince a question dealing with Ike, and Vince replied with a curt, ‘maybe if he’s sober.’”
  • Theo jokingly asks his uncle for a beer; “Ike opened a small refrigerator on the floor behind his desk. ‘I have Budweiser and Sprite.’ ‘Budweiser,’ Theo said. Ike gave him a Sprite and popped the top of a can of Bud for himself.”
  • Theo’s classmate, Woody, has a brother who was arrested for drug possession and distribution. “‘What’s the charge?’ ‘Drugs. Possession of pot, maybe distribution.’ ‘There’s a big difference between possession and distribution.’ ‘Can you help us?’ ‘I doubt it. How old is he?’ ‘Seventeen.’ Theo knew the brother by reputation, and it was not a good one. ‘First offense?’ Theo asked, though he suspected the answer was no. ‘He got busted for possession last year, his first. Slap on the wrist.’ ‘Your parents need to hire a lawyer, Woody. It’s that simple.’ ‘Nothing’s simple. My parents don’t have the money, and if they did they wouldn’t spend it on a lawyer. There’s a war in my house, Theo. Kids against parents, and nobody’s taking prisoners. My stepfather has been fighting with my brother over the drug thing, and he’s promised a thousand times he will not get involved when the cops bust him.’”
  • Theo is watching the trial from a secret spot when he sees someone smoking. “Theo froze and got a whiff of something burning. The man was smoking a cigarette, which was against the rules because they were still inside the building. He blew a huge cloud, then stepped onto the landing. It was Omar Cheepe, visible now with his massive slick head and black eyes. He looked up at Theo, said nothing, then turned and walked away. Theo did not know if he had been followed, or if the stairwell was one of Omar’s smoking places. There were cigarettes everywhere. Maybe others sneaked down there for a smoke.”
  • A group of teenagers is seen smoking. “A gang of young teenagers loitered about, all smoking and trying to look tough.”

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • God is mentioned at the beginning of the trial. ‘“Let all who have matters come forth. May God bless this court.”’
  • Theo’s friend, Julio, tells Theo how his cousin prays for his family; ‘“He finished his lunch and was saying his prayers for his family when the man came out of the same door.”’
  • Once again, Julio’s cousin is said to pray for his family. ‘“Our man liked to sneak away from the others, eat by himself, say his prayers, and look at a photo of his family back home.”’

The Accused

Pete Duffy’s murder trial is about to begin; however, when Duffy disappears the night before his trial, the town wonders where Duffy went. Theo was hoping to follow Duffy’s trial, but when strange men begin following him and the police accuse him of robbery, Theo becomes consumed with finding out who has it in for him.

Because Theodore tells his own story, the reader has the opportunity to feel Theo’s confusion and fear, which helps to build suspense. As the story progresses, the suspense is created in a way that will allow younger readers to be interested but not frightened.

The Accused has surprises, humor, and positive adult-child relationships. The story is easy to read and the engaging mystery will appeal to both younger and older readers. Although this book is part of the Theodore Boone series, The Accused can be enjoyed without having read the previous books in the series.

The only downside is Theo’s Uncle Ike, who convinces Theo to steal the password to his parents’ case files. Afterward, Theo feels guilty and wants to tell his parents. However, Ike convinces him not to because it’s not dishonest to not tell. Ike continues rationalizing dishonesty by saying, “We all have our little secrets, and as long as they’re harmless, who really cares? With time, the secrets often go away and things don’t matter anymore.”

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • The plot discusses the trial of Pete Duffy who is accused of murder. Some boys in Theo’s class discuss the disappearance of Pete Duffy. “Another had Pete Duffy murdered by drug lords.”
  • Someone throws a rock through a window and almost hits Theo.
  • Several boys at school get into a fight, including Theo. “Woody lunged with a right hook that landed perfectly on Baxter’s face. Baxter, to his credit, managed to land a solid punch before both boys locked each other in death grips and tumbled to the floor.”
  • Ike tells a story about when he was younger and was being bullied. He filled his lunch pail with rocks. “He was about to punch me when I suddenly swung the lunch box and hit him in the face. Hard. I mean it was a nasty blow that cut a gash in his cheekbone. He screamed and fell down and I whacked him a few more times in the head.” At the end of the story, Ike says, “I should have used my fists and nothing else.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • Theo’s uncle drinks beer. “Theo knew he drank too much . . . Two or three times he had picked up on comments that suggested Ike Boone struggled with the bottle, and Theo assumed this was true. However, he had never witnessed it.”
  • Theo thinks about “Spike Hock, a kid who lived one block away and was caught selling drugs in the ninth grade and spent eighteen very unpleasant months in a juvenile detention center. . .”
  • Theo thinks about a family because the sister was “arrested for drugs.”
  • A boy in the story “was caught with marijuana and went through Youth Court.”

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • At church, the pastor’s sermon expands on the eighth commandment. The pastor talks about how it is wrong to steal, including “stealing time away from God, family, friends. Stealing the gift of good health by pursuing bad habits. Stealing from the future by missing opportunities in the present.”

Hero Dog!

There’s been a break-in on Orange Street, and 9-year-old reporter Hilde is determined to crack the case. As Hilde begins interviewing witnesses, she soon discovers a string of missing sweets. Cupcakes have disappeared. A pie has gone missing. Many believe that Mr. Macintosh’s dog, Zeus, is the culprit. With the help of her sister Izzy, can Hilde discover the thief’s true identity?

Hero Dog! is a fast-paced mystery designed for younger readers. The story begins with Hilde’s “reporter’s toolbox” that teaches new vocabulary. As she interviews her sources, Hilde shows the importance of being observant and models questioning skills. Illustrations from her reporter’s notebook repeat key details of the story as well as questions she needs to answer. The end of the book has questions and activities that will encourage readers to check for understanding. Readers will want to follow the clues and see if they can solve the mystery along with Hilde. Hilde Cracks the Case: Hero Dog! is an excellent story that has the added benefit of teaching younger readers skills they will use in their daily life.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • None

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

 

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