Check out the Twitter messages from Anthony Horowitz:
AnthonyHorowitz: The man in the telephone box left a white card in the window. A single word. REEVER.
and from Ally Carter:
OfficiallyAlly: I know a secret.
It makes me question their inspirations for their books. Real-life spies?
I’m watching the final video and it’s cool to finally see Ryan, the narrator. Skeleton Creek is a stepping stone to change how stories are told.
This is not an ordinary YA book. Sure, you’ve got the boy and girl who have been forbidden to see each other. You have the adults who have no clue/you can’t trust. But the execution of these elements is what’s beautiful from Patrick Carman.
Have you seen his virtual touring? Intriguing…
Skeleton Creek is set up in part as Ryan’s journal. It’s from here that you see his thoughts and feelings on the situation. There is some plot, but for the most part it is character development as we see him interact with the people around him while he’s injured.
The creepier parts of the book, for me, were the online videos hosted at sarahfincher.com (if you have an ARC, it’s not sarahfletcher.com. I freaked out that I might miss some videos.) The craziest video is the last video, and I wouldn’t want it any other way. Showing some of the earlier videos to students and staff made them jump. Mission accomplished.
The premise is that there’s a land-based dredge used in a small town to dig for gold. One of the workers may have gotten caught in the gears and could be the cause of the Old Joe Bush ghost stories. Ryan and Sarah are trying to investigate the dredge, but Ryan is seriously injured.
What’s crazy is that with so many sites out there and with the ability to put anything online, we don’t know how much is history and how much is Carman’s story. (Unless you use whois.com.)
It’s for that reason that I jumped at the videos (picture no soundtrack but only frogs, wood creaking, and trickling water). I love the ending, but you can’t skip to it. The only hang-up that I can think of would be if your school has a silent reading time and you’re not able to get to the computer to watch the videos. You can still piece together what happened from the journal, but you definitely can’t miss the first and last videos.
Update: One of the Science teachers took home my copy of the book over the weekend. She was just going to read a couple of entries and then spend the rest of the weekend working on grades. Instead, she read the whole book.
This is a must-have for your library when it hits in February.
This one’s set in the world of Just Ella, but you don’t need to have read it to understand Palace of Mirrors.
We’re now in the rival kingdom following a peasant girl named Cecilia. Cecilia goes about her normal peasant-type chores during the day, but at night she is trained by one of the King’s Order in the ways of being a princess. Cecilia is in hiding for her protection while a decoy princess sits on the throne.
This fits right in with Haddix’s mystery and hidden agendas. Just like with Found, there’s a surprise at the end that ties everything together. This surprise was told to me ahead of time (thanks, Ms. Standhart…) and I still was able to enjoy the book.
There is a romance, but it’s more of the close-friends type through most of the book. If you’re looking for a light fantasy, with people kissing frogs and all that, this is probably not your choice. Castle life is rough, with lots of betrayal and murders. If you like mysteries and intrigue, you’ll like Palace of Mirrors.
Alan Gratz’s great mystery, Something Rotten, is now free. Check out the great Scribd version of the book.
Last night I finished Book 1: Found in Margaret Peterson Haddix’s new Missing series. Just like any Haddix book (she’s so much a favorite author of mine that she has her own category) it has great suspense and mystery. This time, though, she busts out the sci-fi as well.
All of the stuff that made the Shadow Children series work is still in it. The premise is that a plane mysteriously shows up at a terminal and the only people on board are 36 babies (no pilot – the cabin is completely dark once workers show up).
But what sets this apart from the Shadow Children series is that the action picks up in the second half of the book. In Among the Hidden you have lots of ‘What type of society is this?’ and ‘Why is he hiding?’ type questions with one sad twist at the end. This book, though, is not as society-challenging but instead is more like a TV show. (But that’s okay. It’s a great read.)
I know I shouldn’t give quotes from an ARC (the book comes out later this spring) but here’s one of my favorites (with understanding that it could change its wording once published):
“I can’t believe they think you’re on their side,” Mr. Hodge said. “You must not have told them what you want to do.”
Terribly mysterious!
I finished the book last night and it should be noted that I started the book that morning.
Now on to Max Ride 4. Just picked it up this morning.
Spoiled teen Hamilton Prince finds out that his dad was murdered by his uncle, who just married his mom. Sound familiar? Horatio tells the tale in Something Rotten.
To Be
1. A modern retelling of Hamlet, which wins points for me. (Although not every modernization is classic…remember the Romeo and Juliet rap? “Modern does not necessarily mean “rap”, teachers.)
2. Denmark, Tennessee is the new setting. Old money in a small town down south. Rosencratz and Guildenstern drive a Charger that plays “Dixie” as a horn.
3. All of the major scenes from the play are in the book, although mixed in order. “To be or not to be…” is discussed over XBOX and the polluted river means even more danger for environmental activist Olivia/Ophelia.
Not to Be
1. Horatio Wilkes is modeled in the same style of a Raymond Chandler hardboiled detective. Fun stuff, but sometimes his one-liners are kinda cheesy. It doesn’t detract too much from the storyline, but students may not get all of the jokes.
2. Quotes from the play show up throughout, which is great. I feel like I appreciate it more, though, since I read Hamlet first and then read the book. Tough to call which order for students to read the two in.
All in all a fun read. I think that even if the students don’t get the references it stands on its own as an intriguing murder mystery. When taken as a straight-up story, the events are crazy. When taken as an allusion, it only adds to the fun.
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