Return to Bone Tree Hill- Kristin Butcher

Return To Bone Tree Hill is an excellent example of a fine author’s ability to create suspense. Jessica has lived in Australia for six years, but recurring dreams are haunting enough to draw her back to Victoria, where she used to live. Her dreams are terrifying to the extreme as she kills a boy in her dream. It is so vivid that she decides she has to find out the truth, even if it means she’s a murderer. So back to the scene of the crime, as it were. When she arrives, she indeed finds that Charlie, the boy in her dreams, has disappeared. She finally confides in her good friend Jilly, and together they attempt to unravel the maze of memory and fact. This novel has lots of suspense and although the character is 18, it would be most suitable for grade 7 and up.

Check out this great book trailer on You Tube.

http://www.goodreads.com/videos/show/3575-return-to-bone-tree-hill

Death in the Air- Shane Peacock

Well, Shane Peacock has done it again in the second of his stories of the early days of Sherlock Holmes. Although reading the first one sets the scene for this one and acquaints us with Sherlock’s background and family life, Death in the Air also can be read on its own. After solving a nefarious murder in Eye of the Crow and receiving no credit for it, Sherlock is increasingly determined to become a great detective acknowledged by all. When he is a close spectator of a great trapeze artist’s untimely fall, he is immediately convinced that it is a murder that he alone can solve. His investigations take him into the seediest parts of London, pitted against the notorious Brixton gang. If he can bring them to justice, he would have to be credited with an amazing coup and be given the reward that he so desperately needs to finance his education and to save his mentor and employer from ruin. The relationship between Sherlock and Bell is compelling and I trust will continue to receive a place in future novels. Whether Sherlock attains his goals in this novel, I shall leave for the reader to discover.

Res Judicata- Vicki Grant

Prepare for lots of laughs as you read this good humoured sequel to Quid Pro Quo. Although I have not read the first, it certainly didn’t distract me as this story stands on its own very nicely. Cyril’s mom is a young, slightly wacky lawyer who involves him from time to time in her legal education. Thus the title, Res Judicata, and his not surprising penchant for sticking his nose in where it maybe doesn’t belong. First, the big shocker- mom has a boyfriend! And about the time Cyril reluctantly comes to like him, he’s out of the picture. And it all has to do with his mom’s client; the very unprepossessing Chuck. Arrested for murder after presumably accidentally killing a wealthy professor, mom manages to free him. But Chuck comes up with the idea that he should take the police force to court for false arrest. And why is Biff, the old boyfriend, still skulking around? Sometimes it’s hard to differentiate between friend and foe. Lots of action and lots of laughs with quirky and interesting characters makes this a sure-fire favourite for your young adult group. I highly recommend it.

Eye of the Crow- Shane Peacock

A wonderful combination of mystery and historical fiction, Eye of the Crow takes us to the early years of the one and only Sherlock Holmes. Sherlock’s parents are social outcasts because of their unconventional marriage and Sherlock is determined to better their circumstances. Always with an eye for detail, young Sherlock is mystified by the heinous slaying of a woman in a seedy part of London. Convinced there is more to this crime than is immediately evident, he begins to investigate and becomes embroiled in a series of escapades which eventually culminate in him becoming a prime suspect in the crime. There are more mysteries to come and this will be a fine addition to our mystery genre. As mentioned in a previous blog, this will be a fine companion for the Enola Holmes mysteries by Nancy Springer. One wonders how independent authors have chosen to embark on mysteries so linked by time and characters.

Eye of the Crow is one of the 10 nominated books for the 2009 Snow Willow awards! Don’t miss it!

Snatched- Pete Hautman and Mary Logue

I’m never quite sure how you co-author a novel, but this team seems to have done a fine job. Here is another offering for your mystery lovers; a nice companion for those students who like the Chloe and Levesque novels as well as those featuring Robyn Hunter by Norah McClintock. I really liked the quirkiness of the main character, Roni Delicata. As reporter for the school newspaper, she takes her job very seriously and when Alicia, new girl in town, disappears, she springs into action. Enlisting the help of Brian Bain, whose mother happens to be the town cop, they embark on a number of sometimes risky adventures in order to get to the bottom of this crime. Hautman and Logue do a remarkable job of creating suspense and leading you to believe what appears most likely, and then surprising you with the ending. Altogether, a fine addition to our mystery genre. Snatched is part of The Bloodwater Mysteries series. I would recommend this for grade 6 right through to early high school as the main protagonist is in grade 11.

The Case of the Missing Marquess- Nancy Springer

I rarely set aside a book unfinished (and, no, it wasn’t the above title.) The one I just couldn’t go back to is called A Step From Heaven by An Na. I’m sure the theme of an immigrant to the United States from Korea is a most worthy one. Na writes in the voice of young Young Ju and you can trace the voice changing as the protagonist grows older. But it just did not have any drawing power for me. So I picked up another one, The Case of the Missing Marquess, an Enola Holmes mystery, and was drawn right in. I believe this would appeal to many of our girls who are enjoying the Lady Grace mysteries, as the time period is somewhat similar. Springer does a masterful job of invoking the sights, sounds and smells of Victorian England. For me, it brought to mind the writings of Anne Perry, an adult Victorian author whose mysteries I sometimes enjoy.

Enola Holmes lives with her somewhat eccentric and definitely free-thinking and often absent-minded mother, Enola has often felt very much like an afterthought having been born much later than her older brothers, Sherlock and Mycroft. Only when her mother disappears do the older brothers arrive and take charge. When they discover the state of affairs, they make plans to pack Enola off to boarding school. Bereft of all she holds dear, she disguises herself and runs away to try to discover her mother’s whereabouts and the reason for her leaving. Arriving in London, she becomes embroiled in the possible kidnapping of a young marquess and becomes prey to the seedier side of London’s inhabitants. Altogether, I found this to be action-packed, quaint without being absurd, and a celebration of the individuality of a young woman at a time when it was rarely appreciated. This would be a great read for children from grade 5 through 8; and possibly might capture some of our younger high school readers as well.

I am pleased to see that there are already several more titles in this series and will be happily recommending these to my students. They might also be a nice companion to Shane Peacock’s Eye of the Crow- a young Sherlock Holmes mystery, nominated for this year’s Snow Willow award.

Marty Chan

As a teacher-librarian in an elementary school, we use Literature Circles as one of our reading and discussion strategies. We have just begun this using mystery novels with a grade 5 classroom. One of the novels we are using is The Mystery of the Mad Science Teacher by Mart Chan. There are five boys in the group and to say they are engaged, would be an understatement. I sat in on their discussion on Friday and it was a joy to watch them chuckle together as they read interesting passages and wondered what would happen next as the end of Chapter three left them hanging and they knew they couldn’t read ahead. In this group is a young man who has had resource room help through the years and generally is placed with a group that has similar needs. We really wanted to make the groups heterogeneous and based on interest and it was a privilege to see this young man as he joined in the discussion with his peers. They are a fine group as they included him as they would anyone else and I believe we will see our young man’s self-esteem blossom. We specifically requested the parents to read with their son at home and the resource room teacher is also helping with his roles during her time with them.

Marty Chan is also the author of The Case of the Graffiti Ghouls, winner of the Diamond Willow Award for 2007 for Saskatchewan Young Readers’ Award and The Mystery of the Frozen Brains. Each of these has the same main characters which lends to their enjoyment. We also had the opportunity to have Marty as an author visit to my school last year and he was an enormous hit. His humour is understated, droll but he has an absolute twinkle in his eye at all times. The children loved him and I would recommend him highly.

Here are the novels we are using for this unit this time!

Searching for Yesterday- Valerie Sherrard

This is the third Shelby Belgarden mystery that I have read and I believe they are a refreshing addition to the mystery genre. So many of our teen books these days are dealing with harsh issues facing youth and are full of teenage angst. While I understand that there is a place for these stories as well, sometimes it’s just nice to sit down and read some lighter fare that does not demand as much of the reader emotionally. Shelby, the heroine of these stories, seems to fall into situations that require her detecting skills. In this novel, she very kindly befriends a girl in her class named Annie who lives in a foster home and has been ostensibly abandoned by her mother as a three year old. As Shelby and Annie begin to attempt to trace her mother’s whereabouts, it becomes increasingly evident that it was totally out of character for her mother to leave and not return as promised. This ramps up the intensity as they then begin to suspect that her mother has met with misfortune, or even foul play. Although the plot is somewhat predictable, I believe this type of novel, although with characters of high school age, will also meet the reading needs of some of some of our less demanding readers. As well, do not forget to check out Speechless, which has been nominated for the year’s Snow Willow awards, as well as Sam’s Light, which was nominated several years back. I realize that there are other titles that I have yet to read, but I do believe these will be suitable for both elementary and high school. They may also be a nice fit for the Grade 7 Language Arts mystery unit.

Observations

Although I did not post anything this weekend, I spent some time ruminating on the purpose of blogs. As simple on-line journals, their purpose seems quite straightforward- a personal diary. But as I subscribe to a number of blogs through my RSS feed (which I learned about at last year’s conference), I realize that blogs have as many purposes as authors. So then I thought about what my purpose would be- aside from the fact that this is an assignment to enable us to become comfortable with the blogging format. As you will see from the title of my blog, books are always going to be my focus. So I believe that if I continue this blog after our course is over, it may turn into a rather rambly discourse on what I’m reading and enjoying now; both children and adult literature. Not that I have much time for the adult stuff at the moment.

The other concern for many bloggers seems to be- I write, but will anyone read and comment? Or should we care? So this blogging experience should help me to decide what my priority will be- blogging in such a way and with content others may wish to read or as a way to contain some of my scattered thoughts and memories and make them more useful personally. But enough of that for now!! On to books!

I was saddened last week to read of Madeline L’Engle’s death. I have admired her and loved her works for a long time and had the privilege of meeting her when she came to Bookworm’s Den in Saskatoon. I have a much treasured, autographed copy of a Wrinke In Time. My son in Ontario e-mailed me a link to a site with a review of her life, as we read many of her books at the same time.

This weekend’s read was Eyes of A Stalker- a Shelby Belgarden mystery writtten by Valerie Sherrard. I thoroughy enjoyed this light, fast-paced novel- totally appropriate for our YA section 0f the library. Valerie is the author of Sam’s Light, which was a Snow Willow nomination several years ago and a very powerful novel.

So that’s it for today. I have not included comments on any other of this year’s Snow Willow titles- at this point, they can be found on my library blog.