Adrian Morales @ Teen Town
Today
I am going to talk about five Mystery books for young readers. The first three
books are chapter books, and two books are a compilation of short stories. If
you’re like me, you’re often short on time and can’t get to the library to
check out books. Luckily, many books are available as e-books from The El Paso
Public Library. I got the OverDrive app for my ipad and was able to download
two of these books. You can check out five e-books at a time, and you get
thirteen days to read an e-book.
In The Face on the Milk Carton, fifteen
year old Jane Johnson is tired of being a plane Jane- she even thinks about
changing her name. Her parents are overprotective, and they are not letting her
grow up fast enough. Jane can't wait to drive- all her friends are learning to.
She's also lactose intolerant, so when she risks taking a sip of her friend
Sarah-Charlotte's milk, she's surprised to see a picture of herself as a small
girl on the missing-persons photo. Could it be that she is really Jennie
Spring, the girl from the milk carton? Are her loving parents really
kidnappers? Her mother is always planning activities to bond: knitting, arts
& crafts, and cake decorating- trying a little too hard to bond; her
father, an accountant, coaches soccer at her school after work. With the help
from the boy next door, named Reeve, she journeys to New Jersey to find the
truth. This novel is 290 pages of nonstop mystery. As Jane gets closer to the
truth she finds herself pulled between emotional and moral extremes: should she
call the 1-800 number on these side of the milk carton and turn in her parents
or should she be grateful and loyal to them for all their kindness?; should she
focus on finding herself or should she let her boyfriend do all the thinking
for them both? (Although he has other things in mind); are there any good
reasons to take someone from her parents, or does it even matter? (Is it fair
for her real parents for her to remain missing, or should she just enjoy her
life as it is?).
The Candymakers, by Wendy Mass, is a story about friendship, hidden
motivations, troubling memories, growing up and making good and bad choices.
Four twelve-year old kids, Logan, Philip, Miles and Daisy compete at the
Confectionary Association's annual New Candy Contest for the chance to make and
mass-market their own candy creation. Logan is the son of a candymaker, owner
of the Life is Sweet Company, which is hosting the contest. Logan has trouble
making friends, when he was five years old he suffered arm and facial burns
when he reached into a bat of chocolate to retrieve a toy truck. Despite this,
he remains a kind person. Philip is the son of a rival chocolate maker, a
businessman, is always scribbling in his notebook. His older brother Andrew
also had a notebook, and it was a handbook on how to cheat and get your way.
Philip is writing his own notebook now, and is planning to win the contest, no
matter what. Miles is somewhat of a hypochondriac, he’s allergic to rowboats,
bees, pancakes, and the color pink. He’s somewhat traumatized since he saw a
girl drown after she was chased by bees and jumped into a lake, and now he’s
always thinking about the afterlife. Daisy’s best friend is a horse names
Magpie. She is really a spy and is there to steal the secret ingredient. This
book is is a long read, 480 pages, but it is told from four different perspectives.
Its like Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, except here the characters
aren’t stereotyped and are more developed, they all have secrets and hidden
agendas. Who will win in the end, and will they end up making new friends or
new enemies?
The third book, The Trouble With Chickens: a J.J. Tully
mystery, is a humorous mystery about a recently retired rescue dog:
Jonathan Joseph Tully, or J.J. for short. J.J. is an investigator, and has been
around long enough to know that not all rescue missions end with a rescue. He
lives out in the countryside with his trainer and is ready to relax when one
day a hysterical chicken named Millicent visits him to try to get his help in
rescuing her two chick-napped daughters. J.J. has a sarcastic sense of humor,
he calls her Moosh just to annoy her. He decides to help her and follows
the scent trail to the ranch farm, where Vince the Funnel, an evil wiener dog,
is keeping the two chicks. He wants to frame J.J. for the chick-napping to have
him removed from the farm. He tricks him into a cage, where he is destined to
go to the vet to get an even bigger collar put around his neck. Will he escape?
After
reading three long books, I wanted to read short stories instead.
The book Troll's Eye View: A Book of Villainous Tales
is a collection of short stories told from the perspective of the villain. A
boy who runs away from home goes to work for an evil wizard and finds that he
is treated better than at home. A witch switches places with a princess and
discovers that she doesn’t hold a grudge. An elf named Rumpelstiltskin invented
raised bread, cooking, perfume. He has only one bad habit, he easts human
babies. He must help a princess spin straw into gold to save herself from
prison, but will she give him her baby in return? Many of these stories you may
have read in Grimm’s Fairytales, but here they are told from a different
perspective and you have bit more insight into the inner workings of each
villainous character and their reasons for acting the way that they did.
I see weird stuff in my neighborhood all the time: I once saw
a car flip over in front of my house; one time I saw a priest carrying a large
crucifix, at three o’clock in the morning (he looked like a ghost!). In
Tales from Outer Suburbia strange things happen all the time. A man
wearing a diving suit visits the next door neighbor, a mean old woman who keeps
all the footballs, soccer balls and freebees that land in her yard- and when
she discovers who the man is she suddenly becomes a nice person. A family
discovers a hidden courtyard in their ceiling, full of trees and frescoes (wall
paintings). What happens to all the poems people write, the ones they don’t
want anyone to read? They fly away and gather into a big ball, and one day are
swept into the sky and rain down on everyone. In this neighborhood everyone has
a missile in their yards, which they decorate. What lies outside of suburbia?
Two brothers go on an expedition and find the edge of the world- they hang
their feet over the ledge. Beautifully illustrated, this book is strange and
transports you into another world.
Divergent, the first 6 chapters.
Divergent, the film based on the Young Adult novel by Veronica Roth will be released this week. Teen Town has some promotional copies of the book's first 6 chapters. Como visit Teen Town and ask for a copy at the reference desk.
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