It's Elementary: Bamboozled on Beaver Island

Wow, I haven't written a book review since Banned Books Week, back in September.  Color me sheepish - especially since I'd promised a few authors reviews of their books.

It's spring break around here this week, so I'm only working one of my jobs this week.  (Still 40 hours over five days, but I get to sleep in most days and leave early a couple times.)  And I am actually making good on promises.

Today, let me tell you about the first book in the Holly Wild series by Michigan author Lori Taylor.

Statistics
Checkouts: Just talked a student into it last week!
Typical reader: Michigan middle elementary children
Source: The author, at the Outback Art Fair last summer

Synopsis: Holly Wild wants to do something heroic.  Will she have the opportunity to do so with her friends on a trip to Beaver Island?

My Goodreads rating: 5 stars

This is an illustrated novel in the vein of the ever-popular Diary of a Wimpy Kid or Dork Diaries, but significantly less "woe am I" than your average contemporary kids' fiction diary.  Sure, Holly is not necessarily popular, but she doesn't wallow in it.  This is a strong female character, with a healthy interest in adventure and science!  Holly likes squishy, icky, gross things, and can use the scientific method to figure things out.  Rejoice.

I am not big on mysteries, and I will say that I winced when I realized that there was a mystery to solve.  However, this won me over with how fun and adventurous the escapades of Holly, her grandmother, and her friends Sierra and Tierra (twins, obviously) are.  It also encourages the reader to get out and explore the natural world.

This is the first book in a series of at least three novels, all set in Michigan.  It's perfect for children in second through fourth grades.

Marvelous Michigan Month: A Cold Day in Paradise

Welcome to my Marvelous Michigan Month!  Today I would like to tell you about an adult book, which I listened to on CD.  It is A Cold Day in Paradise by Steve Hamilton, a mystery novel set in a little town in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

Statistics
Michigan connections: Mr. Hamilton is a Detroit native (currently living in New York state), and the book - as with most of the series it kicked off - is set in Paradise, Michigan.

"A" points to Paradise. Screenshot of Google Maps.

Checkouts, charter school: no checkouts of the paperback yet
Checkouts, school/public: 28 audio, 80 physical
Series checkouts, school/public: Too many, don't ask. LOL
Typical reader: Adult mystery lovers, adults looking for local fiction
Source: School/public library

Synopsis: Former Detroit police officer Alex McKnight has settled into a quiet life in a cozy cabin in the woods near Paradise, Michigan, but a lawyer friend in the Soo (Sault Ste. Marie) talks him into becoming a private investigator.  That isn't so bad, until it gets McKnight involved in a series of murders in the area that have more than just a little reminder of why he retired.

My Goodreads rating: 4 stars

A coworker strongly recommended this book, and it's hard to escape the fact that this is an incredibly popular series around here.  If I were to focus instead on adult patrons and what they read, I'd have to include this.  The Alex McKnight series currently includes nine books, all of which circulate heavily.  And it's like that all across the U.P.  I'm sure my middle school students will start checking it out later this school year, when they need Michigan-related books to write reports on.

That said, I have mixed feelings about this book.  The first half was good, and I began to think that maybe there are mystery novels out there that I might actually enjoy.  But then it began to drag, and I thought the mystery was solved with two CDs left to go.  I was wrong, but still.  While having the protagonist of a mystery be someone actually capable of solving crimes is something that makes a mystery novel more tolerable, McKnight was still making stupid mistakes.  That irritated me.

The audio version of this is quite enjoyable.  Dan John Miller, the reader, offers a good mixture of tones and accents.  The Yooper accent is not played up too heavily.  We Yoopers don't all sound like we're straight out of the movie Fargo, and we appreciate it when we're not portrayed as such.  I gather some later books in the series are narrated by someone different, who does make us sound completely ridiculous.

This is a good book to review this month, as the story begins in late October.  If you're not from around here, you'll learn a bit about our November weather, and the storms Lake Superior gets that time of year.  (See also Gordon Lightfoot's song, The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.)  By the way, we had our first snowfall of the season last weekend.

Cover-to-Cover Commuting: Heist Society

As I journey through the land of audiobooks with my new commute, I'm finding the vista sorely lacking in listening options for young people.  Maybe it's just the libraries that I frequent, but I'm hard-pressed to find many audiobooks on CD for teens.  (There are a good number available digitally through the libraries, but listening to my MP3 player in the car seems akin to talking on the phone - not a good idea.)

What I'm finding in the sparse collections, however, are really quite good.  See my previous review of Harlan Coben's Shelter.  Or, continue reading this to find out about Heist Society by Ally Carter.

Statistics
Checkouts: 5
Typical reader: Readers of mysteries
Source: The school/public library

Synopsis: Katarina Bishop, an experienced but young thief, needs to steal priceless art pieces back for a mobster who was robbed of them and blames her father

My Goodreads rating: 4 stars

I really enjoyed the narrator for this book.  Angela Dawe has a wonderful voice, in clarity, range, and pleasantness.  Each character is unmistakably portrayed with a unique tone, matching his or her age and sex well.  And accents!  It really is quite admirable, how such a variety of accents, dialects, and languages are handled in this audio recording.  Who needs a full cast?

The story is somewhat akin to that of Robin Hood.  At her core, Katarina tries to be a good person, and use her skills to return priceless artifacts to their rightful owners.  But she's still a thief.  And she and her crew of fellow teen thieves do some outrageous (albeit mostly believable?) things.

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Sorry this review is a bit short. I listened to this a few weeks ago, plus my memory for the spoken word instead of what I read isn't the greatest. Expect my audio reviews to be more on the short side.

Cover-to-Cover Commuting: Shelter by Harlan Coben

I'm just full of ideas for new features lately.  This one is courtesy of my new job.  Every day that I work, I drive roughly 45 minutes each way.  The drive is beautiful, and this time of year there are always sandhill cranes in the grasses near the highway, but it's still a long commute.  My boss strongly urged me to try audiobooks.  I protested a bit, as I prefer print and claim to be a bad listener.  Really, I retain what I read far better than what I hear.  But, I gave it a try with a nonfiction true crime by Ann Rule (to be reviewed in a double feature with another of her audiobooks soon).  It does pass the time.  And, I take in more books than I would otherwise - and therefore have more to review.

Welcome to cover-to-cover commuting, my audiobook review feature.  First, let me tell you about Shelter, a YA mystery by bestselling author Harlan Coben, and read by Nick Podehl.

Statistics
Checkouts: I'll keep it in mind for when I get the charter school's audiobook collection started.
Source: Checked out from school/public library (sources' checkouts: 10)
Typical reader/listener: Teen boys, fans of Harlan Coben

Synopsis: Mickey Bolitar is having a rough year.  His father died in a car accident, his distraught mother turned to drugs and is currently in rehab, and Mickey has to live with his estranged uncle Myron (protagonist of Mr. Coben's primary series).  He starts the new school year on the right foot, with a beautiful, kind girlfriend ... but then she disappears with barely a trace.  Can Mickey find her?

My Goodreads rating: A generous 5 stars

I'm not a fan of mysteries, and was skeptical when my boss practically shoved this book on CD into my hands as she gushed about it.  But, I'm glad I gave it a try.  This really works well as an audiobook, and it held my interest throughout the narrative.  A major reason for this is Mr. Podehl's voice acting.  He captures the tone of a teenaged narrating protagonist very well, with distinctive voices for the supporting cast.  The voices for some of the adult females, particularly the gym teacher, came across as flamboyantly gay instead of feminine, but it worked - that's likely just how Mickey would have imitated her!

If all of Mr. Podehl's work is this good, I may seek out other audiobooks he's voiced.  (Here's a list of works he's been a part of, from his web site.)

The other half of the audiobook, the writing that's being read, objectively pleased me.  The plot was engaging and edgy.  There were side-plots and unraveling back-stories.  I found the characters interesting, particularly Mickey's new friend E-ma, the sassy, plump, emo girl who is initially reluctant to be befriended by a tall jock like the protagonist.  And I must not leave out the goofy sidekick Mickey finds himself with - Spoon, who is unrepentantly geeky and spouts random trivia.  These are such vivacious characters.

While I'm being generous and giving a mystery 5 stars, I do have to say that I realized what I don't like about the genre.  Mickey is just a teen boy, trying to solve what could be a kidnapping.  Other mystery novels feature librarians, caterers, cat owners, and other ordinary people not normally involved in crime-solving ... solving crimes.  Once you go beyond who took Aunt Gertrude's antique candy bowl or where the elderly next-door neighbor buried a box of money during the Great Depression, you're entering territory that's, well ...

... the stuff of cartoons.

Really, when all is said and done in Shelter, I'm surprised the bad guys didn't say something like, "If it weren't for you pesky kids!"

But I know that many people like mysteries, and they probably look at my preferred novels that are full of dragons and magic, and shake their heads too.

If you're looking to try a mystery, give this one a shot.  If you're looking for a step between the Hardy Boys and adult mysteries, this probably fits the bill.  And if genres are irrelevant to you, you're awesome, and so is this book.

Yay for YA: The Jinson Twins, Science Detectives, and the Mystery of Echo Lake review

A funny thing happened on Goodreads a couple weeks ago.  I often enter the giveaways on the site in hopes of getting free books.  Thus far, I've never won.  But then, I got a message on Goodreads.  From an author.  Saying that his giveaway is overbooked and, "Since you are a librarian and review and blog about YA books regularly I would be happy to send you a review copy outside of the giveaway if you provide an address where I can send the book."  Epic squeal.

So I am happy to bring to you a review of the middle-grade mystery, The Jinson Twins, Science Detectives, and the Mystery of Echo Lake by Steven L. Zeichner.

Statistics
Checkouts: Coming soon to the library
Typical reader: Aimed at children age 11-13; I think the seventh grade science teacher will love it.
Source: From the author! Signed!!

Synopsis: Joe and Debbie Jinson decide to start a business during their summer vacation.  They are hired by the eccentric Mrs. Gray to help clean out her basement.  While doing so, Mrs. Gray mentions that her late husband was a sea captain who went down with his ship, but had apparently left her a treasure which she has not found.  The twins find a map, and with the help of Mr. Benjamin, the owner of the local junkyard (excuse me, Resource Recovery and Recycling Center), they use scientific principles to solve riddles and try to find the treasure.

My Goodreads rating: 4 stars (rounded up)

Let me be forthcoming in saying that mystery novels are not my cup of tea.  This took me about a week to read, which is a bit more than normal, because mysteries just don't hold my interest very well.  However, I'm a librarian, and I need to be able to tell my students - and the readers of this blog - about all sorts of books.  If you like mysteries, you'll probably get more excited over this book than I did (beyond the extreme happiness of getting a signed, free book from an author).

This novel has a great premise.  Using science to figure out a mystery appeals to educators, and a lot of kids like conducting science experiments.  There's one provided in the back of the book, somewhat similar to what the Jinson twins did in their quest to find the treasure.  Mr. Benjamin encourages the protagonists to form hypotheses when they start investigating the map and riddle, and helps them with research and studying data they collect.

There are some seriously quirky characters.  Mrs. Gray is one odd duck, and her African gray parrot, the Captain, adds both levity and unexpected insight.  There are villains quite suitable for this story - a trio of slightly older teen boys who feel that the twins are encroaching on their summer job "turf."  This certainly isn't an adult murder mystery; if not for the advanced reading level, it would be suitable for the elementary crowd.  Searching for treasure while on summer vacation is probably something many kids would be thrilled to do.  (See also, the movie "The Goonies.")

At times this book feels like it was originally written in third-person, and was changed to a first-person from the point of view of Debbie, the female twin, late in the game.  There are a few pronoun errors - not enough to throw off the flow of the story, though - and something just seems a little "off" in Debbie's narration.  Perhaps this was done to attract female readers to a science-based story.

Fun fact: The author is a pediatrician and works at Children’s National Medical Center, Washington, D. C., where he is Senior Investigator in the Children’s Research Institute.  His previous publications are the Handbook of Pediatric HIV Care (first and second editions) and Textbook of Pediatric HIV Care, both of which he edited.