Tag Archives: mystery

by John Feinstein

I can see why young sports-fan readers would like this book and others in the series. The mixture of many real-life details of the sports and sports journalism world and a mild mystery (with a surprising, heavier twist toward the end) is just right to keep these readers’ interest up.

However, for someone who seeks more intense mystery or actions and cares less about the sporting aspects, this title will fall short in sustaining their attention.

I do appreciate that there are two young sleuths, one boy and one girl, and that they are smart and mature, but still rely on some help from the adults.  It lends realism and credibility to the story.

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Author: Carl Hiaasen
Rating:
Reading Level:

Pages: 304
Publisher: Knopf (Random House)
Edition: Hardcover, 2009

This is definitely a fun book and many of my young readers already told me that they enjoyed reading the third offering from Hiaasen. Everything does hang together nicely and the punishment of the evil doers satisfying. Hiaasen did not shy away from super contemporary things: facebook, CNN/Anderson Cooper, and of course, the father who is injured in Iraq. This makes the volume a “timely” book for current readers and only time will tell if in a decade or two, young readers still will appreciate the story, despite the references to matters that can easily date the book.

Scat, however, does not offer much more than either Hoot, or Flush — much of the same thing to young readers who like mysteries, who like to read stories about older kids (High School students as protagonists) but who do not necessarily wish to decipher complex sentence structures or figures of speech and who still enjoy jokes on fairly basic/bodily function levels.

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Author: Kirsten Miller
Rating:
Reading Level: 5th-7th

Pages: 250
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA
Edition: Hardcover, 2006

The concept is so intriguing: a shadow city 70 feet underground of Manhattan, with entrances from a cemetery, a bank vault, a Chinatown counterfeit factory, etc., and a group of super-girls who each possesses a singular special talent: a master disguiser, an expert researcher, a mad chemist, a skilled mechanics, a talented forger, and Kiki Striker, the enigmatic mastermind. Their goal to save New York City is lofty and Kiki Strike’s hidden agenda is not as sinister as one is led to believe. And, yet, and yet… I could not thoroughly enjoy this book. Actually, I felt a bad taste at the back of my throat throughout the reading of this otherwise ingenious novel.

Kiki Strike made me realize that I partially read for characters. I enjoy a good, intriguing plot with lots of twists and surprises the next eager reader. However, all the clever plot twists, the inventiveness, and the suspenseful mood could not make me forget, or forgive, the cattiness of each of the members of the Bank Street Irregulars (as the six-girl squad is so named.) Their relentless sarcasm and taunts toward each other, even when done in good humor, have the underlining nastiness that cannot be wiped clean from my mind; the author also opted to insert cynical commentaries and gratuitous violent scenes whenever possible (the walk-on characters of grade-school aged sisters seen in their home garden strangling each other until both turn blue over a petty matter, for example.) After a while, the initial sense of witticism gives way to depressing negativity.

Ah. I absolutely sound too harsh. After all, I did find the book charming in its quirky, outlandish, and even informative (lots of New York City historical oddities and other useful tips, such as how to put on a successful disguise and how to tell if someone is telling a lie) way. I guarantee its success with many young readers, especially somewhat brainy 5th and 6th graders who aspire to become spies or super-heroines!