NOVEMBER 26, 2007
Half Moon Investigations by Eoin Colfer
Half Moon Investigations is a fast paced, action packed, mystery set in the town of Lock. Fletcher Moon’s dream is to be a private investigator. He earned his detective badge through an internet course and helps solve the schoolyard mysteries at his school. Young Fletcher finds himself the victim of an evil plot; he is accused of setting fire to a classmate’s lucky dance dress. He must solve the mystery in order to clear his name. Fletcher finds himself paired with an unlikely partner as he tries to piece together the evidence and crack the case. More advanced readers will chuckle at this satirical story of a 12-year-old mock-hero.
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NOVEMBER 23, 2007
Eleanor Roosevelt: A Life of Discovery by Russell Freedman
Anna Eleanor Roosevelt grew up wealthy but lacked family security. Her father drank too much, used drugs, and often disappeared for days at a time. Her mother tried to keep the family together, but after Eleanor's father was admitted to a sanitarium, her mother raised the family on her own. Young Eleanor missed her father and felt she could never measure up to her mother’s expectations. Just before Eleanor’s eighth birthday, her mother contracted diphtheria and died. Eleanor was sent to live with her strict maternal grandmother, Mary Hall. Her father visited and wrote Eleanor sporadically, but when she was ten, he too died, leaving her an orphan. Eleanor was regarded as an “ugly duckling” by herself and others. When, at age fourteen she was asked to dance at a formal dance by her cousin, sixteen-year-old Franklin Delano Roosevelt, she was eternally grateful. At fourteen Eleanor was sent to boarding school in Europe. Eleanor loved her school and wanted to stay for a fourth year, but her grandmother made her return “home” to make her debut into New York society. At age nineteen Eleanor became secretly engaged to a handsome Harvard student: her cousin Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Eleanor married Franklin on St. Patrick’s Day 1905 with her uncle Ted – President Theodore Roosevelt – standing in for her father to give the bride away. The couple had six children, one of whom died in infancy. However, their marriage was not without problems. Eleanor supported her husband in his political career, yet also followed her own convictions. Russell Freedman’s biography of Eleanor Roosevelt includes numerous photographs and primary source documents giving the reader a personal look into the life of a truly amazing woman.
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NOVEMBER 14, 2007
Finding Lubchenko by Michael Simmons
Written in choppy, conversational style,
Finding Lubchenko recounts one week's activity in the life of Evan Macalister, the son of a tight-fisted millionaire. Instead of an allowance, Dad gives him a job at his company which enables Evan to brazenly steal electronic equipment which he then sells online. When a murder occurs at the business, Evan's father is jailed and accused of the crime. Because of evidence found on the victim's computer (previously stolen by Evan), he faces a choice - clear his father by confessing to the thievery and giving the FBI the files
or follow the clues given and exonerate his father on his own without revealing his thefts. Of course, he and two friends armed with his Dad's credit cards, elect to unravel the mystery themselves while at the same time enjoying a whirlwind tour of the best Paris has to offer. Do they find Lubchenko? Do they clear Evan's father? Do we find out who really committed the murder? All questions answered - well, almost all - in this fast-paced easily read novel which will be of interest to grades 8 and above.
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NOVEMBER 9, 2007
Anahita's Woven Riddle by Meghan Nuttall Sayres
Set in nineteenth century Persia (now Iran),
Anahita's Woven Riddle both entertains and informs readers about Middle Eastern nomadic culture. Anahita, daughter of a chief herdsman, has reached marriageable age, and her father proposes to wed her to the aged kahn who governs their area - a man whose previous three wives have all died. Known in their village for thinking for herself, Anahita enlists the help of her grandmother and the mullah (holy man) and succeeds in having her father agree to allowing a suitor who solves a riddle woven into her bridal carpet to become her husband. In the course of a year, as we follow her tribe on its yearly trek and watch as she weaves her qafi, she comes to understand that although it is easy to determine whom she
doesn't want to marry, it is somewhat harder to discern who among some other worthy candidates is her yar (her soulmate). Although at times her interactions and conversations with the young men who seek her hand in marriage strains belief (given the culture of that time and place), the main thrust of the narrative is valid and it pleasantly immerses the reader in another not-so-well-known setting.
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