Triple Treat

Truly Devious: A Mystery

Stevie Bell is accepted into the prestigious private Ellingham Academy, a school that encourages high school students to pursue their own interests. The school's buildings and surrounding grounds reflect founder Albert Ellingham's fascination with puzzles and games. There are hidden nooks and secret tunnels throughout the estate. The manor is a character with a major role in the the tragic events, past and present. There are two distinct casts of characters within the story. The Ellingham family, friends, and household staff have starring roles in the 1936 drama. Stevie's classmates and the school’s staff comprise the characters in the contemporary murder mystery. The drama unfolds with intertwined narratives describing past and present Ellingham Academy.

The Vanishing Stair (Truly Devious)

When a tragic death on campus is announced, Stevie's parents rush to Vermont and remove her from school.  U.S. Senator Edward King intervenes and encourages Stevie to return to the prestigious school. Her parents grudgingly consent. Things get more complicated when Stevie returns to Ellingham Academy. Two other deaths follow in rapid succession. While they may be accidental, Stevie becomes convinced that the deaths are deliberate. She sets to work, discovering hidden artifacts and deciphering obscure clues to find the truth about the 1936 tragedies. She becomes certain that she knows precisely what happened but hesitates to share her findings. ​Who can she trust?  Will her information put her or some of her classmates in danger?

The Hand on the Wall (Truly Devious)

The final book in the series neatly wraps up the story. Johnson has kept all of the details and plot lines skillfully balanced throughout the series. She deftly catches all the balls she has kept spinning in the air. The hints which have alluded readers from the beginning come together in a smashing, but totally believable conclusion. All of suspects gather in the Academy's Great House for Stevie's recitation of the events leading up to the murders. She begins her presentation with some solid evidence and a few hunches. Readers will be intrigued with her deductive logic and catch their collective breaths as she delays until the last possible moment to bring forward the most damming piece of evidence. ​It's showstopper of an ending.

Straw by Amy Krouse Rosenthal  ill by Scott Magoon

First there was a Spoon, then Chopsticks, and now Straw joins the trio of picture books featuring eating implements. Amy Krause Rosenthal’s fertile imagination gives Straw a distinctive personality and character trait. That’s right. Straw is his name so a capital letter is in order. Here’s the thing: Straw has a compulsion to be first. He measures his consumption in relationship to the nearby straws, constantly comparing himself to others. ​With help from friends, he learns to slow down and savor the moment. ​The text is chock full is delightful word play. "I think what you're feeling is called awe, Straw."  Gentle message. Charming characters. It's better than a thick milkshake with whipped cream and cherry on top.

Making Things

Eat Up

The Fowl Twins by Eoin Colfer

It began in 2001. Eoin Colfer published a story about a twelve-year-old boy named Artemus Fowl, the world's greatest criminal mastermind. Time has passed and in the intervening years Fowl has fathered fraternal twins Myles and Beckett. In many respects it is difficult to believe that the eleven-year-old boys are siblings. Myles is the epitome of an intellectual detail-oriented techno-geek. Beckett seems wildly random, bouncing around, delighting in life. He is also a trans-species polyglot, communicating with animals and fairies.

Nina Soni, Former Best Friend
​by Kashmira Sheth ill by Jenn Kocsmiersky

Nina Soni’s life just got more complicated. She accidentally destroys her best friend's art project. Nina fears that Jay will no longer be her friend. She is stymied when her teacher assigns a Personal Narrative Project. She has nothing to write. Her life is as boring as plain rice. ​Then she discovers an interesting phenomenon that will be the basis for her person narrative. To her dismay, she learns that her idea is the same experiment used by  Jay at last year's science fair. She is discouraged. When her sister's birthday party plans fall through, Jay and Nina come together and develop a clever solution to the birthday dilemma. Upon reflection, Nina realizes that retelling events of the past twenty-four hours will make an interesting writing project.

For=get-ful-ness means your mind becomes so full of new thoughts and ideas that it pushes out the old ones.

Former means once-upon-a-time.

Scientific Discoveries

Dish soap

Lemon juice

Baking soda

Vinegar

The Jumbie God’s Revenge by Tracey Baptiste

It is interesting to view the cover art for the three books in Tracey Baptiste's Jumbies series. The Jumbies, features a frightened young Corinne moving cautiously through a dark wood, ominous-looking eyes following her. Rise of the Jumbies depicts Corinne submersed in water, body entangled in the coiling tail of Mama D’Leau.

The island looked as if a giant hand had picked it up, shaken it, and put it back down again. Everything was out of place. Corinne’s island is experiencing a rare occurrence: torrential rains accompanied by vicious lightning strikes. This is not normal. Corinne suspects that jumbies are the cause of this destruction. She learns to her surprise that this is not the work of Mama D’Leau.   Huracan, a Mayan mythological entity, is the force behind the devastating storms. This god of lightning, wind, storm, and fire is out for revenge and is intent on destroying all of the island’s inhabitants. It is up to one girl to save everyone on the island. ​She must negotiate mountain rockslides, avoid underwater volcanoes, and face a killer whale. She resolves to free Mama D’Leau who is trapped underwater. She must find her aunt Severine and return her to the island.   Several of these tasks require Corinne to take mermaid form. In the process, she risks losing her memory and even her life in order to save her family and friends.

The Becket List by Adele Griffin ill LeUyen Pham

Meet the irrepressible Becket. When her veterinarian parents decide to leave the city and relocate in the country, Rebecca is ready to go. She wants to take on a new country persona, requesting to be called Becket and creating a list of all the new experiences she plans to have on the farm. Not everyone shares her enthusiasm. Older sister Caroline is devastated, as she must leave friends. Twin brother Nicolas finds that his perceived ailments are even worse. Then there's Mr. Fancypants, the pug that has always been a member of the family but has slowed down and isn't much fun anymore. Living with her family on grandmother's Blackberry Farm, isn't quite what Becket envisioned. Collecting eggs can be painful when Laying Godiva, Gran's prize New Hampshire Red hen, defends her eggs by viciously pecking Becket. There is a lemonade stand fiasco, when Becket discovers the importance of sweeteners. Summer day camp is not the friend-fest she thought it would be. And sometimes helping the launch of a camper’s miniature boat is not helpful.

This camp has been a bran muffin amount of fun, not a banana split with three cherries and sprinkles amount of fun.

Outside, the big old moon is glowing yellow over the fields.
​”Beautiful Alert,” I whisper.

Have You Met These Girls?

Explorer Academy: The Falcon's Feather by Trudi Trueit

National Geographic takes on a new publishing venture with Explorer Academy, a fiction series combining action-adventure with science, technology and world exploration. Twelve-year-old Cruz Coronado is a member of Explorer Academy, an international team of young people training to become the world's future scientists. The Falcon’s Feather, second in the seven-book series, finds Cruz aboard the academy's flagship and headed to northern aquatic seas. He will be trained to swim in frigid waters and pilot a deep-sea exploratory vessel. The ship is equipped with fascinating technological gadgets: a helmet with an embedded computerized translator which allows the wearer to communicate with marine animals, clothing with bio-luminescent properties and the ability to change appearance to blend with surroundings, a drone that appears as a tiny insect but can transmit messages.

They killed your mother. They will not hesitate to kill you, too.

Extra. Extra. 

The Truth Behind

​Meet the real National Geographic Explorers who helped inspire the science in the book series. Watch them in action and find out how they’re changing the world through science and adventure in “Explorer Academy: The Truth Behind.”

Under Water by J. L. Powers

After the death of her beloved grandmother, seventeen-year-old Khosi and her nine-year-old sister Zi must face the world alone. Her aunt, accusing Khosi of witchcraft, has stripped the girls’ family home of its contents. They have only mattresses, a cracked plastic chair, and an ancient T.V. Working as a sangoma, a traditional Zulu healer, Khosi abandons her studies in order to support herself and her sister. This should have been her last year of school prior to university. She wanted to study nursing, practicing modern medicine along with traditional healing. Circumstances impel her to break the two promises she made to her grandmother: that she would complete her schooling and that she would not get seriously involved with her longtime boyfriend, Little Man. Tensions rise when her boyfriend becomes enmeshed in the local tsotsi's (gangster) taxi war and the body of a murdered Somali shop owner is left on her property. Destitute, pregnant with Little Man's child, her home destroyed by fire, Khosi knows that she must take her sister and flee.

"What do you suppose Gogo is doing right now on the other side?" Zi asks.
I shake my head. I don't have to suppose. I already know. "She and the other amadlozi are sitting around gossiping about the funeral," I say. "Gogo is laughing about how many people came for a free meal, people who never visited when she was alive."
Zi shakes her head. "That isn't funny,"
...
​"The things that matter to us when we are alive are not so important when we are dead," I say. "Gogo is glad they had a good meal. And she's touched by how many of them brought money to give to us."

Getting Acquainted with South Africa

Introduce students to the history and culture of South Africa and the Zulu People. These resources may serve as a starting point for further exploration.

100 Questions About Oceans by Simon Abbott

Simon Abbott's subject-specific trivia books are jam-packed with fascinating factoids.   100 Questions and About Oceans covers a wide range of ocean-related data including basic underwater geography and ecology, ecosystems, marine animal records, well-known marine biologists, historical shipwrecks, and protecting aquatic life.  ​Information is presented as a series of questions with corresponding answers, formatted in brief easy-to-read statements. How does the goblin shark hunt in the dark? ​Its snout is lined with natural sensors called ampulae, which detect weak electrical fields from living creatures. The shark simply tracks down its prey, open its retractable jaws, and ... chomp!

More Questions & Answers

Lowriders Blast from the Past
by Cathy Camper ill Raúl the Third

One look at the Lowriders Blast from the Past cover and it is evident that readers of this series are in for a totally different experience. The first two covers feature dark backgrounds synonymous with outer space and inner earth. Lupe's sweet ride, the modified Chevy Impala, cruises proudly across the cover.  This third book cover features a warm light tone. The signature lowrider automobile has been replaced. This ride is pedal-powered. Equally striking is Lupe Impala. Her distinctive facial feature, her nose, is much smaller and her hair is a mass of short curls. With this episode Cathy Camper and Raúl the Third take us the back in time. We meet young Lupe, traveling on a bike, similar to her transportation at the beginning of Lowriders in Space.

Initial pages introduce the backstories of the threesome.  Young mechanic Lupe Impala, her Mamá Impala owns of a junk store and Mamá Gazelle creates tissue paper decorations. Elirio Mararia mosquito, an artist whose father helps him collect words. El Chavo Flapjack octopus, cleaning expert whose family are talented performers. The trio encounter Los Matamoscas (The Flyswatters), who destroy Flappy’s bike and deface Elirio’s outdoor murals. The new friends team up repair the damage and then prepare Lupe’s moms’ car for a Lowriders competition. Los Matamoscas impose a series of bizarre rules that will disqualify Impala and Gazelle. The youngsters jump into the fray and triumphantly meet each obstacle. Their car enters and wins the competition. Even better, they enlist the help of their former tormentors and together create a stunning mural.

Riding with Lupe, Elirio, and Flappy

Bonus Discussion: Code Switching

In recent years, however, scholars have found there is sophisticated brain work behind code-switching, or CS, the linguistic term for switching between two languages in one conversation.