BookWormin'

      4 stars!  This is a great book, with a main character who has a passion for detectives, especially Mycroft Christie, a debonair twenty-third century time traveling detective, with whom she has some illuminating, yet imaginary conversations.  Heidi's problems started at the end of summer, when all her friends returned from enjoying their breaks somewhere exciting.  The Leftover Squad has changed.   Wild Ludo is, well, still wild, more more fashion conscious and less herself.  Dai, a.k.a Big Dai, isn't so big anymore, thinks their old dedication to Mycroft Christie was "dorky", and has some serious muscles.  Fili is more emo but less in a way, and was she flirting with the new goth kid?  Heidi feels left out and so when Ludo think Heidi has a secret boyfriend, Heidi goes with it.       Giving "Ed" a name, a ULife profile, and some (okay, maybe a lot) of Mycroft Christie's traits, making him the perfect boyfriend. ...

This is a really good book!  Some parts seemed kind of creepy, but definitely in a good way. Twelve year old Clara Wintermute begs her father to allow her to let Professor Gaspare Grisini and his two assistants perform with their fantoccini (puppets) at her birthday party.  The day after her party, Clara goes missing.  Grisini's assistants, two orphan children named, Lizzie Rose, who is thirteen, and Parsefall, are questioned by the police because Grisini is suspected of kidnapping.  After being questioned, they discover a new puppet in the trunk that looks just like Clara!  Meanwhile Grisini seems to have disappeared as well.  Parsefall wishes to continue doing puppet shows without Grisini and does so on his own, using the Clara look-alike puppet.  When Clara's father Dr. Wintermute sees the puppet, Parsefall gets in trouble with the police and Lizzie Rose must find them somewhere else to stay.  A letter from one of Grisini's acquaintances, Cass...

Alianne of Pirate's Swoop wants to be a spy.  Her father is a spymaster and her mother is Alanna the Lioness, The King's Champion and a Lady Knight.  Although her parents want Aly to accept responsibility as a noblewoman and get a job, neither of them want her to spy, as it is dangerous work.  When Aly and her mother get in an argument about her job choice, Aly decides to leave for a family friend's house so her mother and father can have some alone time while Aly cools off.  Unfortunately, Aly is captured by pirates and given away as a slave to the Baltaings.  When the king exiles the Baltaings for the time being, Aly goes with thanks to the trickster god, Kyprioth.  Kyprioth sets a wager with Aly.  If she can keep the two eldest Baltaing daughters alive and safe until the autumn equinox, he will send her home and convince her father to let her spy.  Aly agrees and works hard at her job while also obtaining lots of information for her father. ...

     Amber Appleton is the Princess of Hope.  She lives with her mom and her dog Bobby Big Boy in the back of the school bus her mom drives.  Her mom won't eat anything.  Her dad left.  But Amber still has hope.  And The Five.  Ty, Ricky, Jared, Chad and Amber herself.      In fifth grade, Jared and Amber didn't move up to sixth grade.  Jared had a bad stutter and Amber missed too much school.  They were put in a class with Ty, the only colored kid in school, Ricky, who has autism, and Chad, whose body didn't grow so he was in a wheelchair.  They had a "club" twice a week where they played board games.  Jared lost his stutter, but the club didn't help with much aside from that.  Well, that and forming The Five.      When they moved up to high school, one of the teachers, Mr. Franks, let them use his downstairs-no windows classroom.  The boys played Halo 3 on the X-box while Amber w...

"Everyone knows we are being watched.  It's not even something to be paranoid about.  It's a fact.  What I mean is, everybody acts like they're on TV.  Like we're stars in our own private dramas.  We'll be talking to a friend and then all of the sudden we're aware of... I don't know, being public.  We start to say our lines too loud, waiting for the audience to laugh.  Not for our friend to laugh, just... the world.  The world is watching somehow.  And we want to entertain them."  -Mariz, Rae.  The Unidentified, p. 1-2.       Great book!  I picked it off the shelf thinking it would be kind of like the Hunger Games.  I suppose it was kind of, with the evil mastermind and the "Careers", but mostly it was The Unidentified.       Katey, more commonly known as Kid, goes to school in an old shopping mall.  Her school is known as the Game, and everything about the Game is advertising and...