On Thursday night, the Mystery Writers of America will host their annual banquet to hand out the Edgar Awards for the best mystery books of the year. A couple weeks ago, I made my predictions for the best YA mystery. This week, I’ll make my predictions for best juvenile mystery. If you’ve forgotten the nominees, you […]
This is a cute, “innocent” YA romance about a quirky girl who moves to a new high school. It’s a rarity in YA romance because it’s told from the boy’s perspective. Title: Stargirl Author: Jerry Spinelli Genre: romance Age group: YA Synopsis: Eleventh grader Leo Bordock tells the story of new student Susan “Stargirl” Caraway. In a high […]
On May 2, the Mystery Writers of America will announce the winners of the 2013 Edgar Awards. Since I’ve read all the nominees for best YA mystery, I thought I’d share my prediction. In case you missed any of my previous reviews of the nominees, here are the links to refresh your memory. Code Name […]
While grading a student essay recently, I came across a sentence like this: “My friend past by me.” It’s easy to overlook the spelling mistake in this sentence, so let’s take a moment to figure out the difference between passed and past. The easiest way to distinguish between the two is to remember that passed […]
This is the fifth and final book in my list of YA Edgar nominees to read. Title: Crusher Author: Niall Leonard Genre: Mystery Age group: Young Adult Synopsis: Finn Maguire, a dyslexic seventeen-year-old who works at the local fast food joint, finds his stepfather beaten to death after arriving home from work one day. The cops […]
I just finished filing my federal and state income taxes (Yay for me!). Since I filed both electronically, my “signature” for these documents included things like my social security number and special PINs. When I first started hearing about schools dropping the teaching of cursive, I thought, “But how will these kids sign their checks?” […]
This is the fourth children’s mystery I’ve read of the five nominated for this year’s Edgar Award. When I started reading it, I thought, “Let’s see–baseball, Italian Americans, and a mystery to find a hidden treasure–yep, sounds like my kind of book.” Title: 13 Hangmen Author: Art Corriveau Genre: Mystery Age group: Middle Grade Synopsis: Just before his thirteenth birthday, […]
If you watched the news right after Pope Francis was elected, you may have heard some people questioning whether we should refer to him as Pope Francis I or simply Pope Francis. Any English teacher worth her weight in salt could have ended that debate. The answer can be found in the rules for writing […]
I’d seen this book mentioned on blogs and via Twitter quite a bit before it was nominated for the Edgars, so I was looking forward to reading it. Quite frankly, I find myself with mixed feelings about it. Title: Code Name Verity Author: Elizabeth Wein Genre: Mystery Age group: Young Adult Synopsis: A young Scottish woman is captured by Nazis […]
These two words come up during the daily warm-up exercises with my students. Because of their similar spellings and meanings, they can be a tricky pair. Affect is almost always used as a verb. It means “to change or make a difference.” How will this assignment affect my grade? (Think: How will this assignment change my grade?) Effect […]
