A.J. Cattapan

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 Verity by Elizabeth Wein
• Crusher by Niall Leonard
• Amelia Anne Is Dead and Gone by Kat Rosenfield
• The Edge of Nowhere by Elizabeth George
• Emily’s Dress and Other Missing Things by Kathryn Burak

Before I give my prediction, I should note that I have no experience doing this whatsoever. This is simply me. as a mystery fan, having fun making predictions, kind of like I do with the Oscars (except in this case, I’ve actually read all the nominees).

My guess is that the Edgar Award will go to Code Name Verity. Why? First, I heard a ton of buzz about it online from agents, editors, and YA book fans. It seems to be very popular among book people. Second, it’s a World War II historical, and those books always appeal to large groups of people. Third, it has some good twists in the plot, some of which surprised even this avid mystery reader.

If Wein doesn’t win it for Code Name Verity, my next guess would it be that it would go to Elizabeth George’s The Edge of Nowhere. She’s known for her Inspector Lynley series (adult novels) and has won other writing awards, including the Agatha Award for Best First Novel.

Of course, if it goes to any of the other nominees, that will simply prove I know nothing about predicting awards. 🙂 I’ll post the names of the winners after they are announced on May 2.

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 is a verb. Therefore, the student really should have written, “My friend passed by me.”

The word past can be several parts of speech: adverb, adjective, preposition, and noun. Notice that it is not used as a verb.

• Adverb: “Several hours went past before my friend called back.” (Past modifies the verb went.)
• Adjective: “These past few months have been really cold.” (Past modifies the noun months.)
• Preposition: “We walked past the store.” (Noticed the prepositional phrase, past the store.)
• Noun: “In the past, we discussed the difference between it’s and its.” (Past is a noun here because it’s the object of the preposition in.)
  
   

In review: “The stranger passed by me” is not to be confused with “The stranger walked past me.”

As my grade school teachers used to say, “Clear as mud?”

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, Tony DiMarco receives two unexpected gifts from his great uncle, Zio Angelo: a Red Sox baseball cap that may just have belonged to Ted Williams and an entire townhouse located in Boston’s historic North End. The house is left to Tony in Zio Angelo’s will, which requires that Tony sleep in the bedroom on the top floor. One morning, Tony awakens to discover another boy in the room with him. It’s the thirteen-year-old version of Zio Angelo who, through some mysterious portal, is able to inhabit the room at the same time as Tony as long as the Ted Williams cap remains on a shelf in the room. A neighbor accuses Tony’s dad of murdering Zio Angelo in order to inherit the house. This leads Tony on a series of adventures to determine what really caused Zio Angelo’s death and find a treasure that is reportedly hidden in the townhouse.

Does it pass the “Homeschool Mom Test“? I don’t want to give away too much of the book, but the “portal” that allows Tony to meet with the thirteen-year-old version of his great uncle also allows him to meet with other previous thirteen-year-old inhabitants of this historic townhouse. Because of that, Tony meets boys of various ethnic and religious backgrounds, including a runaway slave and a Jewish boy who encounters prejudice. Even from his own time period, Tony encounters a Wiccan girl and his father is a Buddhist, so there’s great diversity in this cast of characters.  I know the mention of Wiccan practices would make some parents uneasy, but because the book has a lot to say about acceptance and prejudice, I think it’s worth parents taking a look at. This story could provide many “teachable moments” when discussed with children.

Overall, I think this is a well-crafted mystery, which might inspire some kids to learn more about the history of our country, especially within the city of Boston.

I still have one more Edgar nominee to read for the juvenile category: The Quick Fix by Jack D. Ferraiolo. I’m having problems finding a copy of it. None of the Barnes and Noble near me have the book in stock, and almost none of the libraries in my area have the book, and if they do have it, it’s already checked out. I could buy the Nook or Kindle version, but if I’m going to buy the book, I want a hard copy that I can donate to my classroom.

This is my third of the five nominees for best Young Adult Mystery for the 2013 Edgars.

Title: Emily’s Dress and Other Missing Things

Author: Kathryn Burak

Genre: Mystery

Age group: Young Adult

Synopsis: After Claire’s mother commits suicide and her best friend goes missing, she and her father move to Amherst, Massachusetts, home of poet Emily Dickinson.  Her dad hopes this second chance at completing her senior year of high school will help Claire move on. However, Claire ends up sneaking into the Emily Dickinson house one night. This leads to a series of adventures involving a stolen dress, her former student teacher, and new clues in the disappearance of her best friend.

Does it pass the “Homeschool Mom Test“? For the most part, I’d say yes. I think there’s only one swear word. However, the story is rather dark (as many YA books nowadays tend to be), so if you’re handing this book to a young teen, you’d probably want to read it first before doing so.

Like Amelia Anne is Dead and Gone, this book has some wonderful use of language and description. For example, Claire tells her student teacher, “I had survived a year of crashing into small pieces, after what happened to my mother. And I woke up re-formed, but you could still see the pieces. I pictured myself like that, like rock candy.” The voice and pacing nicely capture the rather fragmented existence of the narrator.

One thing I did not like about the book was that there were times I wanted to scream at the characters, “Really? That’s the decision you’re making now? That’s the smartest thing you can think to do?”  As a repeat twelfth grader and a student teacher, these two main characters make dumb choices.

Also, as a teacher, I was creeped out by the relationship between Claire and her student teacher. I student taught in a high school (juniors and seniors, too), and there is no way no how I would have acted as this student teacher did. Even the whole idea of the student teacher sitting in a desk at the front of the room, facing the students, while the “real” teacher teaches, is not the way it happens. That is not student teaching. That is not even clinical experience, when a college student observes from the back of the room and maybe helps grade tests.

I think girls who enjoy darker stories might really like this book, but it’s not my favorite of the nominees thus far.