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Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson

12/30/2020

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  • Budding detective and criminologist Stevie Bell is overjoyed when she gets accepted to the prestigious and isolated Ellingham Academy, an exclusive boarding school tucked away in the remote mountains of Vermont.
  • The school just happens to be the site of a notorious and unsolved crime from the 1930s, and Stevie is determined to crack this decades old cold case -- if she can push past her anxiety, panic attacks, and self-doubt. 
  • When one of Stevie’s classmates dies under suspicious circumstances, Stevie must put her sleuthing skills to the test while trying to stay out of danger.
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Grades 8-12
Book 1 of the Truly Devious Series

I just finished reading the third and final book in this trilogy, The Hand on the Wall, and the whole series is so much fun!  I love Stevie as well as all her new friends and classmates at Ellingham (especially all of Stevie’s housemates: reclusive writer Nate; quirky builder Janelle; mysterious, moody David).  Johnson’s use of the flashbacks from the 1930s add so much to the story, and I enjoyed how the mysteries of the past and present come together in the final book. 
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One of Us Is Lying by Karen McMaus

1/29/2019

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  • This book starts off a lot like the Breakfast Club -- five students enter detention: the baseball phenom,  the academic all-star, the criminal,  the homecoming princess,  and the outcast -- but only four of them leave alive.  While at first the death appears to be an accident, it soon becomes clear that it was murder.

  • The four survivors all have a motive for killing Simon, and all of them are in the hot seat.
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  • As the secrets that they all tried so hard to keep buried are revealed, Bronwyn, Addy, Cooper, and Nate try to figure out who the murderer is and if anyone can be trusted.
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This book was so much fun to read that I could not put it down!  I enjoyed the alternating chapters from the four main characters' points of view, and each character was relatable  and went beyond the high school stereotypes.  If you like mysteries, this one is for you.
Grades 8-12
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Sadie by Courtney Summers

10/2/2018

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  • Nineteen-year-old Sadie Hunter's life has not been easy.  She's spent most of it caring for her younger sister, Mattie, without a father and with no help from her drunk and drug-addled mother (who eventually abandons her daughters when Sadie is sixteen).
  • When Mattie is found dead in a field, Sadie goes on a road trip in search of her sister's killer, upon whom she intends to take the ultimate revenge.
  • Sadie's gripping first person perspective as she follows one clue after another in search of Keith is interspersed with episodes of a true-crime podcast called The Girls which chronicles Sadie's and Mattie's story.
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I was biting my nails all the way through this excellent mystery/thriller, hoping against hope that Sadie and Mattie would get justice and that Sadie wouldn't end up just "another dead girl."
Grades 9-12
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    Ms. Wheaton

    Teacher Librarian

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