Trend Alert: Private School Mysteries

People were always asking me if I had any mystery books to recommend, and I did, but they were all in the Teen Fiction section.

Trend Starter:  Pretty Little Liars, Lying Game

I think it's safe to say that most people enjoy a good mystery, but when Pretty Little Liars (up to 18 total books) caught fire popularity-wise, it really paved the way for more school-centric mysteries to be published. If you've ever had a sleepover, or lock-in, at a school, then you already know how creepy it can be in the dark, without having A text-stalk your every move. If you want the adrenaline rush of running through the halls, hot on the trail of something, without the running/danger/damaging rumors, try picking up these books and living vicariously through these heroines and heroes. Bonus points if you figure out the culprit before the official reveal.

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks
This one is often recommended by author John Green, and I actually like it better than We Were Liars, which everyone is raving about. A total girl-power book, Frankie is excluded from her boyfriend's male-only secret society, but she doesn't let that stop her. Knowing about its existence from her father's stories, she sets off on a path to becoming a criminal mastermind, one prank at a time. Although Disreputable History is more thriller than mystery, it still has all those late night-sneaking around school moments and is like being on the opposite side of a mystery--following the person who knows how everything was done.

Prep School Confidential
Wicked Little Secrets
Deadly Little Sins
The perfect series for the Nancy Drew fan who's grown up to be a badass.  Featuring all of Nancy's favorite things: trespassing, threatening notes, and getting trapped in hard to reach places. Oh, and actual mystery solving. Anne Dowling is on the case(s), starting with her roommate's murder.



The Liar Society
The Lies That Bind,
Third Lie's the Charm
I'm telling you right now: judge these books by their cover, because they're freaking awesome. Kate gets an email from her dead best friend, Grace: "Kate, I'm here…sort of. Find Cameron. He knows. I shouldn't be writing. Don't tell. They'll hurt you." This series has everything: secret societies, weird school rituals, awesome hair colors...

Escape Theory
Hero Complex
Peer counselor, Devon is on-duty when one of the most popular kids, Hutch, appears to commit suicide. Devon goes about providing support for his friends, and trying to clear Hutch's name, as she becomes more sure that he didn't do it.

My Own Worst Frenemy
Chanti bonds with other scholarship students when things start go missing at the school and the scholarship kids look like the most likely suspects. With an undercover cop-mom as her role model, Chanti is on the case. I checked this baby out from the library as a digital copy and then rated it a five on Goodreads with no explanation as to why...  The plot thickens!

High and Dry
Goodreads description: "Framed for a stranger's near-fatal overdose at a party, blackmailed into finding a mysterious flash drive everyone in school seems anxious to suppress, and pressured by his shady best friend to throw an upcoming game, high school soccer player Charlie Dixon spends a frantic week trying to clear his name, win back the girl of his dreams, and escape a past that may be responsible for all his current problems." High and Dry has sort of neo-noir or hardboiled feel to it--everyone's up to something, you can't trust anyone, you've got to run all over the place, interacting with different social groups to get the information you need. I basically loved it. The character relationships are all super interesting...the way the school operates, all the dirt that gets dug up--just great. Different from the other stuff out there, but not difficult to read and absorb.

The Secrets of Lily Graves
The senior class president is found dead after attacking Lily, who kind of stole her boyfriend, in a jealous rage. This is not your average teen mystery, prepare yourself for strangeness, a comment on the "age of surfaces" and, believe it, actual detective work from a girl who has legit mortician skills. Even though I didn't solve it, I certainly enjoyed the ride. If we're being honest, I kind of got so wrapped up in reading that I forgot to even make a guess... 

Buzz Kill
When the unpopular football coach turns up murdered, Millie's father, the assistant coach, is the main suspect. This book is consistently amusing and, at times, downright hilarious. You'll love Millie--the perfect blend of awkward, awesome and not-giving-a-damn. Buzz Kill is teeming with classic Drew: sleuthing with friends, eavesdropping, cliffhanger chapter endings, trespassing and straight-up stealing stuff--check it, Clue Crew. 

Poor Little Dead Girls
New York's hottest club is Poor Little Dead Girls. This club has everything: secret societies, British royalty and that thing where there's a mystery and it's actually resolved... Summary: A scholarship sends Sadie to an elite boarding school where there are mysterious goings-on, such as instant popularity, strange markings on one's body and kidnappings on a semi-regular basis.

No One Else Can Have You
In four words: Wisconsin, satire, WTF, YES. One sentence summary: Kippy, whose idol is Diane Sawyer, uses Ruth's secret diary to try and solve her best friend's murder.

Favorite author plug: Christopher Pike's...
 Last Act: Melanie gets the starring role in a school play AND framed for murder when the gun prop appears to cause real, unscripted damage.
 Master of Murder: Marvin is an 18-year-old senior in high school AND a bestselling author with a pen-name... But, according to some threatening fan-mail, someone knows he's both.
 Die Softly: When Herb plants a camera in the school showers, he ends up photographing cheerleaders AND a murder.

Staff Recommends

There's a lot that goes into picking a staff recommends book. You've got to look at what you like, and what's in store, and then ask yourself the hard questions: what genre should your book be; is it out in paperback; does it have anything controversial in it; is it a stand-alone or part of a series; what age range does it say it's appropriate for, and what ages is it actually appropriate for?  I thought I'd take you through a run-down of my staff recommends books and the books I considered.

First Staff Recommends Book:

The Selection-- I was a little embarrassed about how much I liked this book. However, I basically had to chose The Selection, because whenever I walked by and saw someone looking at it, I couldn't stop myself from going over and giving it a proper recommendation. My pitch: "The Selection is like Cinderella mixed with the Bachelor, with 35 girls competing. Not only are they trying to win the Prince's heart, but one of these girls will become queen. The great thing about the main character is that she's not there to fall in love, she's there to help her family. She's not a girly-girl, she's like, 'Let me wear pants,' and the first thing she does is make a deal with the prince--he'll keep her around if she tells him which girls he can trust." The Selection is a fun read that you don't need to take too seriously.

Current:

Enclave-- Everyone's read Hunger Games, everyone's read Divergent, most people have read Matched. Enclave is the best book that no one has read. One of the best things about the series is that all three books are strong. I have a problem where the main characters in a book will want to rebel against society, and they go off to hide in nature.  That's nice, but nature is boring.  The thing I like about utopia/dsytopia books is learning all the customs and rules in a society, you take that away from me, and I simply cease to care. Enclave starts out where everyone lives underground, and there are three jobs in the community: Builder, Breeder and Hunter/Huntress. This is a rough society where you don't even get a name until you've lived long enough to earn one.

Considering for next:

Love and Other Foreign Words-- When you choose a staff recommends book, (and you can only choose one) you're making a prediction about what type of book people will be interested in. Love and Other Foreign Words is one of the many books that the publishers are comparing to Rainbow Rowell and John Green. Some reviewers scoffed at this, but I agree with the comparison. When I read this as an arc, I thought this could be the next big thing. Josie, a genius with social interaction-troubles, meets the guy her sister is going to marry and immediately can tell it's up to her to stop the wedding. We've got the family relationships, attempts at romantic relationships, but what sew the book together is Josie and her slightly different way of looking at the world. The banter and journal entries are especially hilarious. I was totally charmed. Granted, I did go into this book with low expectations.

Heavily Considered in the past:

Incarnate-- I am obsessed with this beautifully written series. How it works: there are one million souls in the world and whenever anyone dies, they will be the next baby born and keep all their memories from all of their lives. Well, everyone except Ana, who has no memories of any past lives and seems to be a new soul, or no soul, altogether. (Can you imagine how much you could accomplish if you had more than one life? And the relationships with your partner or various parents?) It's such a perfectly weird story, because on top of the never dying thing, this is also a world populated by dragons and phoenixes, and this weird tower... I didn't pick it as my official staff recommends because I was worried it was too "out there," and not everyone wants to read a book shelved in Teen Paranormal Romance.  Additionally there's a character referred to as God (who is clearly not the God from our world), which I was pretty sure would rub some people the wrong way. But it's fabulous and you should read it. If you're into this sort of thing.

Forgotten--
This is the most engrossing read with an out-there ending. The main character, London, remembers her future, but not her past, and must write herself notes on what happened yesterday and what will happen tomorrow. This works out fine until she meets a boy who keeps showing up in her life, although she does not see him in her future... It's just so freaking cool! It reminded me a lot of Memento, the movie, in the way that you can mess with what people know or how events will occur, because of the different way your memories work--just fascinating. However, by the time I'd discovered this read, it was already out in paperback and wasn't slated to be in store.

Feed-- Feed was claimed as a staff recommends by another employee before I put  in my request in for it. Housed in the Sci-fi/Fantasy section, Feed is one of the best zombie novels I've ever read, because it takes place after the initial invasion. The zombies are still around, but normal life has kind of stabilized and continued--but with extra precautions and frequent blood checks. It's a new world, with lots of characters named after characters from other zombie stories--George, Shaun, Buffy... The initial outbreak started at Comic-Con--this is brilliant stuff down to the tiniest details and is also somewhat of a political thriller. You see, the Internet is what allowed people to communicate and survive the initial outbreak, so blogging has become a bigger thing than it is even now. It all starts when our sibling main characters are chosen to follow a Presidential candidate and cover the campaign...

All These Things I've Done-- Set in 2083, where chocolate and coffee have become illegal--prohibition style--our main character, Anya, is the daughter of a chocolate-manufacturing crime boss, who gets involved in family/police matters when her ex-boyfriend gets poisoned by some of her family's chocolate. Add to that her blossoming relationship with the new assistant D.A.'s son...  All These Thing I've Done is the first book of the trilogy, and I loved all three. The arc I read of the last one made me cry hardcore, though I've read rumors that the arc and book that got published are vastly different...Anyway, Zevin has quietly become one of my favorite writers, because, no matter what she writes, it's good, well, more like great.

Until the End/Final Friends-- It's hard having Christopher Pike as a favorite author because most of his stuff has been out for a while, and when his stories are released, they tend to be bundled together--which is not always the best thing, the exception being the Final Friends trilogy. This series covered a variety of characters as their two high schools are blended for their senior year. As you can imagine, there is a lot going on with relationships, SATs, illegal activities, feuds and so on. During a party early in the year, a high schooler dies, adding a murder mystery to list of things that are happening. Yes, this story was originally published in 1988, but the high school experience is still totally recognizable, and you'll end up knowing half the school on a first name basis. Were I to choose a Pike book that can still be found in-store for a first impression, it would be this one. Although, I'd probably need to make sure the reader was at least 16, just to be safe.

Questions: Trilogy versus stand-alone? Any books that I should be considering? What do you think will be the next big thing and why?

Trend Alert: Buckets and Lists

Trend Starter: The Boyfriend List, All-American Girl

I like lists--who doesn't? There's something so satisfying about doing something and then getting to cross it off. I've found that books with lists make for good reading as well, maybe because the presence of a list gives the entire book structure and something to work towards? The first list-book I remember is All American Girl. Cabot had scattered Top 10 lists throughout the book; they were always funny, interesting or led to important revelations. I fully remember skipping ahead, looking for the next list because they were so funny. Meanwhile, The Boyfriend List is a little more recent example. The entire book revolves around Ruby's list of past boyfriends--one boy for each chapter. It's full of drama--Ruby is a 15-year-old with a shrink who's had a rough ten days. The back of the book is a list of all the crazy stuff that happened.

A lot of new books seem to have picked up on my List = Good Book formula, so I started keeping track of them. Here is my list of (teen) books with lists:

Cancer-Related Bucket Lists:

Side Effects May Vary -- Available Now
Status: Read
When Alice is diagnosed with leukemia, she gets right to work on completing her bucket list. After doing several revenge-related entries among others, Alice goes into remission and has to face the consequences of everything she's done. Excerpt of my review: "Julie's captured something really authentic here, and it might rip you apart a little bit. Basically, Alice doesn't know what she's doing, and I think that's something all of us can relate to. Sometimes she makes bad decisions, and you'll want to grab her by the shoulders and give her a shake. Sometimes she's some sort of criminal mastermind, and you'll want to give her a high-five and compliment her on her originality. But mostly you'll get sucked in, thinking about how love and health can change your priorities, plans and general outlook."

The F-it List -- Available Now
Status: Read
One sentence summary: Alex is asked to complete Becca's bucket list when Becca is diagnosed with cancer. You should be able to tell just from the title that this book's got some mature content, but that's what makes it so great. Sometimes you've got to show the ugly side of things, and let the bad decisions reign. You've got some romance here, but this is very much a book about friendship.

Bucket or To-do Lists:

Dark Days -- June 3rd, 2014
Status: Read, Wishlist
This is a book with a list AND a time limit. Our main character, Sia, only has 15 days left to live. And, not because she's sick or there's an apocalypse coming, but because the world is calling a redo and she hasn't been deemed important enough be included in the new society. But, that's okay, Sia's got her list, and it just might lead her to a boy and a plan.



The Wrap-up List -- Available Now
Status: Read, Own
This is a weird one. The premise is that a rare amount of deaths, called "departures," occur when a creature, called Death, writes you a letter to say your time is almost up. Before you die, you make a wrap-up list of things you want to do before you die, including a pardon, a chance to save yourself by outsmarting your Death. Clever, different, love it.


Since You've Been Gone -- Available Now
Status: Currently Reading
Emily's wild best friend, Sloane, completely disappears, leaving only a to-do list. Hoping the list will lead her back to her friend, Emily starts checking off the tasks. So far, so good.

Popularity Lists:

The List -- Available Now
Status: Read, Wishlist
In the beginning of every school year a list is posted naming the prettiest and ugliest girl in each grade. You cycle through each of the girl's lives, seeing how their title changes things. This could be a good match for fans of Thirteen Reasons Why, because of the "everyone has problems" theme. Bonus: the mystery of who posts the list.

They All Fall Down -- October 14, 2014
Status: Read
Every year at Vienna High a list of the ten hottest girls is posted. For these girls, the changes are instant: new friends and suitors, invitations to the best parties and connections that will make for a cushy future. Oh, and they also might become a target for murder, maybe. One by one, the girls on the list start dying.  I do not remember how this ends, but I do remember how much fun I had reading it.

Also Try:

Play Me Backwards -- August 26, 2014
Status: Read, Wishlist
No list in this one, more like a series of random assignments, but I thought the effect still felt the same. It's like a list where the next entry is a complete surprise--it could be anything. Basically, Leon, a slacker formerly in the gifted program, needs to get his life together. He begins to receive assignments from his best friend, Stan, who is possibly the Devil. It's from a guy's POV, but the mature relationships are portrayed in a respectful manner. I stayed up until 3 in the morning to finish it, because I couldn't put it down.

Are there more out there that I either forgot or haven't read yet?

Old Kids Books are Best Kids Books?

I often meet parents who are browsing the 7-12 wall, unable to make a selection because none of books that they read as kids are still around. Sure, a ton of the books I read as a kid have probably been sucked into a black hole by now, and you really do need to read some new releases to have a good range of recommendations, but I thought I'd compile a list of (great) books I read as a kid that I still find in-store.

Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles -- Julie Andrews wrote this, and I am so glad that she did. Basically a professor befriends some kids and teaches them to travel to Whangdoodleland using their minds. Whangdoodleland is like every kids dream, where gum grows on trees and all the creatures you thought were imaginary live. However, there's kind of a Tinkerbell situation as the creatures have become sparse because less people believe in them. As the title suggests, there is only one Whangdoodle left and he's the king of the land. The professor needs the kid's help because he wants to meet the last Whangdoodle, as he's gotten older, it's gotten harder for him to believe and make it far enough to meet him.

No More Dead Dogs -- The perfect book to read when you have to do a book report on a mystery. The quirky characters are what make this book really work. Basically, Wallace Wallace, a big football star who never lies, writes a book report badmouthing the book they had to read in class because the dog died in it. He then receives detention, which is held in the same place the school production (the musical version of the book they read) is rehearsing. Unable to play football until he rewrites his book report, Wallace Wallace gets sucked up into the drama world and starts making changes to the musical. When someone starts sabotaging the production and Wallace Wallace says it's not him (and he never lies, not that his new friends know that) who is it?

Flipped -- You follow around two characters and watch them grow up and change how they feel about each other.


Holes -- Did not know that Newbury books aren't all totally boring? (Shout-out
to One and Only Ivan and When You Reach Me.) Holes flips back and forth between Stanley Yelnats digging holes at Camp Green Lake and all the stuff that happened there in the past. It's all super interesting and fits together perfectly in the end.

Golden Compass, His Dark Materials Trilogy -- Lyra lives in a world similar to ours, but with definite differences such as every person having a dæmon--an animal that is part of the person's soul outside of their body. When Lyra's best friend is kidnapped, she runs away to rescue him--adventures ensue. This is a book that you have to be careful about recommending because God does eventually become involved and not in a good way. Still, when I had to write a letter to my favorite author in 8th grade, Phillip Pullman is the author I wrote to.

My Father's Dragon -- We read this in school in 2nd grade, but it's still relevant today because Dragons are really popular right now. With a bag full of supplies, the narrator's father runs away from home to rescue a baby dragon. I'm super into books where you know the exact materials the main character has, and you get to watch them gather and trade in order to continue on their journey.

Boxcar Children -- The first book introduces you to the main characters, so that you can spend the rest of the series solving mysteries with them. When I was skipping Hollywood Squares to read these, that's when I knew I was hooked. Shout-out to The Computer Mystery for being my favorite.

Ellen Tebbits -- I was not into Ramona, because, as I explain to parents, I am the "Beezus" of the house, so I like to recommend the lesser-known Ellen. With the exception of not knowing what the crap long underwear is, this book is kind of timeless in the way it captures school-life and friendship. Little things like trying to bring the best item for show-and-tell, wondering if your teacher actually likes you, ballet class, school plays and arguments with friends are all expertly captured.

Henry Huggins -- Yes, more Beverly Cleary. Henry is Beezus's age and he has tons of guy adventures, including finding a dog, forming a bond and then eventually facing off against the original owner. They literally have a contest where Ribsy has to choose between them. It is awesome.

Running Out of Time -- The characters in this book live in a museum reenactment of 1836, although most of them don't know it. When people in the community start getting sick and fail to receive help from modern medicine, Jessie's mother sends her out into the world--where it is 1996--to get help.

Among the Hidden -- In this book, it's illegal to have more than two children, so, of course, our main character is the third child in his house and has to stay hidden all the time. Eventually he becomes friends with another third child--a girl who lives across the street. I read this so long ago, I only remember that I thought it was really interesting, and the third children have some kind of light switch code.

The Giver --  This one is cheating a little bit because I didn't read it until I was like 21. However, the Giver was totally around when I was a little kid. I never had to read it for class, and I ignored it outside of class because the cover was so boring. The book itself is great, though. Pick this one up to read about the Community, roles and sameness.

Nancy Drew -- Mysteries...No explanation needed, right? The Clue of the Dancing Puppet and Mysterious Mannequin are some of my favorites. Also check out the computer games done by Her Interactive.

Harry Potter -- Duh.

Honorable Mention, not found in-stores but orderable:

Fifteen -- I read this at Outdoor School, and, sure, some of it was a little dated even then, but some of this first relationship stuff really is timeless.


Am I missing any of your favorites?

Inspired: Hidden Treasures

Inspired by:  Let's Get Lost -- Adi Alsaid (Coming to the Teen section in July 2014)

Early in Let's Get Lost, one character takes another on a tour of his hometown. This is the kind of tour you can only give if you've lived in one place for your entire life and know all the places that are overlooked or that have history to them. The book really invites the reader to look at life as a treasure hunt, which reminded me of my list of bookstore finds that I refer to as "hidden treasures." It's stuff I love to recommend, because they're books people probably wouldn't find on their own. Stuff I only know is there, because the bookstore is where I spend my time.


Barnes & Noble Collectable Leatherbound kids classics for $10  
Hidden in: Juv Bargain
Featuring titles like Peter Pan, Anne of Green Gables, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, The Blue Fairy Book, etc...These books make the best gifts because they're totally readable and look amazing on the shelf. They're the kind of gift you can give a little kid and they'll want to hold onto them when they're grown. However, because they're in bargain instead of with the other classic kids books, I fear a lot of people miss them.  (Also, just $10!)

Talk Show Murders -- Al Roker (and Dick Lochte)
Hidden in: Mystery
I came across this book one day while shelving. Admittedly, mystery is one of my weaker sections to recommend in, because I only like to recommend things I really enjoyed, and my to-read list is where most of my mystery books are. In addition, some of my favorite mysteries are shelved in fiction or teen, causing me to forget about them completely. When possible, I like to recommend Talk Show Murders, because, as I say, it's a book, but it's also a conversation starter. "Did you know Al Roker had a mystery book?" No, you probably did not. It's a great gift to give the person who reads mystery but has everything. Everything...except for this.

Battle Royale -- Koushun Takami
Hidden in: Sci-fi/Fantasy
It is rumored that Suzanne Collins (author of Hunger Games) stole a bunch of ideas from Battle Royale, a Japanese novel... Collins claimed she'd never heard of the work before writing Hunger Games. I love to challenge readers to pick up this 800-page mammoth of a book and see the similarities and differences for themselves. However, be warned: Battle Royale is more graphic than Hunger Games.

A. J. Jacobs
Hidden in: Humor
Looking for a gift? Tucked away in humor are a few books written by journalist A. J. Jacobs. He'll take a year of his life and do something crazy with it, like read the entire Enclyopedia Britannica or dedicate himself to following instructions from the bible. They are fun to read, but you learn things too. I think they're a pretty good gift idea for a hard-to-buy for older gentleman. (Also check out the trivia section--that entire section is a hidden treasure.)

Attachments -- Rainbow Rowell
Hidden in: Fiction
While everyone in the Teen section is going crazy over Eleanor & Park and Fangirl (and rightfully so), poor Attachments is sitting over in the Fiction section, mostly ignored. Attachments is about a guy whose job it is to monitor the company emails and the girl with constantly flagged emails, who he falls for.



Les Petits Fairytales --

Previously hidden in: Juv Fairytales
It used to be that while everyone was browsing for toddler books in the Little Books for Little Hands section, these super cute board books were sitting in the Fairytale section, where no one would think to look. But, it looks like someone finally moved them--huzzah!  Also check out the Little Books for Little Hands section for a babylit version of Pride and Prejudice. That's a treasure as well, albeit not a hidden one.


What are your hidden treasures?