Careful What You Hear by Helen Dunlap Newton

 

Genre: Middle Grade, Mystery
Source: I won a copy from LibraryThing Early Reviewer. The opinions expressed here are my own.

Noah and Lena have been given a gift. They are on their way to space camp. Captain Billings has assured them there is no mission this time. This is to make up for the trouble they endured at the end of their last mission.  But Noah just can't shake the feeling that there has to be a mission.  When Noah is approached by a man claiming to be a teacher and asking about a lost phone, Noah knows something is wrong. Once again Noah and Lena are in danger and will be until the people who were after them before are caught.  This is a wonderful and tightly written mystery.  Noah comes across a your typical young teen, with some trust issues.  Lena has a hard exterior to shelter her true feelings of fear. She is one of the smartest people Noah knows and her truest friend.  I am truly hoping there will be a third book shortly as this is one of the best new series I have read in a while. I am very sure my students are going to love this.

Student Saturday: Shell Shocked by Kathleen Welton

 

Genre: Middle Grade, Mystery

Student Reviewer: Rylee P.

"Shell shocked is a book about an underwater problem,  an ocean mystery. The main character, Alex, and her friend Avery found a turtle with scars on its back on the celebration of Alexs job and her birthday. They found clues linking her family to the hurting and killing of these turtles, so she confronts them but nothing comes out from her parents. A few weeks later, her and Avery find cracked and broken hatchling eggs in the sand, now this was a problem. But, how were they going to solve it? What will happen to the turtles from now on? What are the people of the island going to think? Will they help save the turtles and their hatchlings?" If I were to give this book to an audience it would most likely be a crowd of 5-7th graders. due to its Mysterious theme, I think it would be of great help to people of that range who are looking to find more themes to read or a guide line to writing a story on a mystery. My opinion on this book is... it was a great book but I personally am not great with cliff-hangers in books and that's what had me on the edge of my seat with this book.