What Waits In The Water by Kieran Scott

Genre: Middle Grade, Horror
Source: I own a copy

Hannah and her new step-sister are total opposites. Hannah is a swimmer and loves the water. Katie can't swim and plays softball.  When Hannah is invited to her best friend Jacob's lake house she is excited. She and Jacob have been best friends since they were very young. She had heard so much about their lake house. Hannah had not planned on her new step-sister tagging along. On the way down to where they will meet Jacob, Hannah realizes there is something between Jacob and Katie. It isn't bad enough she has to spend the weekend with her step-sister there. She learn there are no parents and Jacob has invited two other friends.

Strange things happen. Hannah is racing Jacob when she is suddenly pulled under water. Later she sees something she identifies as a monster. The new friend Colin seems attracted to her. He is the one who tells the story of the drownings in the lake. When Hannah, Katie and Jacob visit the burned island across the lake Hannah finds a box with a diary. It is the diary of a girl who has gone missing.  Was she a victim of the lake? Hannah and Katie watch as their new friend Alessandra is pulled under the water. She surfaces and screams for help before she disappears.  All Hannah and Katie want is off the island.

This was definitely a very creepy, edge of your seat book. I read it in a little over two hours. I have spent a lot of time talking about it to my students. That is how good this book is. Now I must read the other book "What Waits in the Woods". I am sure it will be just as good.

Awkward by Svetlana Chmakova

Genre: Middle Grade, Graphic

Source:  From my classroom shelves

 

Usually this book is passed from student to student and checked out. However, the last student put it into my book bin to be checked back in and I snagged it.  I will tell you from the beginning I am not a big graphics fan. Every student who has read this has told me I need to read it. I agree with them, it was great.

This could have been taken right out of my classroom. I am always hearing students talking about what course is best.  We have those students who will argue until they are blue, that art is the best subject. Then we have those students who love the sciences, or math, or English.

The characters face the very things students new to our school or new to middle school face. They worry about bullying, making friends, family problems, will their teachers like them or will they like their teachers. This is what made this book ring true. The author took a lot of time to flesh out her characters. These are some of the most diverse characters I have seen in a book.   I loved this book and understand why all the students kept recommending it to me.

The Robber Girl by Franny Billingsley

Genre: Middle Grades, Young Adult, Adult, Fantasy
Source: I purchased a copy

This is probably one of the harder reviews I've had to write. I absolutely loved this book. There are so many layers to it that make it hard to write about it. We have a young girl working alongside "Gentleman Jack" a known criminal. She believes he rescued her after her mother abandoned her. While trying to rob a stagecoach Gentleman Jack is caught. This young girl is taken home to the Judge's house. This is a house that has known sorrow. The judge and his wife lost their son and daughter to smallpox. As you read along you realize that things definitely are not what they seem.  The judge and his wife try to "tame" this wild girl. She communicates with her dagger who keeps reminding her how much Gentleman Jack has done for her. You know something is afoot whenever she begins to communicate with the dolls in a dollhouse the judge had made for his daughter. The dagger also doesn't like when she thinks she remembers things. It doesn't want her to remember.  There are definitely reasons Gentleman Jack has not named her. There are reasons she has been lied to for five years.   She is the only one who holds the key to what Gentleman Jack wants. Better than that she holds the key to who and what she is.  I tried to explain this to my students and had just as much trouble explaining it to them.  I recommend this one to everyone who loves beautiful language, fantasy and, unreliable characters.