Two Wonderful Children's Books by M.M. Rodeheaver

 

Haunted Holiday: A Christmas Cookie Ghost Story

Genre:  Children's Mystery

Source: Purchased

Calypso and her two moms have just moved into an old house on Grimsly Road. The day they moved in is when Calypso met the ghost named Charles. She saw him in the hallway and he pointed to her room and told her it was his room before he vanished. He didn’t scare her, but her cat Whiskers was definitely scared.

Her Mama Rae bakes delicious desserts, and her Mama Vic is a potter. Her studio and kiln are in the old barn.  Strange things began to happen around the house. The two mama’s plan a cookie exchange Christmas party. The morning of the party they awake to find all of the cookies destroyed. Calypso suspects it is Charles doing. She lets her new best friend Abbey know about Charles. Together they work together to try to find out why Charles would do such a thing and how he died.

I have read this book and its sequel twice. It is a short book, but one I really loved.

Genre: Children's Mystery

Source: Purchased

Calypso and Abbey are on a mission. Charles has told them about a jar of money he and his friends collected and saved and buried under the old chicken coop at his best friend's house. They ride their bikes down and shortly after they arrive a car pulls in. The house has been sold. The realtor offers them a tour along with the Drama teacher. Before the house is turned over to the new owners it will be used as a haunted house to raise money for their spring performance.  Calypso and Abbey are poking around where the chicken coop should be when Mr. Davis the realtor shows up. He asks if they are looking for treasure. They find that odd. What is even more odd is when they arrive the next day they find him already there digging in the same area.  They are on a mission to find the money jar before Mr. Davis. Their only hope is to take Charles with them inside a pumpkin, and let him do the searching. This story was so much fun to read. It was about twice as long as the first book. 

I loved how we learned a lot more about Charles and his friends. I loved how Calypso goes out of her way to help a ghost. I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves a feel good story with an element of mystery to it.

Student Saturday: The Silence by Mark Alpert

Genre:  Young Adult, Science Fiction

Student Reviewer: Graeme E.

The Silence, by Mark Alpert, is the third installment in “The Six” series. This book has everything you want in a science fiction book including a hypothetical situation using technology based on real life. The story takes place in Yorktown Heights with the main character named Adom Armstrong. You see, Adom is not like other kids. He has a disease called muscular dystrophy which means his muscles get weaker and weaker until he will eventually die. Thankfully though, Adom's dad is a scientist. He finds out a way to change Adom's mind into a machine. The procedure went well and Adom and the other 5 kids with life ending illnesses become pioneers, the first humans to have their mind fully transferred into a physical robot. Throughout the next two books, Adom and the other pioneers fight a corrupted AI called Sigma and eventually win the war. The third book, which is titled The Silence, takes place 6 months after their fight with Sigma. The pioneers eventually get a strange reading in the Atlantic Ocean. So, thinking it was Sigma, they went to check it out. But, what they find is much worse. Adom finds a perfect orb five thousand feet under the ground. What is strange about this sphere, is that the pioneers cannot find an end inside the sphere. The orb is nothingness. This means that there is nothing inside of it and there is no end to it. The last thing Adom saw after finding the orb was the digital code surrounding him as it came at him. Together, Adom and the other pioneers must learn, fight, and try to control the nothingness. 

I connected to this book because of my love of science and science fiction. It is interesting that scientists are getting close to understanding the brain and learning how to control it. It is for this reason that I really enjoyed reading all 3 books. I would recommend this book to anyone who loves to read about science and adventure.

Unwind by Neal Shusterman

Genre: Young Adult, Science Fiction

Source: I purchased a copy

Neal Shusterman has long been one of my favorite authors. I first read Unwind in 2017. I gladly put his series on my classroom shelves. Two years ago we had to take all books off and put them away until the district told us which books we could keep on our shelves. They all had to be "reviewed", and not by the teacher. I went from over 3000 books to a little under 700 books. Last year I changed schools. I started collecting books again. Parents signed letters giving their children permission to read whatever they wanted. I began purchasing my favorites once again. The first books I purchased over Christmas break this year was Neal Shusterman's Unwind Series. I reread them this week.

Unwind takes the issue of abortion and turns it on its head. After years of pro-life and pro-choice arguing the issue of abortion war breaks out. It is finally decided that the abortion issue is dead until the age of 13. At that time, with the advancement of technology and medicine children can be "unwound". This mean their body can be chopped up and sold to the highest bidder with all parts being used. There are two nefarious factions at play here. First you have the "tithes". They are children who have been dedicated as a tithe from birth. They are raised and trained that they have a higher purpose and willingly go to be unwound, to live on in the lives of others. The second is those that for whatever reason have not done well in school or society have been given to the government for unwinding; signed over to them by their parents. There is a third group that is lumped in with this second group. If you end up in a state home and are lucky you live there until you are 18. If you aren't lucky and they need more room you will be sent off to be unwound.
Our three main characters are Connor, who found papers his parents had signed to have him unwound. The reason? He was always in fights and had low grades. Then there is Levi, called Lev who is a tithe. Finally we meet Risa who is being unwound because they need more room in the state home she lives in. Connor leaves the night before he is to be unwound. Unfortunately he is caught the next day. He escapes across a highway, sees Lev and takes him as hostage. All of this causes a major accident which also involves the bus that Risa is being transported on. The three of them end up together and so the adventure begins.

We learn a lot about each of their lives, about something called "getting storked" and a group of people who want to destroy these "chop shops" and a group that is trying to help them survive. This is an awesome book. It is followed by 3 other books. I highly recommend the entire series, just like I will to my students when I return after winter break.