ISBN 10/13: 0375869433 | 9780375869433
Category: Young Adult Fiction
Format: Hardcover, ebook
Keywords: Camp, Murder, Mystery
Kimberly's synopsis:Calista Wood arrives at St. Bede's Academy half way through the year. She's been granted a free ride, but there's more than school on her mind. Ten years ago, her sister and another girl mysteriously vanished outside this school. Now Calista is back, searching for answers to her sister's disappearance.
Kimberly's review:
I'm sorry to say I didn't care for this book. While the opening chapter hooked me in, I felt pretty lost through the beginning half of the novel. Callie enters the boarding school with hope that this prestigious school will help her get into a better college. Within the first few chapters, many different characters are introduced, none of them very memorable.
I liked Callie's spunk and the dialogue was fast and fun at times. But for all of that, when confronted with her peers, Callie didn't feel complete to me. The story starts moving about half way when a body is found in the woods behind the school. It's not her sister's, but it starts a chain reaction that leads Callie to investigate everyone around her.
Her boyfriend Alex, is bland. The other boy she's interested in, Jack, is a little richer, but the relationship is so lukewarm for so much of the book, it's hard to see him as a romantic lead by the time it does come around. Everyone else, including Queen Bee Helen and the mean girl groupies, were really hard to visualize.
I had a real problem with a lot of the relationships in the book. None of them seemed healthy, and by the end when everything is revealed, it's so distasteful, I imagine this prep school is run by Jersey Shore grads. For me, all of that took away from the overall mystery of the sister's disappearance. I really wanted to like this book, but the mystery left me flat and the school politics were cold.
You can find the author at
www.mccormicktempleman.com.
Find more reviews by
Kimberly at
The Windy Pages.
Believe it or not, twelve hours ago, all I wanted to do was curl up in bed for the rest of the weekend, but apparently after 48-ish hours of convention-ism, I'm so wired I can't even sleep. Tragic, tragic irony.
Here's how the BEA-extravaganza went down, in a nutshell:
On Thursday morning, I woke up bright and early to meet a lovely woman from my alma mater, Tufts, about possibly scheduling a SO PUNK ROCK event with the alumni group here in NYC. From there, it was back home to field a phone interview with my brill Flux editor, Brian Farrey, for his Flux podcast. Brother Dave and I told tales. Keep an ear out. After that, Dave and I headed down to Tribeca to check out a gallery space in which we might be hosting our So Punk Rock release party, if things fall into place.
Afterward, it was on to the Teen Author Carnival! Dave and I were on Team Funnel Cake, which is good, since deep fried and sugar are two of my most vitalest food groups. Many, many, many amazing peeps were in attendance, but just to name a few:
Taylor Morris: former Media Bistro student of mine, fabulicious author, shiny, shiny hair
PG Kain: won bonus points for liking my brother!
Sasha Watson: I met Sasha when we both took Kristen Kemp's Young Adult Writing course through Media Bistro (the same course I now teach). Her book, VIDALIA IN PARIS, was great then and has only improved since those early pages. International art thievery--and first love!
Michelle Zink: and I have an editor/friend in common. And she travels with her family. Insta-entourage!
Jessica Burkhart: would be easy to hate if she weren't so fab (young, cute, talented? NOT FAIR).
Sarah MacLean: has been a devout supporter of Bradford since day one. <heart>
Aimee Friedman: my Popular Vote editor, and the sunniest person I know. Instant mood-booster.
Melissa Walker: knows the value of a good tiara--among MANY other useful secrets!
Jenny Han: her book, Shug, is a favorite among my students, which I finally had the chance to tell her in person. And I learned that one of her favorite procrastination technique is baking! Can you EVEN? Here I've been wasting my time on Twitter!
I'm sure I'm overlooking many divine and lovely people, but it has been a bit of a blur. My brother summed it up nicely re: Five Awesome YA Fans, the geniuses behind the whole event:
"Kids today are way more industrious than I was!"
True dat.
Friday I spent some time at BEA with another former student/current friend, Katharine Sise, who has a nonfiction book coming out with Running Press and who will rock your world with her YA novel, I assure you. We walked the floor with Lynn Weingarten and--literally--bumped into many fine bookish folks, including the Bloomsbury bigwigs (looking forward to Leslie Margolis' next book!), my S&S family (they were nice enough not to make TOO big a fuss over looming deadlines--espesh after I pointed out the computer I was toting in my bag), and a handful of awesome agents and rights folks. Much ado was made over Carrie Jones' GORJ book (cover and content), NEED, and Justine Larbalestier's LIAR (how did I not get a galley?), and I somehow got my hands on the coveted MAZE RUNNERS (I'm 50 pages in already).
Kidlit drinks included appearances by VCFA-friendlies Michelle Knudsen and Linda Oatman High, but I turned in early.
This morning I spent some time on Bradford 3, which--I swears--is SO ALMOST DONE, YIPPEE, and then headed out to meet some S&S people for a cocktail or two. I met Mr. Maze Runner himself, James Dashner, and busted out the galley I was carrying in my bag like some sort of deranged fan. Fortunately, he took it in stride. Then it was off to a friendly gathering sponsored by Bennett Madison and Robyn Schneider, whereupon exhaustion overtook me and I collapsed in a corner until Coe Booth was kind enough to seek me out for chit chat. And Michael "Gentlemenhead" Northrop and I swapped fave horror movie titles. Because we share the dork gene.
I returned home to discover that my dog has, in fact, not forgotten who I am, and ALSO, that SPR received a starred review from Booklist, who had some very nice things to say to us, and in particular:
“A rollicking, witty, and ultra-contemporary book that drums on the funny bone and reverberates through the heart."
All in all, an exhilerating (if exhausting) weekend. I'm excited to get back to the tappity tap tomorrow and will be posting the SPR TRAILER as soon as I get the hang of embedding.
G'nite, people!
The Winter Blog Blast Tour rolls on!
Check out Lisa Ann Sandell at Chasing Ray:
http://www.chasingray.com/archives/2007/11/she_stayed_with_me_through_the.html
I was lucky enough to meet Lisa through the NYPL's Teen Central Jewish Book Month panel last Thursday, and let me tell you, girl can wear a shiny green skirt (the be-jeaned of us were jealous). I also did not know until last Thursday that her first novel, THE WEIGHT OF THE SKY, was written in verse. Now I extra totally have to read it.
As for moi, if I were a candle, I'd be burned to a tiny, blackened nub. Packet went in at 2am Friday, at which point I commenced power-napping. I only awoke as of 4pm yesterday, and now it's back to the home stretch of POPULAR VOTE. Wake me when the deadlines are all gone?
Dragonology: Tracking and Taming Dragons: A Deluxe Book and Model Set
Author: Dr. Ernest Drake
Editor: Dugald Steer
Publisher: Candlewick Press
The latest in the Dragonolgy series, Tracking and Taming Dragons has a wonderful little guide that has all you need to know about finding these magical creatures. The model is fun and easy to put together. My grandchildren and I had a blast doing it. The lovely green dragon with golden scales now hangs proudly in my bedroom so that when they come over it’s the first thing they see.
The accompanying handbook is wonderfully illustrated and as usual packed with interesting facts about dragons. We loved the section that showed how to make casts of dragon footprints. I’m sure it will prove very useful in our jaunts to the park. I had to promise to buy the stuff and I expect we’ll be spending some time making casts of the various neighborhood dog and cat paw prints this summer.
I think this set is very educational, whimsical and fun as well as a wonderful addition to the Ologies series.
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bummr it was not to your liking . tnx 4 the review
oh gosh - jersey shore? not good. that's too bad you didn't like this one as it has an interesting premise. :(
This is very disappointing since I was looking forward to this book. Jersey shore was enough to sway me.
I would still try reading it. I'll give it 50 pages.
Sorry Vivien! :(
Go for it! let me know what you think.
Thanks for reading Roro. I'm sad I didn't like it. I had such high hopes for it!
Ugh. It was just too slow, without being creepy. And the friendships and relationships were so messed up, I didn't like any of the characters.