Pretend You Don’t See Her by Mary Higgins Clark (305 pages)
Real estate agent Lacey Farrell has been hired to sell an apartment that once belonged to budding actress Heather Landi. Heather was killed in a car accident but Isabelle Waring, Heather’s mother, is convinced that Heather’s death was not an accident. While cleaning out the apartment before it is sold, Isabelle comes across Heather’s journal, which hints that someone was putting her in danger. Isabelle is in the apartment, surveying the journal, when a man breaks in and kills her. Lacey is also in the apartment and sees the killer, but she manages to escape. The killer turns out to be Sandy Savarano, a hired hit man, and he is now hunting Lacey. To protect her, the government sets Lacey up with a fake identity and moves her halfway across the country, but the killer is able to track her there too. Will she escape him yet again and solve the mystery of who killed Heather, or will Sandy find her first? Find out in this suspenseful thriller!
Miss Simer’s Rating: ***
As Gregor immediately finds out what exactly the rats are doing to the nibblers, he deeply despises the Bone who has caused it. From a small, white, cute, little mouse into a ferocious killer, the Bone kills most of the mice. His target changes after this to the stone city of Regalia. The Underland is braced for war, all creatures ally themselves and fight to the death. Solovet, who has taken control of the Regalian army, keeps Gregor guarded so he won’t escape Regalia again. Gregor and his bonded bat Ares set out, outwitting the guards, to the caves to kill the rats. Gregor and Luxa - the future queen - get injured, but Luxa is extremely wounded which paralyzes her. As the rats march to Regalia, Gregor’s sister, Lizzie, comes to Regalia as the code breaker. The code which the rats use is very complicated and when Lizzie breaks it, the war stats turn around. The rats are defeated, the bone is killed, and bonds between the remaining cats and humans begin. After this experience, Gregor goes back to New York, expecting an average life, but Regalia and the Underland will always follow him.
Sixth book in The Series of Unfortunate Events
Meggie’s father Mo never reads aloud. He absolutely refuses to do it. Still, they both adore books and everything about them. When a mysterious character by the name of Dustfinger appears, Mo treats him with caution and Meggie is anxious to figure out what is behind the mystery. Soon, she discovers Dustfinger is a character from a book called Inkheart and that he came out of the book when Mo read it aloud. In fact, several characters from the book appeared when Mo read it aloud, but a consequence was that Meggie’s mother disappeared into the book when the characters appeared. Since then, Mo has refused to read aloud for fear that Meggie will disappear into the book. Capricorn and his men, the evil characters that appeared from the book, have been hunting for Mo and insisting that he read from Inkheart in order to send them back to their world. But it doesn’t work that way. So far, Mo has only been able to read characters out, not back in. I’d heard a lot of kids say they loved this book, and the premise is one that a librarian couldn’t resist, but I found it pretty slow. It’s an interesting story, but you have to have patience to finish it.
After spending his entire life on a commune with only his grandmother, Rain, eighth-grader Capricorn Anderson is suddenly dropped into the real world. Rain has broken her hip and Cap is not allowed to stay with her for six weeks. Instead, he moves in with Mrs. Donnelly and her rebellious daughter Sophie and is thrust into life at Claverage Middle School. Cap Anderson has never seen a TV show, never handled money, and never socialized with anyone his age. Obviously, this makes attending middle school very difficult for Cap, but he takes it in stride, confusing the other kids with his tai chi lessons, tie dye classes, philanthropy, and courtesy towards others. This is a story that will open your eyes to accepting others even if the “popular” kids are doing everything they can to make his life miserable.
Tom Bender and his seventh grade classmates never expected to share their classroom with a girl who had been badly burned in a fire. They can hardly look at her and rarely speak to her. Jessica Feeny has moved to their town to be closer to a hospital for burn victims. Rumors circulate that she was forced to leave her hometown after she started a fire that killed her sister, or that she started the fire and killed her dog, etc. The kids don’t know what to think and assume the worst. Tom, unlike his classmates, wonders what the true story behind Jessica’s burns, and he takes the time to ask her. He befriends her when everyone else ignores her. He loses his best friend because of spending time with Jessica. This is a great book that was recommended to me by Mrs. Kringlen. It really makes you think about how you treat others and how life can change in an instant.
Fourteen-year-old Kayla dreams of being an investigative reporter like Nellie Bly. Her friend Rosalie has a plan for Kayla to try out for the elite dance team known as the Lady Lions and expose them for not accepting girls who don’t have certain physical features. Kayla does try out for the team, but she makes it, blowing Rosalie’s theory out of the water. Soon Kayla starts to gain self-confidence and stand up to Rosalie for bullying her around. The two feminists battle it out while Kayla wonders what it really means to be a powerful woman.
In the early 1870s, just after the Civil War, young Horace has become a photographer’s apprentice. He is anxious to take his first photographs, but his employer, Mr. Middleditch, does not give him any assignments. A wealthy woman comes into the photography shop requesting a portrait to be taken in her home. She says she is grieving for her daughter Eleanora and would like a portrait to be placed at her daughter’s tomb. Mr. Middleditch, a greedy man, concocts a scheme to superimpose a ghostly image of Eleanora into the woman’s photograph in order to make a name for himself in spirit photography, but Horace is warned by Pegg, the servant girl, that Eleanora was the not the woman’s daughter and she did not die of natural causes. Horace soon encounters Eleanora’s spirit and she is angry and vengeful. Can Horace stop the ghost before she hurts the ones who hurt her?
Henry moves to Henry, Kansas, to live with his Aunt Molly, Uncle Frank, and cousins Penelope, Anastasia, and Henrietta. While sleeping in the attic one night, he hears a thumping coming from inside the wall. Intrigued, he begins to chip away the plaster on the wall only to discover a tiny cupboard. As he continues chipping, he finds more cupboards hidden in the wall. Where do these doors lead? Why have they been covered? Two compass knobs determine where the doors will lead and which doors will be opened. Playing with the knobs, Henry and Henrietta unknowingly open a door that allows an evil witch to come through and she tries to hurt the family. Will the children be able to close the door before it is too late?
