FINISHED:

Springer, Nancy. (2006). The case of the missing marquess: an Enola Holmes mystery. New York: Sleuth Philomel/Penguin.

[Was surprised by how much I REALLY liked this one. For one thing, this woman can WRITE. There are some descriptive passages here that are just MESMERIZING. Enola is the little sister of Sherlock, the sister that no one dares talk about because she came along SO late. Here, her and Sherlock's mother disappears - although she leaves cipher clues for Enola - with it looking like she has actually decided to ditch proper society and run off to join the gypsies. In the meantime, Enola herself decides to take off and head to London and, along the way, stumbles across a mystery surrounding a young boy who is believed to have been kidnapped. When our library gets in the second book in the series, I'll be sure to give it a read.]



Fleischman, Sid. (1986). The whipping boy. New York: Greenwillow/HarperTrophy/HarperCollins.

[Newbery Award winner for 1986 - kind of a "prince and the pauper" story about a prince and the boy that has been "hired" to take punishment for when the prince is naughty. They run away from the castle and end up getting into trouble with a couple of kidnappers who want to ransom the prince back to the king. The whipping boy tells the kidnappers that HE is the prince in the hopes that they'll let the prince go and the whipping boy will be free from the prince forever. Enjoyable and quick, but I find it a bit hard to believe that this was THE BEST book for kids of 1986...]

STARTED:
Curtis, Christopher Paul. (2007). Elijah of Buxton. New York: Scholastic.

[Was a Newbery Honor winner this year and I've only heard fantastic things about it.]

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