FINISHED: 
Curtis, Christopher Paul. (2014). The Madman of Piney Woods. New York: Scholastic.

[.]


STARTED:
Martin, Ann M., and Laura Godwin. (2014). The Doll people set sail. New York: Disney/Hyperion.

[.]


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STARTED & FINISHED:
Gownley, Jimmy. (2014). The dumbest idea ever!  New York: Graphix.

[.]

FINISHED:
Lord, Cynthia. (2014). Half a chance. New York: Scholastic.

[Lucy, her mother, and well-known nature photographer father move to a small town where the twelve-year old joins forces with a neighbor boy, Nate, to document loons living on an island in the lake on which they live.  Lucy, an avid photographer herself, begins taking pictures in order to win a photo scavenger hunt contest, but must find a way to enter anonymously as her father will be the judge.  Lord cleverly has her protagonist discover and explore her new surroundings through the lens of a camera, and along the way Lucy has experiences that will be all-too-familiar to tween/young adult readers. Including dealing with subconscious feelings of jealousy when Nate hangs out with another girl, Lucy also ends up pondering the ethics of submitting her photos under Nate’s name and using a photo that he has asked her not to enter; and beginning to get a taste of some of life’s harshest realities like the impermanence of life (unlike photographs which can capture something forever) and dealing with Nate’s grandmother as she begins to display signs of dementia.  With a pace that never lags, a believable and relatable lead character, and a tone that never becomes saccharine, Lord’s coming-of-age novel hits the right notes.]


STARTED:
Curtis, Christopher Paul. (2014). The Madman of Piney Woods. New York: Scholastic.

[.]


*

FINISHED:
Milford, Kate. (2014). Greenglass House. New York: Clarion/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

[Took me WAY too long to finish this one...

Certain to ruin his much-needed quiet Christmas break, a number of strangers arrive one by one to stay at Greenglass House, an old smuggler’s inn run by Milo’s parents.  When a number of the mysterious guests’ items disappear, Milo and the daughter of the inn’s cook assume alternate identities, inspired by an old RPG game that Milo’s father used to play, and attempt to solve the mystery.  As an adoptee, Milo’s opportunity to build a “character” for himself from the ground up when investigating the missing items allows him to figure out that although he may not have been a part of the decisions made which affected him in his past, he will get to decide who he will become.  The chilly setting, largely vacant inn, and cast of characters with shadowy intentions who seem to all have a connection to the history of the inn, all add to the tone, while Milo’s attempts to discover the secrets of the inn, his parentage, and… well…  an out-of-leftfield twist toward the end keep the pace.  Despite being a bit dense, though less obtuse than Ellen Raskin’s The Westing Game (Dutton, 1978), this one should please fans of mysteries driven by a solid mood.]

STARTED:
Lord, Cynthia. (2014). Half a chance. New York: Scholastic.

[.]


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