Reality Check (HarperCollins, 2009) by Peter Abrahams. Cody’s girlfriend, Clea, is sent off to a Vermont boarding school and then goes missing. Cody sets out to find out what happened and unearths the town’s secrets.
If the Witness Lied (Random, 2009) by Caroline B. Cooney. Three orphaned teenage siblings, separated by the tragic supposed patricide of their father by their two-year-old brother, reunite a year later to save this same brother from the clutches of their evil aunt, who wants to sell them out on a tell-all television show.
The Morgue and Me (Penguin, 2009) by John C. Ford. This debut novel about a boy fresh out of high school with a college scholarship decides that an unusual summer job in the morgue will get him through the next few months.
Petronella Saves Nearly Everyone (Houghton, 2009) by Dene Low. Petronella Arbuthnot’s coming-out birthday party in Edwardian London goes awry when her guardian, Uncle Augustus, accidentally swallows a beetle and two important guests are kidnapped.
Shadowed Summer (Random, 2009) by Saundra Mitchell. Fourteen-year-old Iris doesn’t have to make up spooky stories for excitement, because a real one falls right in her lap. A ghost begins to haunt her and she’s convinced it’s the ghost of a teenage boy named Elijah, who disappeared.
Information from School Library Journal’s “Extra Helping” online, January 27, 2010.
Teen Reads 