110. The Box in the Woods by Maureen Johnson

#4 Truly Devious

listened on Libby, borrowed from TPPL

2021
400 pgs.
YA Myst
Finished 12/5/2021
Goodreads rating: 4.17
My rating: 4.5
Setting: contemporary western Massachusetts - kids' summer camp on a pond

My comments: This is a continuation of the Truly Devious trilogy, with an entirely new mystery but same cast of characters.  Stevie Bell is a 17-year old sleuth who has been enlisted by a rich guy who has purchased a summer camp that has been closed since 1978, when four of its camp counselors were murdered in the woods.  Stevie and two of her close friends become pseudo-camp counselors while she investigates the murders.  Her boyfriend, David, show sup, camping across the lake.  It's an interesting mystery, and I like it better than the first Truly Devious books. I DID discover that I didn't like the voice that the narrator gave to Stevie.  It was too throaty or something.  Good mystery.  More to come?

Goodreads synopsis:   The Truly Devious series continues as Stevie Bell investigates her first mystery outside of Ellingham Academy in this spine-chilling and hilarious stand-alone mystery.

Amateur sleuth Stevie Bell needs a good murder. After catching a killer at her high school, she’s back at home for a normal (that means boring) summer.

But then she gets a message from the owner of Sunny Pines, formerly known as Camp Wonder Falls—the site of the notorious unsolved case, the Box in the Woods Murders. Back in 1978, four camp counselors were killed in the woods outside of the town of Barlow Corners, their bodies left in a gruesome display. The new owner offers Stevie an invitation: Come to the camp and help him work on a true crime podcast about the case.

Stevie agrees, as long as she can bring along her friends from Ellingham Academy. Nothing sounds better than a summer spent together, investigating old murders.

But something evil still lurks in Barlow Corners. When Stevie opens the lid on this long-dormant case, she gets much more than she bargained for. The Box in the Woods will make room for more victims. This time, Stevie may not make it out alive.

69. Unplugged by Gordon Korman

listened on Libby/borrowed from library

narrated by many readers

Unabridged audio (6:30)
2021
324 pgs.
Mid Grade CRF
Finished  6/25/2021
Goodreads rating: 3.54 - 2398 ratings
My rating: 5
Setting: contemporary summer camp, Arkansas

First line/s: "Matt says I could see the majestic beauty of the American southeast if I bother to look out the window."

My comments: (spoiler, but reminder for me:  Alligator farm!)

Goodreads synopsis:   From Gordon Korman comes a middle grade novel about a group of kids forced to “unplug” at a wellness camp—where they instead find intrigue, adventure, and a whole lot of chaos.        
        As the son of the world’s most famous tech billionaire, Jett Baranov has always gotten exactly what he wanted. So, when his father’s private jet drops him in the middle of Little Rock, Arkansas, at a wellness camp called the Oasis, Jett can’t believe it. He’s forced to hand over his cell phone, eat grainy veggie patties, and participate in wholesome activities with the other kids.
        At the Oasis, he meets Grace, who is his polar opposite. She thrives in the wellness atmosphere and resents Jett’s terrible attitude. Then there’s Tyrell, who suffers from a dizzying list of food allergies that render him constantly itchy. And also Brooklynne, a girl who definitely seems to be hiding something.

        As the weeks go on, Jett starts to get used to the unplugged life and even bonds with the other kids over their discovery of a baby lizard-turned-pet, Needles. But he can’t help noticing that the adults at the Oasis are acting really strange…
        Jett is determined to get to the bottom of things, but can he convince the other kids that he is no longer just a spoiled brat making trouble?

13. To Night Owl From Dogfish by Holly Goldberg Sloan and Meg Wolitzer

read the BOOK!!! (first one this year)
2019 Dial Books
295 pgs.
YA Contemporary Epistolary
Finished 1/20/2019
Goodreads rating:  4.09 - 4115 ratings
My rating: 5
Setting: Contemporary NYC, California coast, Minnesota woods....

First line/s: "From:  Brett Devlin
To:  Avery Bloom
Subject:  you don't know me"

My comments:  Note, the above cover is the only one I've seen on a book, but I found this illustrated cover that may be the Kindle edition cover?
     I read a book, an actual book, not on my phone/Kindle or audio!295 pages, all delightful.  I giggled and laughed out loud all the way throught.  Written entirely in correspondence between two 12-year old  protagonists, they begin as adversaries committed to breaking up their dating fathers, and of course their relationship grows into so much ore.  Clever and completely delicious with a wonderful cast of really well-fleshed-out characters and many wonderful settings.  An almost perfect book for every 12-year-old girl on the planet!

Goodreads synopsis:  From two extraordinary authors comes a moving, exuberant, laugh-out-loud novel about friendship and family, told entirely in emails and letters.
          Avery Bloom, who's bookish, intense, and afraid of many things, particularly deep water, lives in New York City. Bett Devlin, who's fearless, outgoing, and loves all animals as well as the ocean, lives in California. What they have in common is that they are both twelve years old, and are both being raised by single, gay dads.
          When their dads fall in love, Bett and Avery are sent, against their will, to the same sleepaway camp. Their dads hope that they will find common ground and become friends--and possibly, one day, even sisters.
          But things soon go off the rails for the girls (and for their dads too), and they find themselves on a summer adventure that neither of them could have predicted. Now that they can't imagine life without each other, will the two girls (who sometimes call themselves Night Owl and Dogfish) figure out a way to be a family?

110. Hope and Other Punchlines by Julie Buxbaum

listened to Audio borrowed from Bosler Library
narrated  by Jorjeana Marie and Robbie Daymond
Unabridged audio (8:18)
2019 Delacourt
304 pgs.
YA Romance
Finished 11/9/2019
Goodreads rating: 3.97 - 3529 ratings
My rating: 3.5

First line/s: "Even back in my fairy-tale days, I never liked those inevitable opening words - once upon a time."

My comments:  I had mixed feelings about this book.  Perhaps it's because it's about 9/11 and that in itself is a difficult thing.  Some parts dragged, some parts were funny, and it was loaded with all sorts of philosophical thinking, which is definitely not my things at all.  But as we travel farther and farther from the fateful, horrible day, I'm also glad that books like this are being written.

Goodreads synopsis:  Sometimes looking to the past helps you find your future.
          Abbi Hope Goldstein is like every other teenager, with a few smallish exceptions: her famous alter ego, Baby Hope, is the subject of internet memes, she has asthma, and sometimes people spontaneously burst into tears when they recognize her. Abbi has lived almost her entire life in the shadow of the terrorist attacks of September 11. On that fateful day, she was captured in what became an iconic photograph: in the picture, Abbi (aka "Baby Hope") wears a birthday crown and grasps a red balloon; just behind her, the South Tower of the World Trade Center is collapsing.
          Now, fifteen years later, Abbi is desperate for anonymity and decides to spend the summer before her seventeenth birthday incognito as a counselor at Knights Day Camp two towns away. She's psyched for eight weeks in the company of four-year-olds, none of whom have ever heard of Baby Hope.
          Too bad Noah Stern, whose own world was irrevocably shattered on that terrible day, has a similar summer plan. Noah believes his meeting Baby Hope is fate. Abbi is sure it's a disaster. Soon, though, the two team up to ask difficult questions about the history behind the Baby Hope photo. But is either of them ready to hear the answers?

43. The Odds of Loving Grover Cleveland by Rebekah Crane

read on my iPhone
2016, Skyscape
260 pgs.
YA CRF
Finished 7-26-2017
Goodreads rating:  3.96 - 8256 ratings
My rating: 4.5
Setting: Contemporary summer at a summer camp on a lake in Michigan

First line/s:  "The doorknob locks with a single key from the inside of the cabin.n  My bag hangs over my shoulder as I stare at the silver knob like it might start talking.  This can't be legal."

My comments:  Welcome to Camp Padua, where, on a lake in Michigan troubled teenagers spend the summer in cabins: living, eating, sharing (or not sharing) their problems and quirks and oddities.  Most of the story is told from the protagonist, Zander's, (or Z for short) point of view.  It's a good story, though a troubling one.  It's also the story of friendship between four young adults, two guys and two girls, all suffering from different mental problems.  Friendship.  Caring.  Trusting.  Loving.  that's what these kids ultimately found, but it wasn't easy.

Goodreads synopsis: According to sixteen-year-old Zander Osborne, nowhere is an actual place—and she’s just fine there. But her parents insist that she get out of her head—and her home state—and attend Camp Padua, a summer camp for at-risk teens.
          Zander does not fit in—or so she thinks. She has only one word for her fellow campers: crazy. In fact, the whole camp population exists somewhere between disaster and diagnosis. There’s her cabinmate Cassie, a self-described manic-depressive-bipolar-anorexic. Grover Cleveland (yes, like the president), a cute but confrontational boy who expects to be schizophrenic someday, odds being what they are. And Bek, a charmingly confounding pathological liar.
          But amid group “share-apy” sessions and forbidden late-night outings, unlikely friendships form, and as the Michigan summer heats up, the four teens begin to reveal their tragic secrets. Zander finds herself inextricably drawn to Grover’s earnest charms, and she begins to wonder if she could be happy. But first she must come completely unraveled to have any hope of putting herself back together again.

44. The Big Swim - Cary Fagan

for: Middle Grades
Groundwood Books/Toronto, 2010
HC $14.95
128 pgs.
Rating: 2

Ethan, a 12-year old boy who seems quite a bit younger, is forced to go to overnight summer camp for the first time in his life. He dreads it, but it's okay. The story is told in short stories that seem almost like snapshots (blurry snapshots). Much time is spent speculating about a "bad" kid, Zachary, who's supposed to arrive sometime in the summer. Once Zachary arrives he does seem quite interesting, not at all the "bad" kid, he just marches to his own drummer. However, we never really get to know him. The little we get to know the protagonist doesn't make us like him very much, either. I tried to figure out which of my students would enjoy this book. For the most part, I think they'd all consider it "boring," which I hate them to say.....but in many ways it was....

I really don't enjoy writing negative reviews. I feel badly. But this is not to be one of my favorites. Sorry.