Middle-grade and teen readers can grab a great new selection of books for summer reading!
Prague is the setting of a lush teen mystery in "The Book of Blood and Shadow" by Robin Wasserman.
Nora is working on a translating diaries of a young Prague woman for an eccentric professor while her best friend, Chris, and his roommate Max, tries to help the professor translate an ancient book that may be the key to an ancient mystery. But what they uncover leads them to secret societies, conspiracy theories and even murder. For now Chris is dead. And Max is missing...
And Nora suddenly realizes that everyone is not who they seem to be. Who can she trust now?
This book is full of twists and turns you will never see coming and a bit of a "Da Vinci Code"-like plot. Older teens will enjoy this pulse-pounding mystery.
"The Book of Blood and Shadow" is published by Alfred A. Knopf. It is $17.99 and 432 pages long.
Travel back in time to 1500s Venice in "Cross My Heart" by Sasha Gould.
Laura quickly learns two things - her older sister Beatrice is dead, and she is to marry her sister's fiance, a much older merchant Vincenzo. An arranged marriage is not what Laura wants, going back to the convent seems like a better alternative. An older woman, Allegreza, seems to offer a way out for Laura - joining up with the Segreta, a secret organization of women. But to get in you must have a secret and Laura doesn't have any. Or does she? When Laura spills what she knows about the Doge, a powerful man in Venice, the women offer to stop her marriage. When Vincenzo is declared a spy, Laura is safe for now, but what has she aligned herself with?
This is a cool historic novel of romance, murder and intrigue, guaranteed to spark teens' imaginations.
"Cross My Heart" is published by Delacorte Press. It is $17.99 and 263 pages long.
Middle-grade readers can find some scary mystery in "The Whispering House" by Rebecca Wade.
Hannah has come to stay in Cowleigh Lodge for only a short while. But when she finds an old book belonging to a young girl named Maisie who lived (and died) in the house 140 years ago, things start to get really weird. Hannah draws a portrait of Maisie and swears she can feel her presence. And the house seems to be changing too. Is Maisie haunting the house or is the house haunting Hannah and Maisie? If Hannah wants to escape the house alive, she must find out!
This is a creepy cool ghost story for tweens that isn't "too" scary.
"The Whispering House" is published by Katherine Tegen Books. It is $16.99 and is for ages 8 to 12.
The daughter of paranormal investigators does a bit of investigating on her own in "The Unseen World of Poppy Malone: A Gust of Ghosts" by Suzanne Harper.
For Poppy's family, a night out at the graveyard is business as usual. Her whole family participates in paranormal investigations and their latest adventure has taken them to Austin, Texas. And while Poppy's life is anything but ordinary, it sure is exciting! She meets a boy who fancies himself a spy who has taken an interest in her family, some nice ghosts and a whole lot of trouble...
This is a more humorous look at ghost hunting than scary, and will entertain tweens that like paranormal, but not the scares.
"The Unseen World of Poppy Malone: A Gust of Ghosts" is published by Greenwillow. It is $16.99 and is for ages 8 to 12.
Mysteries can also be humorous in this fun, Southern tale, "Three Times Lucky" by Sheila Turnage.
Moses LoBeau is an aspiring detective, a sixth-grader, and the girl that washed up in North Carolina during a hurricane and found a new family with the Colonel and Miss Lana, a couple that runs the local diner and are more than a bit eccentric. But that's OK because so is Moses. Continuing to search for her birth mother or "Upstream Mother" by sending messages in bottles, Moses is ready to spend the summer having fun with her best friend, Dale Earnhardt Johnson.
But then a cranky customer ends up dead and there's a nosy detective showing up, asking questions. Can Moses and Dale solve the mystery?
This deep South novel is full of humor, a wry cast of characters, and plenty of entertaining mystery for teens.
"Three Times Lucky" is published by Dial. It is $16.99 and 312 pages long.
Contact Amy Phelps at aphelps@newsandsentinel.com
