The Sweetness At the Bottom of the Pie

Author: Alan Bradley

Genre: Mystery
Setting: A few places in England in the 1950's
Summary: 11-year-old Flavia de Luce loves chemistry.  Flavia is particularly interested in poisons. She does experiments in her great-uncle's old laboratory (he died a while ago). Flavia's life gets more interesting when a dead jack snipe is left in the de Luce's doorstep with a postage stamp is stuck on its beak. When she and Dogger, a man who does different things around their house, overhear her father mention the name Twining and that they had killed him. Later that night, Flavia finds a dying man in the garden. The last word he said is, "Vale." she gets a whiff of something she recognized. When the police arrive, they say that they have reason to think that the dead man recently came from Norway. Could the jack snipe, the stamp, or her father's conversation have anything to do with the murder?

I thought this book was really good. It had action in it, but mainly at the end. I particularly liked the character Flavia because she is interested in chemistry, like me. I would recommend this to people who like mystery in general.

Escape From Mr. Lemoncello's Library

 

Author: Chris Grabenstein
Genre: Mystery/action (I'm not exactly sure)
Setting: The new library in Alexandriaville, Ohio (which I don't think is a real place)in the present
Summary: Kyle Keeley is a huge fan of Mr. Lemoncello's games. He is really excited to find out that there will be an  overnight "lock-in" at the library for the twelve kids who write the best essays about the new library. The thing that Kyle doesn't know is that they will have to find a way to escape from the library the next morning (or at least those who choose to play the game.) The kids make separate teams to find clues around the library, solve puzzles, and sometimes try to get the other team's clues. 

I thought this book was a lot like Floors. They both involve hidden puzzles inside a building. If you have read Floors and liked it, then you would probably enjoy Escape From Mr. Lemoncello's Library. I thought it was pretty good overall.

Flora & Ulysses

Author: Kate DiCamillo

Genre: Realistic fiction (pretty much)

Setting: Flora's house and a few other places in her town (I'm not quite sure on the time)

Summary: Ulysses is a normal squirrel until he is accidentally sucked up in a vacuum cleaner and is saved by a girl named Flora. Ulysses is loved by some people: Flora, her dad, Mrs. Tickham (the owner of the vacuum cleaner), and her grand-nephew, William Spiver. But there are some people who do not feel that way, including a waitress at a donut shop and Flora's mom. Flora's mom doesn't think that Flora is normal. Her solution to normalize Flora is to get rid of Ulysses... permanently. Ulysses is a brave squirrel, and he is a super hero, but is that enough to escape the clutches of Flora's mom?

I thought this book was really good. It was funny in some parts and a bit more serious in other parts. I enjoyed it a lot. It has some action in it, but some of it doesn't really seem like the dangerous and scary kind of action. I think most people would like it and it definitely deserves the Newbery Award.

Scat

Author: Carl Hiaasen

Genre: Mystery
 Setting: Florida, USA around the time when the book was written (2009)
Summary: Mrs. Starch is the scariest teacher at the Truman School. When her biology class takes a field trip to the Black Vine Swamp, they have to leave early because of a sudden forest fire. It turns out that the forest fire
wasn't a forest fire; it was arson. The prime suspect is Duane Scrod Jr., one of the students, who made Mrs. Starch angry and threatened her. When the students have to go back on the bus, Mrs. Starch goes back into the forest by herself to get a student's medicine. The medicine is left on the student's doorstep, but the only sign of Mrs. Starch is her car, which was being driven by a man with a mask. The other person in the car was none other than Duane Scrod Jr. Several people are trying to find out what happened to Mrs. Starch and how the fire relates to it; the police, the headmaster, and Mrs. Starch's students Nick and Marta.

This is one of those books where you know part of what happened but the people in the book don't. It makes me want to tell the characters who did it. I think the characters in Scat are interesting, like the substitute teacher, Wendell Waxmo, who is completely loopy, and Mrs. Starch herself, who is rumored to live in a house full of taxidermied animals.

A Snicker of Magic

Author: Natalie Lloyd
Genre: Fantasy
Setting: Midnight Gulch, Tennessee in present day (or close to it)
Summary: Midnight Gulch used to be a magical place. It still is, but it only has a little bit of magic. Felicity Pickle is a word collector. She can see words around people, coming from objects, and floating in the air. She writes down the ones she likes. When Felicity moves to Midnight Gulch, she sees the word lonely a lot until she meets Jonah Pickett, who's secret identity is the Beedle, a mysterious person who does good deeds for people secretly. Felicity hears the story of the Brothers Threadbare, really called Stone and Berry Weatherly, who had magic in their music. They dueled each other, and the one who lost was cursed with a wandering heart, so they never felt right in one place, a lot like Felicity's mother. Felicity signs up for the Stoneberry Duel, a kind of talent show. She decides to write and read poems for it. Jonah makes her meet several interesting people so she can collect interesting words. Felicity is also interested in the curse put on Stone Weatherly, who turned out to be her great-great-grandfather. But mostly, she wants to break the curse.

I had a fun time reading A Snicker of Magic. It seems like the kind of place that I would want to visit. Some things in it that were revealed later were pretty easy to guess, but I wasn't able to guess everything though. I think most people would enjoy reading it.