Books To Watch (11/10/12)

“How about a story? Spin us a yarn.”

Instantly, Phoebe Winterbottom came to mind. “I could tell you an extensively strange story,” I warned.

“Oh, good!” Gram said. “Delicious!”

And that is how I happened to tell them about Phoebe, her disappearing mother, and the lunatic.

As Sal entertains her grandparents with Phoebe’s outrageous story, her own story begins to unfold — the story of a thirteen-year-old girl whose only wish is to be reunited with her missing mother.

In her own award-winning style, Sharon Creech intricately weaves together two tales, one funny, one bittersweet, to create a heartwarming, compelling, and utterly moving story of love, loss, and the complexity of human emotion.

Can she escape the shadows and face the truth before the darkness destroys her?

“If the enemy is a fire, the evil is its shadow, flickering upon the wall.”

“That’s very poetic, Miss Bellini. I just wish I knew what it meant.”

Miranda’s new home is a dull seaside town at the edge of the world, the sort of forgotten place where nothing ever happens. Until something does. Something strange and sinister. With her schoolteacher and her classmates, who might be more clued in than they let on, Miranda sets out to uncover the mystery. Her bravery borders on recklessness. She thinks she’s chasing shadows, tortured spirits from centuries past, but could true darkness lie within? With a mixture of science and magic, Miranda’s got to figure out how to break and banish the evil before it destroys her.

An electrifying paranormal thriller that will have readers guessing till the end!